Patent Description:
With development of new energy technologies, technologies related to electric vehicles are gradually becoming mature. As a service infrastructure matching the electric vehicle, a charging station can quickly, efficiently, economically, and safely provide electric energy required for running various electric vehicles. In a current charging station, a charging module in a charging pile corresponds to a fixed parking space or is shared by a limited quantity of parking spaces, and inflexibly responds to a charging power requirement of a nearby parking space. Therefore, a scheduling range of the charging module is limited, and a problem of insufficient utilization exists.

Therefore, how to overcome the disadvantage of insufficient utilization of the charging module and improve charging experience is a problem that urgently needs to be resolved.

<CIT> relates to split type direct-current charging piles for electric automobiles, system and method. <CIT> relates to integrated charging module, charging pile and control method thereof. <CIT> relates to multi-gun charging pile and charging pile circuit. <CIT> relates to charging pile.

This application provides a charging method, a charging apparatus, and a charging system, to expand a charging scheduling range, improve utilization of a charging apparatus, and improve charging experience.

According to a first aspect, a charging system according to claim <NUM> is provided.

In the charging system provided in this solution, a plurality of charging apparatuses are connected to share an electric energy reserve, so that utilization of the electric energy reserve in the charging apparatus can be improved, a charging requirement can be met in a timely manner, and charging experience can be improved.

According to a second aspect, a charging method according to claim <NUM> is provided.

It should be understood that explanations, supplements, and beneficial effects of the first aspect are also applicable to the second aspect , and details are not described herein again.

According to a third aspect, a control apparatus according to claim <NUM> is provided.

According to a fourth aspect, a computer-readable storage medium according to claim <NUM> is provided.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of a conventional charging system. As shown in <FIG>, a conventional charging system <NUM> includes a transformer <NUM>, an alternating current distribution cabinet <NUM>, an alternating current bus <NUM>, a charging pile A (<NUM>), a charging pile B (<NUM>), and to-be-charged apparatuses <NUM> to <NUM>. The to-be-charged apparatus may be an electric vehicle. A power supply and distribution system of a medium-and-large electric vehicle charging station usually starts from obtaining electric energy from a medium-voltage power grid. The transformer <NUM> transforms the electric energy into a low-voltage alternating current, and then the low-voltage alternating current converges into the alternating current distribution cabinet <NUM> for electric energy distribution. The alternating current enters an input side of the charging piles (<NUM> and <NUM>) in the station from the distribution cabinet. In the charging pile, a power conversion unit integrating alternating current to direct current (alternating current to direct current, AC/DC) and direct current to direct current (direct current to direct current, DC/DC) converts, for charging a battery, electric energy into a direct current required by an electric vehicle. Electric energy may be provided by photovoltaic power or an energy storage battery. Both the photovoltaic power and the energy storage battery are direct current power supplies. The electric energy needs to be converted into an alternating current by using a DC/AC converter, and then transferred to the battery of the electric vehicle through AC/DC conversion and DC/DC conversion. A charging module in the charging pile corresponds to a fixed parking space or is shared by a limited quantity of parking spaces, and inflexibly responds to a charging power requirement of a nearby parking space. For example, when parking spaces <NUM>-<NUM> and <NUM>-<NUM> require high charging power, and parking spaces <NUM>-<NUM> and <NUM>-<NUM> require low charging power, a module of a charging pile <NUM> cannot be used for a corresponding parking space of a charging pile <NUM> through cross-pile sharing, causing insufficient utilization of the charging module.

<FIG> is a schematic diagram of an example direct current charging apparatus. Electricity of an alternating current power grid passes through an alternating current to direct current conversion unit to form a direct current, and electric energy is distributed to an integrated pile of direct current input by using a direct current bus. DC/DC charging modules connected in parallel exist in the direct current pile, and the module can charge an electric vehicle connected to a gun head. In this system, the DC/DC module can be scheduled, within the pile by using a switch matrix, for a charged terminal connected to the charging pile, to implement an increase or a reduction in charging power of the charged terminal. However, the charging pile system with the direct current bus architecture and the switch matrix within the pile cannot schedule power of the DC/DC module from one pile to a charged terminal on another pile, and can perform scheduling only within the pile. Therefore, a scheduling range is limited. In this solution, the scheduling range of the charging module can be expanded by increasing a quantity of charged terminals in one pile. However, in this case, a volume and rated power of a single pile are quite large, and networking and expansion cannot be flexibly implemented based on a deployment status of the charging pile.

