Patent ID: 8442698

Claim:
An energy management system, comprising: a first port configured for bidirectional flow of energy and connected to an energy storage device; a second port configured for unidirectional flow of energy and connected to an energy source device; a third port configured for bidirectional flow of energy and connected to a utility grid; and a unified control system wherein the unified control system comprises control logic configured to operate in a generation mode, a recovery mode, and an emergency/UPS mode and operable to simultaneously control energy flow between the first, second, and third ports based on at least two factors from a group consisting of: a state of charge of the energy storage device, a state of the energy source device, and a state of the utility grid, and wherein the emergency/UPS mode comprises energy transfer from the energy source device and the energy storage device to a power load or the utility grid when the state of charge of the energy storage device is less than 90% and a load power demand is greater than a maximum state of charge of the energy storage device plus the state of the energy source device.