WO2012078822A1

WO2012078822A1 - Vehicle charging system integrating multiple charging service providers

Info

Publication number: WO2012078822A1
Application number: PCT/US2011/063851
Authority: WO
Inventors: Brendan O'donnell; Robert Barrosa
Original assignee: Aerovironment, Inc.
Priority date: 2010-12-07
Filing date: 2011-12-07
Publication date: 2012-06-14
Also published as: TWI476599B; TW201237641A

Abstract

A system and method for managing information relating to one or more electric vehicles (EVs) associated with a subscriber who is a member of one or more subscriber networks that provide EV charging services includes associating a plurality of the subscriber networks with a network administrator, and performing an information exchange in which information relating to an EV is delivered from a first subscriber network to a second subscriber network.

Description

VEHICLE CHARGING SYSTEM INTEGRATING

MULTIPLE CHARGING SERVICE PROVIDERS

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0002] The present disclosure relates generally to networks of charging stations for electrical vehicles and the like.

BACKGROUND

[0003] Electric vehicles are gaining popularity among consumers. As a result, charging infrastructures are developing at a rapid pace. Among these infrastructures are networks of charging stations to which operators of electrical vehicles can subscribe in order to facilitate transactions associated with charging of their vehicles. Within the networks, stored subscriber information can be used to improve the subscriber's experience, for example to implement subscriber preferences, speed up payment, and expedite authentication. However, as the number of networks increases, the amount of information that needs to be entered and tracked becomes onerous to users and detracts from the experience and reduces expedience.

OVERVIEW

[0004] As described herein, a method for managing information relating to one or more electric vehicles (EVs) associated with a subscriber who is a member of one or more subscriber networks that provide EV charging services includes associating a plurality of the subscriber networks with a network administrator, and performing an information exchange in which information relating to an EV is delivered from a first subscriber network to a second subscriber network.

[0005] Also described herein is a system for linking a plurality of subscriber networks that are operative to provide charging services to EVs associated with subscribers that are members of one or more of the plurality of subscriber networks. The system includes a network administrator configured to perform an information exchange, between a first subscriber network and a second subscriber network, in connection with an information exchange session between

13709179.1 an EV associated with a subscriber of the first subscriber network and an electric charging station of a second subscriber network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0006] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more examples of embodiments and, together with the description of example embodiments, serve to explain the principles and implementations of the embodiments.

[0007] In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle charging system integrating multiple charging service providers;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a transaction tag;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a charging session in which a vehicle is being charged at a charging station associated with a guest network that is coupled to a base subscriber network; and

FIG. 4 shows an example map of available charging stations and the current rate (for example in real-time) that the electrical charging will cost (or discharging will pay) as displayed in the subscriber interface.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS

[0008] Example embodiments are described herein in the context of a system of computers, servers, and software and networks. Those of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following description is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other embodiments will readily suggest themselves to such skilled persons having the benefit of this disclosure. Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the example

embodiments as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used to the extent possible throughout the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or like items.

[0009] In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features of the implementations described herein are shown and described. It will, of course, be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, numerous implementation-specific decisions

13709179.1 must be made in order to achieve the developer's specific goals, such as compliance with application- and business-related constraints, and that these specific goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one developer to another. Moreover, it will be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.

[0010] In accordance with this disclosure, the components, process steps, and/or data structures described herein may be implemented using various types of operating systems, computing platforms, computer programs, and/or general purpose machines. In addition, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that devices of a less general purpose nature, such as hardwired devices, field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), or the like, may also be used without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventive concepts disclosed herein. Where a method comprising a series of process steps is implemented by a computer or a machine and those process steps can be stored as a series of instructions readable by the machine, they may be stored on a tangible medium such as a computer memory device (e.g., ROM (Read Only Memory), PROM (Programmable Read Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically Eraseable Programmable Read Only Memory), FLASH Memory, Jump Drive, and the like), magnetic storage medium (e.g., tape, magnetic disk drive, and the like), optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, paper card, paper tape and the like) and other types of program memory.

[0011] The term "exemplary" is used exclusively herein to mean "serving as an example, instance or illustration." Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other embodiments.

