Apparatus and method for battery balancing

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9379557-B2
Application number	US-201414255155-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 17, 2014
Priority date	Apr 18, 2013
Publication date	Jun 28, 2016
Grant date	Jun 28, 2016

Abstract

Provided are an apparatus and a method for battery balancing, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for battery balancing capable of implementing balancing between batteries which are connected in parallel.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for battery balancing, comprising:
a power conditioning system:
a plurality of batteries connected with the power conditioning system in parallel;
relays disposed between the power conditioning system and the batteries in series; and
a manager connected to the power conditioning system, the batteries, and the relays, respectively and monitoring voltages of each battery, communicating with the power conditioning system when the batteries of which the voltage unbalance is sensed occur, determining the batteries to be balanced among the batteries of which the voltage unbalance is sensed, and determining a balancing mode to control the relays and transmitting a state of the battery to the power conditioning system,
wherein the power conditioning system is configured to convert power into a predetermined output for battery balancing when receiving balancing request information by communicating with the manager.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein when the voltage of the battery does not belong to a predetermined unbalance determination range, the battery is determined to be the battery of which the voltage unbalance occurs.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein in the determination of the balancing mode by the manager, any one selected from a charging mode and a discharging mode for balancing the batteries to be balanced is determined.

4. A method for battery balancing, including a power conditioning system, batteries, relays, and a manager, the method comprising:
monitoring, by the manager, voltages of each battery in real time;
determining, by the manager, an unbalance of the voltages of each battery monitored in the monitoring;
determining, by the manager, a battery to be balanced and a balancing mode when the batteries determined as the voltage unbalance in the determining of the voltage unbalance occur; and
controlling, by the manager, the relays depending on matters determined in the determining of the balancing and controlling, by the power conditioning system, a balancing output based on information received from the manager by communicating with the manager,
wherein the controlling of the balancing output comprises: converting power into a predetermined output for battery balancing when the power conditioning system receives balancing request information by communicating with the manager.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein in the determining of the voltage unbalance, when the voltages of the batteries connected in parallel do not belong to an unbalance determination range, the manger determines the battery as the battery of which the voltage unbalance occurs.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the determining of the balancing includes:
determining the batteries to be balanced among the batteries of which the voltage unbalance is sensed; and
determining any one selected from a charging mode and a discharging mode for balancing the batteries to be balanced determined in the determining of the balancing object.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein in the determining of the balancing object, when the batteries determined as the voltage unbalance are present in plural, a predetermined reference of the battery to be charged compares with a predetermined reference of the battery to be discharged to determine the balancing object having good efficiency.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the predetermined reference in the determining of the balancing object is at least any one selected from number, output, and time.

9. The method of claim 4 , wherein the controlling of the balancing includes:
connecting contacts of the relays connected with the batteries to be balanced in series by controlling the manager;
transmitting, by the manager, information of the batteries to be balanced to the power conditioning system; and
controlling, by the power conditioning system, a current amount of the charging mode or the discharging mode based on the information received in the transmitting of the battery information.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the controlling of the balancing includes:
prior to the connecting of the relays,
transmitting, by the manager, battery balancing request information to the power conditioning system; and
receiving, by the power conditioning system, the battery balancing request information in the requesting of the balancing and converting power into a predetermined output for preparing balancing.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the controlling of the balancing includes:
after the controlling of the balancing output,
monitoring, by the manager, a state of each of the batteries to be balanced to determine whether the balancing is completed; and
cutting off contacts of the relays connected to the batteries in series determined that the balancing is completed among the batteries to be balanced in the determining whether the balancing is completed, by controlling the manager.

Assignees

• Sk Innovation Co Ltd

Inventors

• Song Woo Seok
• Park Sang Hyuk

Classifications

• H02J7/52 Primary

  for charge balancing, e.g. equalisation of charge between batteries · CPC title

• H02J7/04

  Regulation of charging current or voltage · CPC title

• H01M10/441

  for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially · CPC title

• H01M10/44 Primary

  Methods for charging or discharging (circuits for charging H02J7/00) · CPC title

• H01M10/4207

  for several batteries or cells simultaneously or sequentially · CPC title