Patent ID: 8614024

Claim:
A power supply apparatus comprising: a combined power source composed of a plurality of power cells configured electrically independently; a switch connected to the combined power source and configured to arbitrarily change connection paths of the respective power cells by selectively connecting terminals of the plurality of power cells through switching elements; a voltage detector configured to detect differences in electrical potentials between the terminals of the plurality of power cells; an output detector configured to detect a power consumption in a load and/or an output power of the combined power source; and a controller configured to (a) control ON-OFF states of the switching elements by controlling the switch by a control signal generated based on voltage signals representing the differences in electrical potentials detected by the voltage detector, a power consumption of the load, and an output power of the combined power source, and (b) control a connection status of each of the power cells via the switch so as to halt outputting of the power cell having the lowest output voltage or halt outputting of the plurality of power cells in order of increasing output voltage, when a continuous outputting time of any of the power cells becomes a predetermined time or longer, if it has been detected that a power value detected by the output detector is equal to or lower than an output power preset based on a power generating capacity of the combined power source, the predetermined time being preset in a timer of the controller based on changes over time in output characteristics of the combined power source due to continuous power generation of the power cells.