Charging facilities

Abstract

To charge an on-vehicle power storage device by selecting a more appropriate electric power output device from among a plurality of electric power output devices.SOLUTION: Charging facilities include a plurality of electric power output devices and a charging control device that charges an on-board power storage device using at least part of the plurality of electric power output devices based on a control command from a vehicle. The charging control device sets the electric power output device to be used for charging the power storage device based on thermal damage of the plurality of electric power output devices. Thus, a more appropriate electric power output device can be selected from among the plurality of electric power output devices to charge the on-vehicle power storage device.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to charging equipment, and more particularly to charging equipment including a charging control device that charges a vehicle-mounted power storage device using at least some of a plurality of power output devices based on a control command from a vehicle.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, as this type of charging equipment, there has been proposed a device that charges a secondary battery with two chargers connected in parallel that output output power according to an input power command value (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In this charging equipment, when the total power command value for controlling the total output power from the two chargers is less than or equal to the maximum possible output value of the first charger among the two chargers, the total power command value is assigned to the first charger. When the total power command value exceeds the maximum possible output value of the first charger, a predetermined power value at which the power conversion efficiency is equal to or higher than a predetermined value is assigned to the second charger among the two chargers, and the remaining power value obtained by subtracting the predetermined power value from the total power command value is assigned to the first charger until it exceeds the maximum possible output value according to a distribution map. Thereby, even when the charger has a region with low power conversion efficiency, the target total power can be output.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] However, in the above-described charging equipment, there are cases where the desired charging power cannot be ensured due to damage caused by the heat of the charger. As the charger generates heat, the outputtable power decreases as the temperature rises. Therefore, when charging a secondary battery using a charger with a high temperature, there are cases where the secondary battery cannot be charged with the maximum output power rated for the charger. Thus, even when charging a secondary battery using a plurality of chargers, it is necessary to control the chargers in consideration of the heat damage (outputtable power) of each charger.

[0005] The main object of the charging equipment of the present disclosure is to select a more appropriate power output device from among a plurality of power output devices and charge an in-vehicle storage device.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] The charging equipment of the present disclosure has adopted the following means to achieve the above main object.

[0007] The charging equipment of the present disclosure is a charging equipment comprising a plurality of power output devices and a charging control device that charges an in-vehicle storage device using at least a part of the plurality of power output devices based on a control command from a vehicle, wherein the charging control device sets a power output device to be used for charging the storage device based on the heat damage of each power output device. This is the gist of the present disclosure.

[0008] The charging equipment of the present disclosure includes a plurality of power output devices and a charging control device that charges an in-vehicle storage device using at least a part of the plurality of power output devices based on a control command from a vehicle. The charging control device sets a power output device to be used for charging the storage device based on the heat damage of each power output device. Thereby, it is possible to select a more appropriate power output device from among the plurality of power output devices and charge the in-vehicle storage device.

[0009] In the charging equipment of the present disclosure, the charging control device may determine priorities for the plurality of power output devices in ascending order of the thermal damage thereto, and may set, in the order of the priorities, the power output devices to be used for charging the energy storage device. In this way, among the plurality of power output devices, those with less thermal damage can be preferentially set as the power output devices used for charging the energy storage device.

[0010] In this case, the control command is a charging power command, and the charging control device may set, as the power output devices to be used for charging the energy storage device, the power output devices up to the order in which the integrated value exceeds the charging power command when integrating the available power of the power output devices in the order of the priorities. In this way, the energy storage device can be charged more appropriately based on the charging power command.

[0011] Note that the charging control device may determine that the greater the available power of the power output device, the less the thermal damage. This is based on the fact that the available power of the power output device decreases as the thermal damage increases.

[0012] Also, the charging control device may lower the priority for the power output device used for the previous charging of the energy storage device. In this way, the usage frequency of a specific power output device can be reduced, and the plurality of power output devices can be used for charging the energy storage device relatively evenly.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0013]

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[0014] Next, a mode (embodiment) for carrying out the present disclosure will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of the configuration of a charging facility 20 as an embodiment of the present disclosure. The charging facility 20 of the embodiment is configured as a charging stand, and as shown in FIG. 1, includes a power unit device 22 and a charging electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as “charging ECU”) 30.

