Charging system

Abstract

In a charging system that controls the charging of multiple vehicles at a business location subscribed to a time-of-use electricity rate plan, the system aims to provide the necessary amount of charge to multiple vehicles while suppressing increases in electricity costs. [Solution] The charging system according to the present invention creates a first charging plan in which, among the employees of a business that uses a vehicle for commuting, the vehicles of employees who are scheduled to arrive at the business earlier are charged first, in the second time period when electricity rates are lower and before the first time period when electricity rates are higher. If not all vehicles can be charged in the first charging plan, a second charging plan is created in which the vehicles that were not fully charged in the first charging plan and the vehicles of employees who are scheduled to leave the business later are charged first, in the third time period when electricity rates are lower and after the first time period. A third charging plan is created to charge the vehicles that could not be charged in the first and second charging plans in the first time period, and the charging of multiple vehicles is controlled according to the created charging plans.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to a charging system.

Background Art

[0002] Patent Document 1 discloses a charging system that controls a plurality of charging stands installed in a parking lot of a workplace. This type of charging system groups a plurality of vehicles using the charging stands according to the priority of charging, and controls the operation of the charging stands based on a charging plan that charges the vehicles in the group with the highest priority first. For example, the charging priority is set higher as the commuting distance of the employee using the vehicle is longer, or as the scheduled departure time of the employee is earlier.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] By the way, workplaces and the like may contract for a time-of-use (TOU) electricity rate plan in which the electricity rate varies depending on the time zone in order to suppress the electricity cost. When charging vehicles considering only the priority in the case of contracting for an electricity rate plan with different electricity rates depending on the time zone, there is a problem that the charging cost of the vehicles increases and the electricity cost increases.

[0005] An object of the present invention is to perform charging of a necessary amount for a plurality of vehicles while suppressing an increase in the electricity cost in a charging system that controls charging of a plurality of vehicles in a workplace that has contracted for a time-of-use electricity rate plan.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] The charging system according to the present invention is a charging system that controls the charging of multiple vehicles at multiple charging stations installed in the parking lot of a business establishment that has a contract for an electricity rate plan in which rates vary depending on the time of day. The system creates a first charging plan in which, starting with the vehicles of employees of the business establishment who use vehicles for commuting and whose scheduled arrival time at the business establishment is earlier, charging will take place in a second time period with lower electricity rates before a first time period with higher electricity rates. If all vehicles cannot be charged in the first charging plan, the system creates a second charging plan in which, starting with the vehicles that were not fully charged in the first charging plan and the vehicles of employees who are scheduled to leave the business establishment later, charging will take place in a third time period with lower electricity rates after the first time period. The system creates a third charging plan in which vehicles that could not be charged in the first and second charging plans will be charged in the first time period, and controls the charging of multiple vehicles according to the created charging plans. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] The present invention provides a charging system for controlling the charging of multiple vehicles at a business premises that has contracted for time-of-use electricity rate plans, which can charge multiple vehicles to the required amount while suppressing an increase in electricity costs. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0008] [Figure 1] This figure shows an example of a charging system according to one embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] Figure 1 is a flowchart illustrating an example of how the charging management server creates a vehicle charging plan. [Figure 3] Figure 1 shows an example of how the charging management server controls vehicle charging according to the charging plan determined by the flowchart in Figure 2. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0009] The embodiments will be described below with reference to the drawings. In each drawing, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant explanations may be omitted.

[0010] Figure 1 is a diagram showing an example of a charging system according to one embodiment of the present invention. The charging system 100 shown in Figure 1 includes an attendance management server 110 and a charging management server 120. For example, the charging system 100 is installed in a business establishment that has an office where multiple employees work and a parking lot with charging stations 200 where multiple employees park vehicles 300 that they use to commute.

[0011] The charging system 100 may be installed outside the business premises. For example, the charging system 100 may be installed as a cloud service, or if the business premises are branch offices, it may be installed at the head office.