[0012] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a vehicle charging system 100 integrating multiple charging service providers. System 100 includes m subscriber networks 102 (m is any integer 1-M, and is 3 in this example) coupled to an administrator 104. Each subscriber network 104 represents an electrical charging service provider capable of providing to its members (not shown) access to n charging stations 106 (n is any integer 1-N, and is 3 in this example) for charging or discharging members' electrical vehicles (EV), and or exchanging information therewith. During such a charging session, an indication of the amount or value of the electrical charge involved and/or time spent at the charger is tracked by the subscriber

13709179.1 network(s) involved, as further detailed below. Various metrics can be used to describe the indication, such as for example kilowatt hours (kWhr), time spent at the charger, or a combination of these.

[0013] In one embodiment, each subscriber network 102 maintains an account for each of its members as an adjunct to a member profile. The account contains member information such as member ID and a running balance of the amount of charge, or monetary equivalent, available to the member in a "pre-paid" billing model, or the amount of credit to be extended to the member in a "post-billing" model, and so on. The member accounts and profiles are stored in a subscriber database SDB 110 of the subscriber network. In one embodiment, one or more subscriber networks, for example Subscriber Network M, has an arrangement with one or more billing services 112 with whom members have an established account. Examples of such billing services 112 include a public utility company, a landline telephone service provider, a cellular telephone service provider, a toll road entity, and the like. Such a billing service 112 can maintain the member account associated with the electrical charging service provided by the subscriber network 102, or a portion or copy of the account, and conduct one or more of authenticating, authorizing and accounting procedures. The billing service 112 can interface with the members through normal billing practices and agreements that are already established between the billing service and the member.

[0014] In addition to charging or discharging their electrical vehicles and transacting payment and/or credit for such charging or discharging, access to charging stations 106 enables members to exchange information such as that relating to the vehicle and vehicle battery, the charging station, and one or more subscriber networks 102. Additionally, the information exchanged between the vehicle and the charging stations 106 can include guarantee of origin (GO) information, described in detail below and relating generally to the source of electrical charge involved— for example whether it was sourced from a "clean" power source such as wind or solar, or from a coal-fired plant, and so on. The information gathered can be used to provide data services to an end user. These generally are second order data provided to the user.

Generally, interaction between an EV or EV battery and a charging station, whether for purposes of charging or discharging or exchanging information, can be referred to herein as a charging or discharging session or an information exchange session and can entail any combination of these activities.

13709179.1 [0015] Some or all of the charging stations 106 may be owned and/or managed by the subscriber networks 102, but that association between the charging stations and the networks is to be interpreted loosely, meaning that some or all of the charging stations may alternatively be owned and/or managed by third parties that may or may not be affiliated with the subscriber networks.

[0016] Administrator 104 includes a registration database (RDB) 108. Administrator 104 serves to assign, to each subscriber network 102, a subscriber network-specific "domain" with which are associated database IDs (DBIDs) uniquely associated with that subscriber network. Each domain is also associated with its own set of member IDs that are assigned to individual members of the subscriber network 102. The domains are tracked and managed by the administrator 104, and copies of them are retained in RDB 108 of administrator 104. In a data exchange format or protocol, the domains can take the form of a field (a sequence of bits) that uniquely identifies the subscriber network 102.

[0017] With reference to FIG. 2, a transaction tag 200 is represented, and contains information associated with a particular transaction, for example a charging session or an information exchange session, that is conducted by a member at a charging station 106 at a particular point in time. The format of the transaction tag 200 can take the form of multiple fields populated in binary bits. These fields include a domain field 202, a member ID field 204, and other fields, designated more generally at 206. The other fields 206 can relate to the charge metric (for example, kWhr or time) involved in the charge session, the particular charging station used, the ID of the base and guest subscriber stations, guarantee of origin (GO) information such as the proportion of energy from a clean renewable source or sources, the value of said proportion(s), other data services of value to the members, and so on. It can also include information relating to the type of relationship and specifics of the arrangements between the various subscriber networks 102 (that is, inter-network information), including base and guest subscriber networks, that may be involved.

