Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging – Cell or battery charger structure – Charging station for electrically powered vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
2000-08-17
2001-05-01
Wong, Peter S. (Department: 2838)
Electricity: battery or capacitor charging or discharging
Cell or battery charger structure
Charging station for electrically powered vehicle
Reexamination Certificate
active
06225776
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a charging station for electric-powered vehicles, more particularly to a charging station capable of automatic control of charging current that is supplied to a plurality of loads.
2. Description of the Related Art
The battery of an electric-powered vehicle is generally charged at a charging station that is accessible to the public. While a charging station is capable of charging the batteries of a number of electric-powered vehicles at the same time, the total amount of charging current supplied by the charging station at any time should not exceed a rated value. For example, if a charging station is capable of charging the batteries of four electric-powered vehicles simultaneously, and the initial load current that should be supplied to charge the battery of each of the electric-powered vehicles is 8 amperes, the rated current value for the charging station should be at least 32 amperes to prevent occurrence of an overload. Thus, aside from the need to coordinate with the local electric power company in view of the large current requirement, the power distribution network of the charging station should also be designed to handle such large current flows.
However, it is noted that the charging current requirement of a battery decreases from a maximum value (i.e. the battery is fully discharged) to a minimum value (i.e. the battery is fully charged) as the charging operation progresses. As such, it is very unlikely that the charging station will operate at full load conditions most of the time. The conventional charging station is thus uneconomical since it is designed under full load conditions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a charging station capable of automatic control of charging current that is supplied to a plurality of loads so as to result in an economical design while preventing the occurrence of an overload.
According to this invention, a charging station for electric-powered vehicles comprises:
a power supplying circuit;
a plurality of charging sockets, each of which is adapted to be connected to one of the electric-powered vehicles;
a switching circuit including a plurality of switch units, each of the switch units including a relay switch that interconnects the power supplying circuit and a respective one of the charging sockets, and a trigger member connected to the relay switch and controllable so as to control in turn the relay switch to make or break electrical connection between the power supplying circuit and the respective one of the charging sockets;
a current monitoring unit connected to the charging sockets and operable so as to generate output signals corresponding to amount of current flowing through each of the charging sockets; and
a processing unit connected to the current monitoring unit and the trigger members of the switch units, the processing unit receiving the output signals from the current monitoring unit and controlling the trigger members of the switch units to ensure total amount of current flow through the charging sockets does not exceed a rated current value for the charging station.
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patent: 5594318 (1997-01-01), Nor et al.
patent: 6087805 (2000-07-01), Langston et al.
patent: 6114833 (2000-09-01), Langston et al.
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
Tibbits Pia
Wong Peter S.
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