[0012] Employees arriving at the workplace park their vehicle 300, which they use for commuting, in their designated parking space in the parking lot, and connect the connector of the charging station 200 to the power supply port of the parked vehicle 300. For example, vehicle 300 is an electric vehicle powered by electricity, and the charging station 200 charges the secondary battery installed in vehicle 300. Vehicle 300 may also be a plug-in hybrid vehicle.

[0013] For example, a business may have a contract for an electricity rate plan (TOU) where rates vary depending on the time of day. Therefore, it is preferable to charge the vehicle 300 during off-peak hours when rates are lower. Note that rates may not vary depending on the season.

[0014] The attendance management server 110 receives attendance information and mileage data from the personal computers (PCs) owned by each employee belonging to the business office and stores it in the database DB1. In Figure 1, for the sake of simplicity, we assume that there are six employees who commute using vehicle 300, indicated by IDs (Identification) A through F, and that each employee owns a PC indicated by codes a through f.

[0015] Attendance information includes each employee's scheduled arrival and departure times for each day they work at the office, and is entered from each employee's personal computer. The distance traveled represents the round trip distance between each employee's home and the office using a vehicle (300).

[0016] The table in the lower left of Figure 1 shows an example of information for a given day stored in the database DB1 of the attendance management server 110. For example, database DB1 may store information for each employee for the following week. Note that mileage may be stored for each employee regardless of whether they worked on a given day.

[0017] The attendance management server 110 transfers the attendance information and mileage data stored for each employee to the charging management server 120 based on a request from the charging management server 120. Alternatively, the attendance management server 110 may transfer attendance information or mileage data to the employee's PC based on a request from the employee's PC.

[0018] The charging management server 120 calculates the State of Charge (SOC), which is the target value (%) of the battery charge level of the vehicle 300 used by each employee for commuting, based on the mileage for each employee transferred from the attendance management server 110. The SOC of the vehicle 300 used by employees who live farther from the workplace will be higher than that of the vehicle 300 used by employees who live shorter distances from the workplace. By charging each vehicle 300 to its target value, all employees who use the vehicle 300 can use it for commuting without having to charge it at home.

[0019] The charging management server 120 creates a charging plan for each vehicle 300 based on the information held in the attendance management server 110, the information entered from the management PC for the charging system 100, the power usage information excluding the charging stations 200 within the business premises, the target charging value SOC, and the current charging value SOC obtained from each vehicle 300. The charging management server 120 controls the charging of all vehicles 300 used by employees according to the created charging plan.

[0020] The information input from the management PC to the charging management server 120 includes the contracted power with the power company and the electricity price information for each time period. The contracted power is used as the target power (the maximum allowable power) when creating a charging plan. Note that the charging management server 120 may directly receive the contracted power from the server of the power company or the like instead of from the management PC.

[0021] For example, the electricity price information for each time period is indicated by the agreed price of electricity for each time period by the power company or the like, as shown by the thick broken line in the lower right graph of FIG. 1. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the time period until 13:00 is time period A with a low electricity price, the time period from 13:00 to 16:00 is peak time period B with a high electricity price, and the time period after 16:00 is time period C with a low electricity price. Time period A is an example of the second time period, time period B is an example of the first time period, and time period C is an example of the third time period.

[0022] When the electricity price information for each time period is updated every predetermined period such as monthly or daily, the management PC updates the electricity price information held in the charging management server 120 every time the electricity price information is updated. Note that, as shown by the dashed line in the lower right graph of FIG. 1, the charging management server 120 may use power market trading information as the electricity price information for each time period. Then, it is possible to predict the time when the electricity price is low and preferentially charge the vehicle 300 at the predicted time. In this case, the power market trading information may be the analysis result by AI (Artificial Intelligence).