In some current charging site systems, except for mains, main power supplies and loads, for example, energy storage batteries, a photovoltaic panel, and wind power, provide electric energy in the form of a direct current, and the electric energy is converged and distributed in the form of an alternating current, causing excessive alternating current-direct current conversion. This reduces efficiency and increases costs. In addition, there are various types of vehicles in a common charging site, and charging power requirements of charging guns in different time periods are different. Due to a fixed connection between a charging module and a charging gun, low utilization is caused in a case of over-provisioning of charging modules, or charging experience is reduced in a case of under-provisioning of charging modules.

To resolve the foregoing problem, this application provides a charging apparatus. As shown in <FIG>, the charging apparatus corresponds to fixed charging parking spaces <NUM> and <NUM>, and the charging apparatus may include a plurality of charging modules <NUM> and <NUM>, and may include an intra-pile sharing unit <NUM>.

The charging module may transfer photovoltaic power or power of an energy storage battery to a to-be-charged apparatus <NUM>, and the charging module may be a DC/DC. The charging module may be connected to the to-be-charged apparatus <NUM> by using a bus <NUM>.

The intra-pile sharing unit is configured to share an electric energy reserve inside the charging apparatus. The intra-pile sharing unit may include a plurality of switches (also referred to as switch modules), and the plurality of switches correspond to the charging modules, and are configured to control connections between the corresponding charging modules and the bus to be enabled or disabled.

Optionally, the charging apparatus may further include an inter-pile sharing unit <NUM>, configured to share an electric energy reserve between a plurality of charging apparatuses, and the intra-pile sharing unit may include a plurality of switches (also referred to as switch modules), configured to enable or disable a connection between different charging apparatuses.

The charging apparatus may further include a control module <NUM>. The control module is configured to control the intra-pile sharing unit and/or the inter-pile sharing unit to be used or disabled. Further, the control module may be configured to control the switches in the intra-pile sharing unit and/or the switches in the inter-pile sharing unit to be opened or closed.

It should be further understood that the charging apparatus may be connected to a to-be-charged apparatus by using a port, for example, a port shown in <FIG>. The charging apparatus may be connected to the charging parking space <NUM> by using a port A1, the charging apparatus may be connected to the charging parking space <NUM> by using a port A2, and inter-pile sharing units of different charging piles may be connected by using ports B1 and B2. The ports are merely used as examples but do not constitute a limitation, and a quantity of ports of the charging apparatus is not limited in this application.

A function of the port may also be flexibly configured. For example, the ports A1 and A2 may be alternatively configured to connect the charging apparatus to another charging apparatus, and the ports B1 and B2 may be alternatively configured to connect the charging apparatus to a charging parking space. A function or a purpose of each port is not limited in this application.

In the charging apparatus, the intra-pile sharing unit is configured, so that electric energy inside a charging apparatus can be flexibly scheduled to meet charging requirements of different to-be-charged apparatuses. In addition, the inter-pile sharing unit may be further configured, and a connection interface between different charging apparatuses may be provided, so that electric energy between different charging apparatuses can be flexibly scheduled to meet a high-power charging requirement, improve utilization of the charging apparatus, and improve charging efficiency.

The following uses an example in which the charging apparatus is a charging pile and the to-be-charged apparatus is an electric vehicle to describe the solutions of this application.

An implementation of this application provides a charging station. As shown in <FIG>, the charging station may include a plurality of charging piles. The charging pile is similar to the foregoing charging apparatus, and details are not described herein again.

The charging station may include a two-way AC/DC converter <NUM>, configured to connect alternating current input and a direct current bus <NUM>. A plurality of charging piles <NUM> to <NUM> are connected to the direct current bus <NUM>. The charging piles are connected to to-be-charged electric vehicles <NUM> to <NUM> on charging parking spaces.

It should be understood that the alternating current input in <FIG> may be alternatively directly connected to a charging apparatus. In this case, an AC/DC module is configured inside the charging apparatus, and the AC/DC module may convert the alternating current input into a direct current, to charge the to-be-charged electric vehicle.