[0015] The power unit device 22 is connected to the power line 12 from the external power 10 and is also connected to the charging line 26 of the charging connector 28 that is connected to the connector 139 (inlet) of the electric vehicle 120, and charges the battery 124 mounted on the electric vehicle 120 using the power from the external power 10. The power unit device 22 has a plurality of power units 24(1) to 24(n) that function as power output devices connected in parallel. Each of the power units 24(1) to 24(n) is configured to be the same by an AC / DC converter that converts AC power from the external power 10 into DC power, a DC / DC converter that converts the voltage of the DC power, and the like.

[0016] The charging ECU 30 is configured as a microcomputer centered around a CPU. The charging ECU 30 receives the temperatures T(1) to T(n) of each power unit 24(1) to 24(n) from the power unit device 22, and sets the available output powers P(1) to P(n) of each power unit 24(1) to 24(n) based on the temperatures T(1) to T(n) of each power unit 24(1) to 24(n). The available output power P is set such that the higher the temperature T of the power unit, the smaller it becomes due to thermal damage, and the rated value is set at normal temperature. The charging ECU 30 is connected to the electronic control unit 130 of the electric vehicle 120 via the communication line 32 and communicates with the vehicle side.

[0017] As a vehicle that can utilize the charging facility 20 of the embodiment, for example, the electric vehicle 120 illustrated in FIG. 2 can be cited. The electric vehicle 120 includes a motor 122, an inverter 123, a battery 124, a charge and discharge circuit 138, a connector 139, and an electronic control unit 130.

[0018] The motor 122 is configured as, for example, a synchronous generator motor. The rotor of the motor 122 is connected to a drive shaft 125 that is connected to drive wheels 128a and 128b via a differential gear 126. The motor 122 is driven by converting the DC power from the battery 124 into three-phase AC power by the inverter 123 and applying the three-phase AC power by the inverter 123. The battery 124 is configured as a well-known lithium-ion secondary battery or nickel-metal hydride secondary battery.

[0019] The charge and discharge circuit 138 is connected to a power line with one end connected to the battery 124, and the other end is connected to a connector 139 for connecting to the charging connector 28 of the charging facility 20. The charge and discharge circuit 138 has a charge and discharge relay (not shown), and can connect to and disconnect from the battery 124 by the charge and discharge relay.

[0020] The electronic control unit 130 is configured as a microcomputer centered around a CPU (not shown). Signals from various sensors are input to the electronic control unit 130 via input ports. For example, the electronic control unit 130 receives an ignition signal from the ignition switch 142, a shift position SP from the shift position sensor 144 that detects the position of the shift lever 143, an accelerator opening Acc from the accelerator pedal position sensor 146 that detects the depression amount of the accelerator pedal 145, a brake position BP from the brake pedal position sensor 148 that detects the depression amount of the brake pedal 147, a vehicle speed V from the vehicle speed sensor 149, and so on. Further, the electronic control unit 130 receives a rotational position θ from a rotational position sensor (not shown) that detects the rotational position of the motor 122, a battery voltage Vb from a voltage sensor (not shown) attached to the output terminal of the battery 124, a battery current Ib from a current sensor (not shown) attached to the output terminal of the battery 124, a charge / discharge voltage Vchg from a voltage sensor attached to the charge / discharge circuit 138, a charge / discharge current Ichg from a current sensor attached to the charge / discharge circuit 138, and so on.

[0021] The electronic control unit 130 outputs various control signals via the output ports. For example, the electronic control unit 130 outputs a display control signal to the display device 150, a communication control signal to the communication device 152, and an air conditioning control signal to the air conditioning device 154. Further, the electronic control unit 130 outputs a switching control signal for switching a switching element (not shown) to the inverter 123 for driving the motor 122, a drive control signal to a system main relay (not shown) attached near the battery 124, and a drive control signal to a charge / discharge relay (not shown) attached to the charge / discharge circuit 138. The electronic control unit 130 communicates with a navigation system 156 that displays various information and performs route guidance. A communication line 140 for communicating with the charge ECU 30 side of the charging facility 20 when the charging connector 28 of the charging facility 20 is connected to the connector 139 is connected to the electronic control unit 130. The communication line 140 belongs to the communication line 32 when the charging connector 28 is connected to the connector 139.

[0022] Next, the operation of the charging facility 20 configured in this way, particularly the operation when charging the battery 124 of the electric vehicle 120, will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a charging process mainly executed by the charge ECU 30. The charging process starts by first connecting the charging connector 28 to the connector 39 of the electric vehicle 120 (step S100) and starting communication between the electronic control unit 130 of the electric vehicle 120 and the charge ECU 30 (step S110).