[0023] Based on the above various input information, the charging management server 120 creates a charging plan so that as many vehicles 300 as possible are charged in time periods A and C where the electricity price is low. Then, the charging management server 120 controls the charging stand 200 to charge each vehicle 300 according to the created charging plan. An example of the charging plan implemented by the charging management server 120 is described in FIG. 2. Note that depending on the season, there may be no variation in the electricity price by time period and the agreed price may be uniform. In this case, the charging management server 120 may perform control to preferentially charge the vehicle 300 of an employee whose scheduled departure time is early, for example.

[0024] FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a method for creating a charging plan for the vehicle 300 by the charging management server 120 in FIG. 1. The flow shown in FIG. 2 is realized by a computer such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) installed in the charging management server 120 executing a charging control program.

[0025] First, in S10, the charging management server 120 determines whether the electricity charge varies depending on the time zone. If the electricity charge varies depending on the time zone, the charging management server 120 performs the process of S20. If there is no variation in the electricity charge depending on the time zone, the charging management server 120 performs the process of S50.

[0026] In S20, the charging management server 120 creates a first charging plan. First, in order to preferentially charge the vehicle 300 used by the employee with an earlier scheduled departure time, the charging management server 120 lists up the vehicles 300 in ascending order of the scheduled departure time and sets them as the vehicles 300 to be preferentially charged.

[0027] Then, among the listed-up vehicles 300, the charging management server 120 determines the vehicles 300 that can be fully charged within the contract power and the vehicles 300 that can be charged halfway by the time (13:00) when the cheap time zone A ends from the scheduled departure time. The charging management server 120 creates a first charging list including the charging start time and the charging end time for each vehicle 300 to be charged in the time zone A, and completes the creation of the first charging plan.

[0028] Here, the charging management server 120 determines the vehicles 300 that start charging in the time zone A so that the total electricity consumption in the office, which is the sum of the electricity consumption used at the charging stand 200 and the electricity consumption used in the office excluding the charging stand 200, is below the contract power.

[0029] Next, in S30, the charging management server 120 creates a second charging plan. First, the charging management server 120 sets the vehicles 300 that are charged halfway in the first charging plan as the vehicles 300 to be preferentially charged.

[0030] Next, the charging management server 120 prioritizes charging vehicles 300 used by employees with later scheduled departure times. It lists the vehicles 300 in order of their scheduled departure times and designates them as vehicles 300 to be charged first.

[0031] The charging management server 120 then determines, from the listed vehicles 300, which vehicles 300 can be fully charged and which vehicles 300 can be partially charged, using less than the contracted power, between the start of the time period C (16:00), when electricity rates are lower, and the scheduled end time of work. The charging management server 120 then creates a second charging list, including the start and end times of charging for each vehicle 300 to be charged during time period C, and completes the creation of the second charging plan.

[0032] Next, in S40, the charging management server 120 creates a third charging plan. First, the charging management server 120 designates the vehicles 300 to be charged as vehicles 300 that are partially charged in the second charging plan and vehicles 300 that are not charged at all in the first and second charging plans.

[0033] The charging management server 120 then decides to charge the vehicle 300 to be charged during the time period B (13:00 to 16:00), when electricity rates are high, at a power level below the contracted capacity. The charging management server 120 then creates a third charging list, including the start and end times for each vehicle 300 to be charged during time period B, completes the creation of the third charging plan, and terminates the processing of the charging management method for the vehicle 300 shown in Figure 2.

[0034] Subsequently, the charging management server 120 starts charging the vehicles 300 according to the charging order for each time period determined in S20, S30, and S40. This allows for efficient charging of multiple vehicles 300 used for commuting while keeping electricity costs down.

[0035] On the other hand, if there are no fluctuations in electricity rates depending on the time of day, in S50, the charging management server 120 creates a fourth charging plan. First, the charging management server 120 prioritizes charging the vehicles 300 used by employees whose scheduled departure time is earlier. Therefore, it lists the vehicles 300 in order of their scheduled departure time and designates them as the vehicles 300 to be charged first.