It should be understood that the charging pile and the electric vehicle may be connected by using a charging gun, and a port configured to connect to the charging gun is configured in the charging pile.

The charging station may further include a control module <NUM>, configured to control, based on a charging requirement of the to-be-charged electric vehicle, an intra-pile sharing unit and/or an inter-pile sharing unit to be enabled or disabled, in other words, control switches to be closed or opened.

It should be understood that different charging piles may be connected. For example, the charging pile <NUM> and the charging pile <NUM> may be connected by using a direct current cable <NUM>.

A port configured to connect to the cable is configured in the charging pile. For example, a port A in the charging pile <NUM> is configured to connect the charging pile to the parking space <NUM>, a port B is configured to connect the charging pile to the parking space <NUM>, a port C is configured to connect an inter-pile sharing unit of the charging pile <NUM> to an inter-pile sharing unit of the charging pile <NUM>, and a port D is configured to connect the inter-pile sharing unit of the charging pile <NUM> to an inter-pile sharing unit of the charging pile <NUM>. A port E in the charging pile <NUM> is configured to connect the charging pile to the parking space <NUM>. The ports A, B, C, and D are connected by using internal connection lines, and ports E, F, G, and H are connected by using internal connection lines. Similarly, corresponding ports are also configured in the charging pile <NUM>.

In the charging station, a photovoltaic panel, an energy storage battery, the charging pile, and the like may be connected to the direct current bus through level-<NUM> DC/DC power conversion, to implement efficient photovoltaic-energy storage conversion and storage system to charging station conversion. In addition, the charging module of the charging pile can implement power sharing between piles to meet different charging power requirements on parking spaces.

It should be understood that the port configured in the charging apparatus may be further configured to connect to an energy storage module. For example, as shown in <FIG>, an energy storage module in the figure may be a photovoltaic component or may be an energy storage component. The energy storage module is directly connected to the port A by using a link <NUM>, and the port A is further connected to the charging apparatus <NUM>. Electric energy in the energy storage module can be directly provided for the charging apparatus for use. This is not limited in this application.

It should be understood that there may be a plurality of networking manners of sharing units of a plurality of charging piles. For example, a topology structure such as a chain shape shown in (a) in <FIG>, a star shape shown in (b) in <FIG>, or a dual-ring shape shown in (c) in <FIG> may be used. Different topology structures can provide different inter-pile sharing control policies and sharing flexibility, and the inter-pile sharing control policies and sharing flexibility may be flexibly selected based on an actual requirement.

Another implementation of this application provides a charging method, applied to the foregoing charging station, as shown in <FIG>.

A control module determines, based on a charging power requirement of a to-be-charged apparatus, whether electric energy sharing is required.

If electric energy sharing is required, the control module controls an inter-pile sharing unit to be enabled.

A charging station charges the to-be-charged apparatus at shared charging power.

In the method, electric energy reserves of different charging apparatuses in the charging station are shared, so that different requirements of the to-be-charged apparatus can be met, thereby improving charging efficiency.

It should be understood that to determine, based on a requirement, whether sharing is required, the control module may perform the determining based on target charging power and real-time charging power of a charging pile, where for example, sharing is enabled when the real-time charging power of the charging pile cannot meet a charging power requirement of an electric vehicle; or may perform the determining based on target charging power and a power threshold of a charging pile, where for example, when the target charging power is greater than the threshold of the charging pile, the control module determines that sharing needs to be enabled.

It should be further understood that when determining to enable sharing, the control module further needs to determine, based on a position of the to-be-charged apparatus and a real-time charging status of each charging apparatus, to close a corresponding switch to enable a connection.

For example, as shown in <FIG>, an electric vehicle on a charging parking space <NUM>-<NUM> needs to be charged.

The charging parking space is correspondingly connected to a charging pile <NUM>. Charging power of the charging pile <NUM> is less than charging power required by the electric vehicle, and the control module determines that sharing needs to be enabled. Then the control module determines, based on a position of the parking space and a charging status of each charging pile, a switch that needs to be closed.

For example, if real-time charging power of the charging pile <NUM> and a charging pile <NUM> cannot meet a charging power requirement of the electric vehicle, both the charging pile <NUM> and a charging pile <NUM> need to be shared.