[0023] Next, the charge ECU 30 receives a charge current command Ichg* from the electronic control unit 130 of the electric vehicle 120 (step S120). The charge current command Ichg* is set by the electronic control unit 130 as a charge current for efficiently charging the battery 124 based on the state of charge SOC and temperature Tb of the battery 124. Subsequently, the charge ECU 30 sets the priority order as the order of use for charging among the power units 24(1) to 24(n) (step S130). This process is performed by the priority order setting process illustrated in FIG. 4.

[0024] In the priority setting process of FIG. 4, first, the available output powers P(1) to P(n) of each power unit 24(1) to 24(n) are input (step S200). Then, a value 1 is set for variable k (step S210), and until variable k matches n (step S240), the process of setting the rank (k) to the power unit with the largest available output power and deleting the power unit with the set rank from the ranking process (step S220) and the process of incrementing variable k by only a value of 1 (step S230) are repeated. Through such processing, priorities (1) to (n) are set for each power unit 24(1) to 24(n). Note that since the available output power is set as a larger value as the thermal damage of the power unit is smaller, the priorities are set in ascending order of thermal damage.

[0025] After thus setting the priorities (1) to (n) as the order of use for charging among each power unit 24(1) to 24(n), a charging power command P* is set based on the charging current command Ichg* (step S140). Subsequently, power units to be used for charging are set until the sum of the available output powers of the power units set in the order of priorities (1) to (n) exceeds the charging power command P* (step S150). Now, consider the case where the power unit device 22 has eight power units 24(1) to 24(8), the available output powers P(1) to P(8) of each power unit 24(1) to 24(8) are as shown in the list illustrated in FIG. 5, and the charging power command P* is 50 kW. In this case, the priorities of each power unit 24(1) to 24(8) are 1, 2, 7, 5, 3, 6, 8, 4, and the power units to be used are the power units 24(1), 24(2), 24(5), 24(8), 24(4), 24(6) with priorities from 1 to 6.

[0026] When setting the power units to be used for charging, the power command P(n)* for each power unit is set (step S160), and charging is started using the power command P(n)* for each power unit (step S170). In the example of the list in FIG. 5, for the power units 24(1), 24(2), 24(5), 24(8) with relatively little thermal damage, the power command P(n)* for each power unit can be set to 10 kW of the output power, for the power unit 24(4) with thermal damage, it can be set to 8 kW, and for the power unit 24(6), it can be set to 2 kW. For the power units 24(4) and 24(7), it may be set to 5 kW or the like.

[0027] Then, wait until charging end is determined (step S180), perform charging end processing (step S190), and end this process. Charging end is determined when full charge of the battery 124 is transmitted from the electronic control unit 130, or when the user instructs charging end. Charging end processing includes stopping the operation of each power unit 24(1) to 24(n), turning off a relay (not shown), etc.

[0028] In the charging facility 20 of the embodiment described above, priorities are determined for each of the power units 24(1) to 24(n) in descending order of output power (ascending order of thermal damage), and the power units used for charging the battery 124 are set in the order of priorities and charging is performed. Thereby, among the plurality of power units 24(1) to 24(n), a power unit with less thermal damage and larger output power can be selected to charge the battery 124 mounted on the electric vehicle 120. Also, since the higher the output power of the power unit (the closer the output power value is to the maximum output value), the more efficient the output is, the battery 124 can be charged efficiently.

[0029] In the charging facility 20 of the embodiment, the priority is determined for each of the power units 24(1) to 24(n) in descending order of the outputtable power (in ascending order of the thermal damage). However, for the power units with the same outputtable power, the priority may be lowered for the power units used for the previous charging of the battery 124. An example of the priority setting process in this case is shown in FIG. 6. In this example, the outputtable powers P(1) to P(n) of the respective power units 24(1) to 24(n) are input (step S300), the value 1 is set to the variable k (step S310), and the processes of steps S320 to S370 are repeated until the variable k matches n (step S380). The repetitive process first extracts the power unit with the largest outputtable power (step S320), sets the number of the extracted power units as the extraction number D, and sets the value 0 to the counter C (step S330). Then, until the counter C matches the extraction number D (step S360), the process of incrementing the counter C by the value 1 (step S340) and the process of setting the last used power unit among the extracted power units to the rank (k + D - C) and deleting the power unit for which the rank has been set from the ranking process (step S350) are repeated. For example, consider the case where, when k = 1, three power units 24(1), 24(2), and 24(3) are extracted, the power unit 24(1) was used for the previous charging, the power unit 24(2) was not used for the previous charging but was used for the charging before the previous one, and the power unit 24(3) was not used for the previous and the charging before the previous one. In this case, the ranks of the power units 24(1), 24(2), and 24(3) are 3, 2, and 1, respectively. Thus, for the power units with the same outputtable power, the priority is set in the order of previous use, and the priority is lowered for the power unit used in the previous time. When the ranks of the power units with the extraction number D are set, the value obtained by adding the extraction number D to k is set as the new k (step S370).