[0036] The charging management server 120 then decides to charge the vehicles 300 in the order they were listed, at a power level below the contracted power. The charging management server 120 then creates a fourth charging list, including the start and end times for each vehicle 300, completes the creation of the fourth charging plan, and terminates the processing of the vehicle 300 charging management method shown in Figure 2.

[0037] Figure 3 shows an example of how the charging management server 120 in Figure 1 controls the charging of the vehicle 300 according to the charging plan determined by the flowchart in Figure 2. In the example shown in Figure 3, the charging management server 120 sequentially charges the vehicle 300 according to the first charging list, the third charging list, and the second charging list created in Figure 2.

[0038] The shaded rectangles for each employee indicate the charging time for vehicle 300. In Figure 3, the charging time is uniformly 2 hours and 30 minutes, and it is assumed that up to two vehicles 300 can be charged at a time to avoid exceeding the contracted power capacity for the entire business site. The double arrows indicating each employee's working hours indicate their scheduled arrival time and scheduled departure time, respectively. Each employee is expected to arrive at their scheduled arrival time and leave at their scheduled departure time.

[0039] First, the charging management server 120 sequentially starts charging the vehicles 300 of employees A, B, C, and D, whose scheduled arrival times are earlier, according to the first charging list created in the first charging plan (priority 1 charging). Employee D's vehicle 300 is partially charged.

[0040] Next, the charging management server 120 starts charging a portion of employee E's vehicle 300, which is to be charged in the second charging list, according to the third charging list created in the third charging plan (priority 3 charging).

[0041] Next, the charging management server 120 sequentially starts charging employee D's vehicle 300, which was partially charged in the first charging plan, employee F's vehicle 300, whose scheduled departure time is later, and employee E's vehicle 300, which was partially charged in time zone B, according to the second charging list created in the second charging plan (charging with priority 2).

[0042] Furthermore, if employees are already paid a commuting allowance equivalent to the electricity cost of charging vehicle 300 at home, the company may reduce this amount by a factor corresponding to the amount of vehicle 300 charged at the company premises. If charging vehicle 300 at the charging station 200 eliminates the need to charge it at home, the company may discontinue the payment of commuting allowance. Alternatively, if employees are already paid a commuting allowance, the company may receive an amount from each employee corresponding to the amount of vehicle 300 charged at the charging station 200.

[0043] In this embodiment, it is possible to charge each vehicle 300 with the amount of electricity necessary for commuting, while prioritizing the use of time periods with lower electricity rates to suppress increases in electricity costs, and taking into account the scheduled arrival and departure times of each employee. For example, as shown in Figure 3, it is possible to charge all vehicles 300 with the amount of electricity necessary for commuting, while keeping the amount of electricity used by the business establishment during time period B, when electricity rates are high, lower than the amount of electricity used by the business establishment during time periods A and C, when electricity rates are low.

[0044] Although embodiments for carrying out the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention is not limited to these specific embodiments, and various modifications and improvements are possible without impairing the spirit of the present invention. [Explanation of Symbols]

[0045] 100 Charging System 110 Attendance Management Server 120 Charging Management Server 200 Charging Stands 300 vehicles DB1, DB2 databases

Claims

[Claim 1] A charging system that controls the charging of multiple vehicles using multiple charging stations installed in the parking lot of a business premises that has a contract for an electricity rate plan where the rates vary depending on the time of day, A first charging plan is created for the employees of the aforementioned business establishment who use vehicles for commuting, starting with those whose scheduled arrival time at the business establishment is earliest, and charging will be carried out during the second time period when electricity rates are lower, before the first time period when electricity rates are higher. If it is not possible to charge all vehicles in the first charging plan, a second charging plan will be created to charge the vehicles that were not fully charged in the first charging plan, and the vehicles of employees whose scheduled departure time from the business office is later, in the third time period when electricity rates are lower, after the first time period. A third charging plan is created to charge vehicles that cannot be charged using the first and second charging plans during the first time period. A charging system that controls the charging of multiple vehicles according to a created charging plan.

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