Patent ID: 8860396

Claim:
An apparatus for electric power conversion, said apparatus comprising: a converter having a path for a power flow between a first terminal and a second terminal; said converter comprising a regulating circuit on the path for the power flow, said regulating circuit having one or more ports, the regulating circuit including one or more inductors, and one or more switching elements connected to said one or more inductors, said one or more switching elements being controllable to switch between switching configurations, wherein, said regulating circuit is controllable to maintain a current through each of the one or more ports according to currents in the one or more inductors; and said converter further comprising a switching network on the path for the power flow, the switching network having a plurality of ports at least some of said ports being coupled to the one or more ports of the regulating circuit, said switching network including a plurality of charge storage elements, and switching-network switching elements connected to said charge storage elements, said switching-network switching elements being controllable to switch between switch configurations, wherein, in one switch configuration in operation, said switching-network switching elements form a first arrangement of the plurality of charge storage elements in which a first charge storage element of the plurality of charge storage elements is charged at a rate determined by a current through at least a first port of the one or more ports of the regulating circuit and a second charge storage element of the plurality of charge storage elements is discharged at a rate determined by a current through at least a second port of the one or more ports of the regulating circuit, wherein in another switch configuration of the switching-network switching elements in operation, said switching-network switching elements form a second arrangement of charge storage elements in which the first charge storage element is discharged at a rate determined by a current through at least a third port of the one or more ports of the regulating circuit and the second charge storage element is charged at a rate determined by a current through at least a fourth port of the one or more ports of the regulating circuit.