Patent ID: 7535118

Claim:
A power supply system for supplying power to a plurality of loads, comprising: a fuel cell for generating DC power: a plurality of connection units, wherein one of said plurality of connection units receives information to decide power consumption of the load from the load when any of the plurality of loads is connected to any of said connection units; a control unit operable to compute the power consumption of the load based on the information received by said connection unit when power supply is requested from another load among the plurality of loads connected to said connection unit, and operable to inform a user of power shortage without supplying power to the load when the power consumption of the load is higher than surplus power of said fuel cell, in a state where power is supplied to at least one of the plurality of loads; transformers operable to transform DC power generated by said fuel cell into a desired voltage; a DC/AC converter operable to convert the DC power generated by said fuel cell into AC power, wherein said DC/AC converter is provided in parallel with said transformers; and DC/AC switching units for selecting whether either of said transformers or said DC/AC converter is to be connected to said connection units, wherein said control unit decides whether the load connected to said connection unit is operated by either of the DC power or the AC power and to control said DC/AC switching unit based on the decided result.