Methods of decreasing peak energy consumption

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9511675-B2
Application number	US-201314025872-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 13, 2013
Priority date	Sep 13, 2013
Publication date	Dec 6, 2016
Grant date	Dec 6, 2016

Abstract

Methods of reducing peak energy consumption of a power consumer are provided. One such method comprises preprogramming an actual consumption line based on actual power usage, the actual consumption line having peak start time, a peak end time and a peak consumption time; determining a connection period of a battery of a vehicle to a charging station of the power consumer; determining an available energy between the required departure energy of the battery and the connection energy; determining an average expected consumption line that averages the actual power usage over the connection period; and determining a charge/discharge line by adjusting the average expected consumption line based on the available energy and the connection period.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a computer program for decreasing peak energy consumption of a power consumer comprising:
preprogramming an actual consumption line based on expected power usage, the actual consumption line having a peak consumption time;
determining a connection period of a selectively connectable battery to a charging station of the power consumer between a connection time and a departure time;
determining an available energy based on a required departure energy and a connection energy;
determining an average expected consumption line over the connection period based on the actual consumption line, the required departure energy, and the connection energy;
determining a charge line and a discharge line based on the average expected consumption line;
determining charging periods and discharging periods based on the charge line, discharge line, and the actual consumption line;
determining a predicted battery capacity across the connection period and an energy transfer deficiency;
adjusting the discharge line based on the energy transfer deficiency, wherein if the predicted battery capacity at the departure time is greater than the required departure energy, and if the predicted battery capacity is between a maximum threshold and a minimum threshold during the discharging periods, adjusting the discharge line equal to the average expected consumption line;
charging the battery with the power consumer during the charging periods; and
discharging the battery to the power consumer during the discharging periods.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a charge rate from the difference between the charge line and the actual consumption line; and
determining a discharge rate from the difference between the discharge line and the actual consumption line.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the charging periods are periods when a difference between the charge line and the actual consumption line is positive.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the discharging periods are periods when a difference between the discharge line and the actual consumption line is negative.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of determining charging periods and discharging periods comprises determining charging periods based on the charge line crossing the actual consumption line and discharging periods based on the discharge line crossing the actual consumption line.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining idling periods between sequential ones of the charging periods and the discharging periods; and
idling charging and discharging of the battery during the idling periods.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein, if the predicted battery capacity at the departure time is less than the required departure energy, the step of adjusting the discharge line based on the energy transfer deficiency comprises:
determining a departure energy difference between the required departure energy and the predicted battery capacity at the departure time; and
moving the discharge line higher than the average expected consumption line until the difference between the average expected consumption line and the discharge line during the discharging period plus the difference between the actual consumption line and the average expected consumption line during the idling periods equals the departure energy difference.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein, if the predicted battery capacity is at a minimum threshold during one of the discharging periods, the step of adjusting the discharge line based on the energy transfer deficiency comprises:
determining a maximum energy from the charging periods, a minimum energy from the discharging periods, and an available discharge energy based on the maximum energy and minimum energy; and
moving the discharge line higher than the average expected consumption line until a difference between the actual consumption line and a revised discharge line during the discharging period equals the available discharge energy.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein, if the predicted battery capacity is at a minimum threshold during one of the discharging periods, the step of adjusting the discharge line based on the energy transfer deficiency comprises:
determining a maximum energy from the charging periods, a minimum energy from the discharging periods, and an available discharge energy based on the maximum energy and minimum energy; and
moving the discharge line higher than the average expected consumption line until difference between the average expected consumption line and the discharge line during the discharging period plus the difference between the actual consumption line and the average expected consumption line during the idling periods equals the departure energy difference.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting connection of a subsequently connected battery at a second connection time.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the connection period of the first battery is determined to be the second connection time upon detecting the connection of the subsequently connected battery.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the actual consumption line has a single peak consumption time.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the actual consumption line has multiple peak consumption times.

14. A method performed by a computer program for decreasing peak energy consumption of a power consumer comprising:
preprogramming an actual consumption line based on expected power usage, the actual consumption line having a peak consumption time;
determining a connection period of a selectively connectable battery to a charging station of the power consumer between a connection time and a departure time;
determining an available energy based on a difference between a connection energy and a required departure energy;
determining an average expected consumption line over the connection period based on the actual consumption line and the available energy;
setting a charge line and a discharge line equal to the average expected consumption line;
determining charging periods and discharging periods based on the charge line and discharge line crossing the actual consumption line;
determining a predicted battery capacity across the connection period based on charging the battery during the charging periods and discharging the battery during the discharging periods;
determining whether there is an energy transfer deficiency;
adjusting the discharge line based on the energy transfer deficiency;
determining idling periods between sequential ones of the charging periods and the discharging periods; and
idling charging and discharging of the battery during the idling periods,
wherein, if the predicted battery capacity at the departure time is less than the required departure energy, adjusting the discharge line comprises:
determining a departure energy difference between the required departure energy and the predicted battery capacity at the departure time; and
moving the discharge line higher than the average expected consumption line until the difference between the average expected consumption line and the discharge line during the discharging period plus the difference between the actual consumption line and the average expected consumption line during the idling periods equals the departure energy difference.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein, if the predicted battery capacity is at a minimum threshold during one of the discharging periods, the step of adjusting the discharge line based on the energy transfer deficiency comprises:
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Assignees

• Nissan North America Inc

Inventors

• Yonetani Shinsuke

Classifications

• H02J7/16

  Regulation of the charging current or voltage by variation of field · CPC title

• G06Q50/06

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• B60L11/1838 Primary

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• B60L53/60

  Monitoring or controlling charging stations · CPC title

• Y02T10/7072

  Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors · CPC title