EP-4738642-A1 - SYSTEM CONTROL APPARATUS AND SYSTEM CONTROL METHOD FOR BATTERY CHARGING-DISCHARGING SYSTEM

EP4738642A1EP 4738642 A1EP4738642 A1EP 4738642A1EP-4738642-A1

Abstract

A system control apparatus and a system control method for a battery charging/discharging system are provided. The battery charging/discharging system includes a main power source, a charging/discharging facility and an auxiliary power source. The system control apparatus includes a monitoring circuit to monitor whether a failure of the main power source occurs; and a controller to generate an electric energy profile of the charging/discharging facility by applying a mathematical operation to first to m-th power profiles based on operation information of first to m-th chargers/dischargers included in the charging/discharging facility. m is a natural number of 2 or greater. The controller is configured to determine whether it is necessary to stop at least one of the first to m-th chargers/dischargers by comparing a first electric energy of the electric energy profile with a second electric energy of the auxiliary power source, when the failure of the main power source occurs.

Inventors

KIM, Seung-Choo
KIM, MYUNG-HWAN

Assignees

LG Energy Solution, Ltd.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260506
Application Date: 20250310

Claims (15)

A system control apparatus for a battery charging/discharging system including a main power source, a charging/discharging facility and an auxiliary power source, the system control apparatus comprising: a monitoring circuit to monitor whether a failure of the main power source occurs; and a controller to generate an electric energy profile of the charging/discharging facility by applying a mathematical operation to first to m-th power profiles based on operation information of first to m-th chargers/dischargers included in the charging/discharging facility, wherein m is a natural number of 2 or greater, and wherein the controller is configured to: determine whether it is necessary to stop at least one of the first to m-th chargers/dischargers by comparing a first electric energy of the electric energy profile with a second electric energy of the auxiliary power source, when the failure of the main power source occurs.
The system control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to: determine the first to m-th power profiles by applying operation starting times of the first to m-th chargers/dischargers to a reference power profile, respectively.
The system control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to: determine a total power profile of the charging/discharging facility by applying a first matrix operation to the first to m-th power profiles, and generate the electric energy profile by applying a second matrix operation to the total power profile.
The system control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to: determine the first electric energy to be equal to expected energy consumption of the charging/discharging facility and the second electric energy to be equal to an available output electric energy of the auxiliary power source, when the charging/discharging facility is in a charge dominant state at a time when the failure of the main power source occurred.
The system control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to: determine, from the electric energy profile, a reference electric energy corresponding to the time when the failure occurred and a maximum electric energy corresponding to a time that will come after the failure occurred, and determine the expected energy consumption to be equal to a difference between the reference electric energy and the maximum electric energy.
The system control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to: determine that it is necessary to stop at least one of the first to m-th chargers/dischargers, when the charging/discharging facility is in the charge dominant state at the time when the failure of the main power source occurred and the first electric energy is larger than the second electric energy.
The system control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the controller is configured to: select at least one remaining electric energy value whose sum by adding the plurality of remaining electric energy values associated with a plurality of chargers/dischargers having a remaining charging period among the first to m-th chargers/dischargers one by one in a descending order is equal to or larger than a deficit electric energy value, and determine that it is necessary to stop the charger/discharger associated with each of the selected remaining electric energy values, wherein the remaining electric energy value indicates an electric energy that will be consumed for a remaining time until a total electric energy of the charging/discharging facility reaches a maximum value, and wherein the deficit electric energy value indicates a difference between the first electric energy and the second electric energy.
The system control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to: determine the first electric energy to be equal to an electric energy that the charging/discharging facility is supposed to regenerate, and determine the second electric energy to be equal to an available input electric energy of the auxiliary power supply, when the charging/discharging facility is in a discharge predominant state at a time when the failure of the main power source occurred.
The system control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to: determine, from the electric energy profile, a reference electric energy corresponding to the time when the failure occurred and a minimum electric energy corresponding to a time that will come after the failure occurred, and determine the expected regenerative energy to be equal to a difference between the reference electric energy and the minimum electric energy.
The system control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the controller is configured to: determined that it is necessary to stop at least one of the first to m-th chargers/dischargers, when the charging/discharging facility is in the discharge dominant state at the time when the failure of the main power source occurred, and the first electric energy is larger than the second electric energy.
The system control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to: select at least one remaining electric energy value whose sum by adding the plurality of remaining electric energy values associated with a plurality of chargers/dischargers having a remaining discharging period among the first to m-th chargers/dischargers one by one in a descending order is equal to or larger than a surplus electric energy value, and determine that it is necessary to stop the charger/discharger associated with each of the selected remaining electric energy values, wherein the remaining electric energy value indicates an electric energy that will be regenerated for a remaining time until a total electric energy of the charging/discharging facility reaches a minimum value, and wherein the surplus electric energy value indicates a difference between the first electric energy and the second electric energy.