S3-<NUM> and S3-<NUM> in the charging pile <NUM> are closed, so that a link <NUM> is enabled, and electric energy of the charging pile <NUM> is shared with the charging pile <NUM>.

S2-<NUM> in the charging pile <NUM> and S1-<NUM> and S1-<NUM> in the charging pile <NUM> are closed, so that a link <NUM> is enabled, and electric energy of the charging pile <NUM> is shared with the charging pile <NUM>.

S1-<NUM> in the charging pile <NUM> is closed, so that a link is enabled.

In addition, S3-<NUM> and S3-<NUM> in the charging pile <NUM>, S2-<NUM> and S2-<NUM> in the charging pile <NUM>, and S1-<NUM> and S1-<NUM> in the charging pile <NUM> are opened. In this way, a <NUM># module of the charging pile <NUM> and a <NUM># module of the charging pile <NUM> can charge the charging parking space <NUM>-<NUM> together with a <NUM># module of the charging pile <NUM> by using the three links.

It should be understood that the control module may be configured in each charging pile to obtain a charging status of another charging pile through real-time communication, or a main control module may be configured in the charging station. This is not limited in this application.

It should be further understood that ports in the charging pile are not shown in <FIG>. The ports are similar to the foregoing ports, and therefore details are not described herein again.

It should be understood that the inter-pile sharing unit may also be flexibly configured as required. DC/DC modules in other piles are combined by using the inter-pile sharing unit, to implement fast charging of some super-high-power to-be-charged vehicles, thereby greatly improving output power of a single pile.

It should be further understood that in addition to being applied to an electric vehicle charging site, this application may be applied to other charging fields, for example, an electric vehicle swap station that simultaneously charges a plurality of batteries.

Implementations described in this specification may be independent solutions, or may be combined according to internal logic. These solutions fall within the protection scope of this application.

In the foregoing implementations provided in this application, the method provided in implementations of this application is separately described from the perspective of interaction between devices. To implement functions in the foregoing method provided in implementations of this application, a network device or a terminal device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, to implement the foregoing functions in a form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure and a software module. Whether one of the foregoing functions is performed in a manner of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure and a software module depends on a specific application and design constraints of technical solutions.

In this implementation of this application, module division is an example, and is merely a logical function division. In an actual implementation, another division manner may be used. In addition, functional modules in this application may be integrated into one processor, or each of the modules may exist alone physically, or two or more modules may be integrated into one module. The integrated module may be implemented in a form of hardware, or may be implemented in a form of a software functional module.

Similar to the foregoing concept, as shown in <FIG>, an implementation of this application further provides an apparatus <NUM>, configured to implement functions of the control module in the foregoing method. For example, the apparatus may be a software module or a chip system. In this implementation of this application, the chip system may include a chip, or may include a chip and another discrete component. The apparatus <NUM> may include a processing unit <NUM> and a communications unit <NUM>.

In this implementation of this application, the communications unit may also be referred to as a transceiver unit, and the transceiver unit may include a sending unit and/or a receiving unit, respectively configured to perform sending and receiving steps of the control module in the foregoing method implementation.

The following describes in detail the control apparatus provided in implementations of this application with reference to <FIG>. It should be understood that descriptions of the apparatus implementations correspond to the descriptions of the method implementation, and therefore, for content that is not described in detail, refer to the foregoing method implementation. For simplicity, details are not described herein again.

The communications unit may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiver apparatus, or the like. The processing unit may also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing apparatus, or the like. Optionally, a component that is in the communications unit <NUM> and that is configured to implement a receiving function may be considered as a receiving unit, and a component that is in the communications unit <NUM> and that is configured to implement a sending function may be considered as a sending unit, in other words, the communications unit <NUM> includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. The communications unit sometimes may also be referred to as a transceiver, an interface circuit, or the like. The receiving unit sometimes may also be referred to as a receiver machine, a receiver, a receiver circuit, or the like. The sending unit may also be sometimes referred to as a transmitter machine, a transmitter, a transmit circuit, or the like.

When the communications apparatus <NUM> performs functions of the control module shown in any one of <FIG> in the foregoing implementations,.

The foregoing is merely an example. The processing unit <NUM> and the communications unit <NUM> may further perform other functions. For more detailed descriptions, refer to related descriptions in the implementations shown in <FIG> or other implementations.

