Charging Dispenser Current Budgets for Shared Power Line Limits
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electric vehicle charging systems face challenges in efficiently managing and sharing electrical current among multiple charging stations, leading to limitations in power distribution and operational disruptions during additions or removals of charging dispensers.
Innovation Solution
A system where each charging dispenser is connected to a common power grid with a current budget, allowing communication and sharing of current budgets among dispensers to optimize total current usage without exceeding a predefined maximum, enabling seamless addition or removal of dispensers while maintaining system stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If multiple charging dispensers share a common power line without centralized control, then system complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but power distribution efficiency deteriorates and current management becomes suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
Each charging dispenser autonomously determines its current budget by receiving the total current budget message from other dispensers and calculating its share based on its own power rating. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for centralized control while maintaining efficient power distribution, as each dispenser independently manages its current allocation without manual intervention or complex system-wide coordination.
2Reliability
If the system uses a predefined maximum total current limit, then reliability is improved by preventing overload, but adaptability deteriorates when adding or removing dispensers
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adapts to changes in the number of charging dispensers by having each dispenser autonomously adjust its current budget based on real-time communication with other dispensers. When dispensers are added or removed, the total current budget message is updated across the network, and each dispenser automatically recalculates its share. This dynamic mechanism maintains reliability by respecting the maximum total current limit while simultaneously improving adaptability to system configuration changes.
3Productivity
If charging dispensers communicate their current budget status, then power distribution efficiency is improved, but device complexity increases due to communication requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The communication message serves multiple functions simultaneously: it conveys the total current budget, identifies participating dispensers, and enables autonomous current budget calculation. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate communication protocols or additional control infrastructure, thereby improving power distribution efficiency while minimizing the increase in device complexity. The universal message format handles multiple control tasks through a single communication channel.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to a system for charging electric vehicles, the system including a plurality of charging stations, each of which comprise one or more charging dispensers that are connected to a common power line. Each of the charging dispensers has a current budget assigned thereto, wherein the sum of said current budgets is greater than zero and less than a predefined maximum total current that the system is allowed to draw from the power line. The charging dispensers are in communication with each other such that, at each charging dispenser, a total current budget can be calculated as a sum of all current budgets. In this regard, at each charging dispenser it can be determined what share this total current budget is available to the dispenser for charging an electric vehicle connected thereto.