Patent ID: 7173347

Claim:
An apparatus for driving and controlling a plurality of on-vehicle electrical loads, comprising: an on-vehicle power supply configured to generate power to be supplied the loads to each of which a priority is given, the plurality of priorities being used for distributing the generated power to the loads; a power calculating device configured to calculate a currently available amount of the power to be supplied from the power supply; a power-consumption calculating device calculating an amount of necessary power of each load and an amount of minimum necessary power of each load on the basis of information in relation to the vehicle condition, the information including conditions of the loads, the necessary power being defined as a power consumption of each load on condition that there is no limitation in supplying the power to the loads, and the minimum necessary power being defined as a minimum power consumption necessary for performing a function given to each load; a priority changing device configured to change one or more of the priorities on the basis of the information; a command calculating device calculating a command value indicative of an amount of the power to be supplied to the loads by using the priorities, the amount of the necessary power, and the amount of the minimum necessary power on condition that a sum of the power to be supplied to the loads being kept within the currently available amount of the power and the power to be supplied to each load being either zero or more than the minimum necessary power; and a controller configured to control the power to be distributed to each of the loads on the basis of the command value.