Patent ID: 8886363

Claim:
A power management system for reducing peaks of power demand from an electric grid by a power load in a power supply system having an energy storage system and at least one onsite connected energy source; comprising: a circuit breaker; an energy storage system inverter operative to perform at least one of electrical inversion and charging; and an energy inverter operative to perform at least one of electrical inversion and rectifying, wherein said circuit breaker is connected to said electric grid and at least one of said energy inverter, said energy storage system inverter and said power load, said energy inverter being also connected to said at least one onsite connected energy source, said energy storage system inverter being connected to said at least one onsite connected energy source and to said energy storage system and via said circuit breaker to the power load, wherein said system is configured to charge the energy storage system with power from said at least one onsite connected source and/or said electric grid, and to provide power to said power load or to said grid from said at least one onsite connected energy source or said energy storage system, wherein said system is configured to store energy in the energy storage system and to determine the amount of energy to be stored by performing at least one of the following steps: (a) charging the energy storage system at predetermined times; (b) monitoring the power load taken from the electric grid and, when such power load is detected to fall below a predetermined level, charging the energy storage system; (c) monitoring the power load taken from the electric grid and, when such power load is below the appropriate level as determined by the power management system, charging the energy storage system; and (d) monitoring the remaining capacity level of the energy storage system and, when the remaining capacity of the energy storage system drops below a predetermined level or an appropriate level as determined by the power management system, charging the energy storage system.