A battery charging/discharging system comprising the system control apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 11.
A system control method for a battery charging/discharging system including a main power source, a charging/discharging facility and an auxiliary power source, the system control method comprising: generating an electric energy profile of the charging/discharging facility by applying a mathematical operation to first to m-th power profiles based on operation information of first to m-th chargers/dischargers included in the charging/discharging facility, wherein m is a natural number of 2 or greater; monitoring whether a failure of the main power source occurs; and determine whether it is necessary to stop at least one of the first to m-th chargers/dischargers by comparing a first electric energy of the electric energy profile with a second electric energy of the auxiliary power supply when the failure of the main power source occurs.
The system control method according to claim 13, further comprising: determining expected energy consumption of the charging/discharging facility as the first electric energy and an available output electric energy of the auxiliary power source as the second electric energy, when the charging/discharging facility is in a charge dominant state at a time when the failure of the main power source occurred.
The system control method according to claim 13, further comprising: determining an electric energy that the charging/discharging facility is supposed to regenerate as the first electric energy and an available input electric energy of the auxiliary power source as the second electric energy, when the charging/discharging facility is in a discharge dominant state at a time when the failure of the main power source occurred.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates to a control technology for improving the efficiency of a charging/discharging process performed by a battery charging/discharging system. This application is based on and claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2024-0038407 filed on March 20, 2024 and Korean Patent Application No. 10-2025-0026942 filed on February 28, 2025 in the Republic of Korea, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. BACKGROUND Recently, there has been a rapid increase in the demand for portable electronic products such as laptop computers, video cameras and mobile phones, and with the extensive development of electric vehicles, accumulators for energy storage, robots and satellites, many studies are being made on high performance batteries that can be repeatedly charged and discharged. Batteries on the market now include nickel-cadmium batteries, nickel-hydrogen batteries, nickel-zinc batteries, lithium batteries and the like, and among them, lithium batteries have little or no memory effect, and thus they are gaining more attention than nickel-based batteries for their advantages that recharging can be done whenever it is convenient, the self-discharge rate is very low and the energy density is high. Batteries are manufactured as finished products by performing an assembly process and a charging/discharging process in a sequential order. In the assembly process, a stack of a positive electrode, a negative electrode and a separator is placed in an outer packaging together with an electrolyte, followed by sealing. In the charging/discharging process, a predetermined charging/discharging procedure is performed on the batteries having undergone the assembly process. When the charging/discharging process is performed on the batteries, solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) is formed on the negative electrode surface, establishing the intended electrical properties. The batteries having undergone the assembly process are sequentially transported to a battery charging/discharging system, and the battery charging/discharging system sequentially performs the charging/discharging process on the batteries in a first-in, first-out manner. The battery charging/discharging system includes a charging/discharging facility provided to take responsibility for charging and discharging for each of a plurality of battery boxes and a main power source provided to supply direct current power to the charging/discharging facility. In the event of failure of the main power source, there is a disruption in the supply of power from the main power source to the charging/discharging facility and a failure in power regeneration from the charging/discharging facility to the main power source. As a result, at least one charger/discharger cannot faithfully perform the charging or discharging operation until the failure of the main power source is resolved, resulting in degradation of the battery formation results, and in worse cases, the charging/discharging process for all the battery boxes may be stopped. DISCLOSURE Technical Problem The present disclosure is designed to solve the above-described problems, and therefore the present disclosure is directed to providing an apparatus and method in which when a failure of a main power source of a battery charging/discharging system occurs, among a plurality of chargers/dischargers included in a charging/discharging facility, at least one charger/discharger operating in a charging mode or a discharging mode is stopped or at least one charger/discharger at rest is prohibited from operating, thereby preventing a situation in which a charging/discharging process for all battery boxes is completely stopped. These and other objectives and advantages of the present disclosure may be understood from the following description and will become apparent from the embodiments of the present disclosure. Also, it will be easily understood that the objectives and advantages of the present disclosure may be realized by the means set forth in the appended claims and a combination thereof. Technical Solution A system control apparatus according to an aspect of the present disclosure is designed for a battery charging/discharging system including a main power source, a charging/discharging facility and an auxiliary power source. The system control apparatus includes a monitoring circuit to monitor whether a failure of the main power source occurs; and a controller to generate an electric energy profile of the charging/discharging facility by applying a mathematical operation to first to m-th power profiles based on operation information of first to m-th chargers/dischargers included in the charging/discharging facility. m is a natural number of 2 or greater. The controller is configured to determine whether it is necessary to stop at least one of the first to m-th chargers/dischargers by comparing a first electric energy of the electric energy profile with a secon