[0030] If the priority setting process of the modification example of FIG. 6 is used, not only the priority is determined for each of the power units 24(1) to 24(n) in descending order of the outputtable power (in ascending order of the heat damage), but also the priority can be determined for the power units having the same outputtable power in the order of use. As a result, it is possible to suppress that only some of the power units having the same outputtable power are used. Therefore, it is possible to suppress that the load is biased only to some of the power units and to average the life of the power units. Thus, it is possible to appropriately select a power unit having a smaller heat damage and a larger outputtable power from among the plurality of power units 24(1) to 24(n) and charge the battery 124 mounted on the electric vehicle 120.

[0031] The correspondence between the main elements of the embodiment and the main elements of the invention described in the column of means for solving the problems will be described. In the embodiment, the plurality of power units 24(1) to 24(n) correspond to the "plurality of power output devices", the electric vehicle 120 corresponds to the "vehicle", the battery 124 corresponds to the "power storage device", the charge ECU 30 corresponds to the "charge control device", and the charging facility 20 corresponds to the "charging facility".

[0032] Note that the correspondence between the main elements of the embodiment and the main elements of the invention described in the column of means for solving the problems is an example for specifically explaining the mode for carrying out the invention described in the column of means for solving the problems in the embodiment, and thus does not limit the elements of the invention described in the column of means for solving the problems. That is, the interpretation of the invention described in the column of means for solving the problems should be made based on the description in that column, and the embodiment is merely a specific example of the invention described in the column of means for solving the problems.

[0033] As described above, the present disclosure has been described using the embodiments. However, the present disclosure is not limited to such embodiments, and it goes without saying that the present disclosure can be implemented in various forms without departing from the gist of the present disclosure.

Industrial Applicability

[0034] The present disclosure can be used in the manufacturing industry of charging equipment and the like.

Description of Reference Numerals

[0035] 10 External power, 12 Power line, 20 Charging equipment, 22 Power unit device, 24(1)~24(n) Power unit, 26 Charging line, 28 Charging connector, 30 Charging electronic control unit (Charging ECU), 32 Communication line, 120 Electric vehicle, 122 Motor, 123 Inverter, 124 Battery, 125 Drive shaft, 126 Differential gear, 128a, 128b Driving wheels, 130 Electronic control unit, 138 Charge and discharge circuit, 139 Connector, 140 Communication line, 142 Ignition switch, 143 Shift lever, 144 Shift position sensor, 145 Accelerator pedal, 146 Accelerator pedal position sensor, 147 Brake pedal, 148 Brake pedal position sensor, 149 Vehicle speed sensor, 150 Display device, 152 Communication device, 154 Air conditioner, 156 Navigation system.

Claims

1. A charging facility comprising a plurality of power output devices and a charging control device that charges a power storage device mounted on a vehicle using at least some of the plurality of power output devices based on a control command from the vehicle, wherein the charging control device sets a power output device to be used for charging the power storage device based on thermal damage to the plurality of power output devices. A charging facility characterized by this.

2. The charging facility according to Claim 1, wherein the charging control device determines a priority order for the plurality of power output devices in ascending order of the thermal damage, and sets the power output devices to be used for charging the power storage device in the order of the priority. A charging facility.

3. The charging facility according to Claim 2, wherein the control command is a charging power command, and the charging control device sets, as the power output devices to be used for charging the power storage device, the power output devices up to the order in which the integrated value when integrating the outputtable power of the power output devices in the order of the priority exceeds the charging power command. A charging facility.

4. The charging facility according to Claim 2 or 3, wherein the charging control device determines that the greater the outputtable power of the power output device, the smaller the thermal damage. A charging facility.

5. The charging facility according to any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the charging control device lowers the priority for the power output device used for the previous charging of the power storage device. A charging facility.

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