<FIG> shows an apparatus <NUM> according to an implementation of this application. The apparatus shown in <FIG> may be an implementation of a hardware circuit of the apparatus shown in <FIG>. The control apparatus may perform functions of the control module in the foregoing method implementation. For ease of description, <FIG> shows only main components of the control apparatus.

As shown in <FIG>, the communications apparatus <NUM> includes a processor <NUM> and an interface circuit <NUM>. The processor <NUM> is coupled to the interface circuit <NUM>. It may be understood that the interface circuit <NUM> may be a transceiver or an input/output interface. Optionally, the communications apparatus <NUM> may further include a memory <NUM>, configured to store instructions to be executed by the processor <NUM>, store input data required by the processor <NUM> to run instructions, or store data generated after the processor <NUM> runs instructions.

When the communications apparatus <NUM> is configured to implement the solutions shown in <FIG>, the processor <NUM> is configured to implement functions of the processing unit <NUM>, and the interface circuit <NUM> is configured to implement functions of the communications unit <NUM>.

It may be understood that, the processor in implementations of this application may be a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU), or may be another general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (Digital Signal Processor, DSP), an application-specific integrated circuit (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), a field programmable gate array (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA) or another programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. The general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any regular processor or the like.

The processor in implementations of this application may be a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a flash memory, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), a programmable read-only memory (Programmable ROM, PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (Erasable PROM, EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (Electrically EPROM, EEPROM), a register, a hard disk, a removable hard disk, a CD-ROM, or a storage medium in any other form well-known in the art. For example, a storage medium is coupled to a processor, so that the processor can read information from the storage medium or write information into the storage medium. Certainly, the storage medium may be a component of the processor. The processor and the storage medium may be disposed in an ASIC. In addition, the ASIC may be located in a network device or a terminal device. Certainly, the processor and the storage medium may exist in the network device or the terminal device as discrete components.

A person skilled in the art should understand that the implementations of this application may be provided as a method, a system, or a computer program product. Therefore, this application may use a form of hardware only implementations, software only implementations, or implementations with a combination of software and hardware. Moreover, this application may use a form of a computer program product that is implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to a disk memory, an optical memory, and the like) that include computer-usable program code.

This application is described with reference to the flowcharts and/or block diagrams of the method, the device (system), and the computer program product according to this application. It should be understood that computer program instructions may be used to implement each process and/or each block in the flowcharts and/or the block diagrams and a combination of a process and/or a block in the flowcharts and/or the block diagrams. These computer program instructions may be provided for a general-purpose computer, a dedicated computer, an embedded processor, or a processor of any other programmable data processing device to generate a machine, so that the instructions executed by a computer or a processor of any other programmable data processing device generate an apparatus for implementing a specific function in one or more processes in the flowcharts and/or in one or more blocks in the block diagrams.

Claim 1:
A charging system, wherein the charging system comprises at least a first charging apparatus (<NUM>) and multiple second charging apparatus (<NUM>, <NUM>), wherein
the first charging apparatus comprises: at least a first output port and at least two second output ports, and each second charging apparatus comprises at least a third output port and a fourth output port,
wherein the first output port is connectable to a first to-be-charged apparatus located in a first charging parking space corresponding to the first charging apparatus, the third output port is connectable to the fourth output port of at least two second charging apparatus, and the fourth port is connectable to a second to-be-charged apparatus located in a second charging parking space corresponding to the respective second charging apparatus, and wherein the at least two second output ports are connectable to the third output ports of at least two second charging apparatus in a one-to-one correspondence manner via a respective first link,
wherein the first charging apparatus further comprises a first control module and each second charging apparatus comprises a second control module,
wherein the second control module configured to send first indication information, and the first indication information is configured to indicate real-time charging power of the second charging apparatus; and
the first control module is further configured to receive the first indication information;
wherein the first control module is further configured to:
determine whether to enable the first link based on a charging power requirement of the first to-be-charged apparatus and a charging power of the first charging apparatus, wherein when the first link is enabled, the first charging apparatus is configured to charge the first to-be-charged apparatus at a first shared charging power, and the first shared charging power comprises real-time charging power of the first charging apparatus and the corresponding second charging apparatus;
select one or more of the multiple second charging apparatus based on the real-time charging power of the second charging apparatus; and
enable the first link corresponding to each selected second charging apparatus.