Patent ID: 7990101

Claim:
An energy delivery system, comprising: a plurality of strings, each string in the plurality comprising, (i) two or more energy delivery modules electrically coupled in series, wherein each energy delivery module includes one or more energy delivery devices for storing and delivering electric current, and a module monitor for monitoring and controlling each of the energy delivery devices in the energy delivery module, and (ii) a string communication path accessible to each of the energy delivery modules, wherein the module monitor of each energy delivery module is operable to communicate information associated with its energy delivery module through the string communication path; a plurality of string manager devices for communicating with the module monitors in the strings through the string communication paths, each string manager device being respectively associated with a different string of the plurality of strings, wherein each string manager device is configured to independently communicate with the module monitors by sending an address specific message to the module monitors along its string communication path, such that a response is given by the module monitor that corresponds to the address specific message sent by the string manager device; and a system controller for communicating with each string manager device through a system communication path.