[0018] The transaction tag 200 can also be stored and tracked by the vehicle and/or vehicle battery. In this manner, knowledge of the nature of the electrical charges and the amount and origin of the charges and energy utilized by the vehicle is maintained and available. One application of such knowledge can be that, based on the fact that a first percentage of the power stored in the vehicle battery is from one renewable source (solar), a second percentage is from

13709179.1 another renewable source (wind), and the balance of the energy stored is from non-renewable sources, the vehicle can be driven to a charging station for discharging its battery back to the utility grid and for the member to be credited based on the proportion of renewable/non- renewable energy sold back to the utility and on the different proportions of the different renewable sources. The renewable energy that is sold back will have a higher value and the member will be credited accordingly. The member can of course select the various proportions during discharging, just as the member can select the various proportions during charging. In addition to the renewable/nonrenewable distinction, time-of-charge and discharge can be tracked, and appropriate fields in the transaction tag 200 can be provided for this purposes. In this manner, the value of an electrical charge that takes place during peak hours can be deducted from a member's account at a higher rate than one that takes place at non-peak hours, while, conversely, a discharge that takes place at peak hours can be credited to a member's account at higher rate than one that takes place at non-peak hours. Similar apportioning of credit and deduction can be made based on geography and on home charging/discharging verses public charging/discharging, and on the nature (renewable vs. non-renewable for example) of the home charging/ discharging.

[0019] As indicated in FIG. 1, the subscriber networks 102 can enter into private arrangements with one another, to enable "roaming" by some or all of their members. In roaming, members of one subscriber network 102 (base network), for example Subscriber Network 2, can employ the services of another subscriber network (guest network), for example Subscriber Network N, and vice versa. In such an example, a member of Subscriber Network 2 is able to use one or more charging stations 106 of Subscriber Network N to charge the member's electrical vehicle EV (not shown).

[0020] When a member of one subscriber network (base network) 102 roams to another subscriber network (guest network), for example to obtain an electrical charge from the guest subscriber network, the member's DBID is used to route back to the base subscriber network. The DBID is identified in the transaction tag 200, which is delivered in whole or in part to the base subscriber network 102. Transactional overhead is then conducted at the base subscriber network, based on member information and profiles stored in database (SDBl-SDBM) 110 at the base subscriber network. Transactional overhead includes authentication, authorization, and accounting of the transaction. The accounting is a function of the information contained in the

13709179.1 transaction tag 200, including depting of the charge metric, guarantee of origin (GO) information and the like. In one embodiment, the fields of the transaction tag include a built-in security application key among participating networks and/or databases thereof.

[0021] With reference to FIG. 3, there is shown schematically a charging session in which a vehicle 300 is being charged at a charging station 302 associated with a guest network that is coupled to a base subscriber network in the manner described above. A transaction tag 200 is shown being transmitted bidirectionally to and from the vehicle 300 and guest and base subscriber networks for storage therein in one or more instantiations. An interactive meter 304 is used to select the proportion of renewable/non-renewable sources for GO purposes, and this information is written into transaction tag 200.

[0022] During a charging session, the database ID (DBID) of a member can be provided by the member by way of a portable storage medium on which the DBID is stored. Examples of these include an RFID tag carried by the member, or a magnetic credit card-type card or the like. In one embodiment, the member can simply use a telephone call to provide the DBID to an operator that can authorize the transaction.

[0023] In one embodiment, a subscriber network 102 (FIG. 1) is provided with an intelligence capability with respect to member accounts. For example, the subscriber network can be initially provided with member preferences, which are entered through a subscriber interface, such as a hosted website reached online through a computer or mobile device by the member of the subscriber network. The member preferences are stored in the member profiles in the subscriber data bases 110, and relate to parameters such as electrical charge limits (the maximum amount of charge the member wants, per transaction or overall), the guarantee-of- origin (GO) information (amount from renewable/non-renewable sources), time-of-charge limits (charge no more than x kWhrs during peak hours), geographical or rate limits (charge at rates considered excessive only enough power to reach home destination), and so on. These member preferences can be entered at initial registration, and/or can be further built up over time by the members or based on the intelligence capability of the subscriber network. To assist the member in selecting the preferences, a map of available charging stations and the current rate (for example in real-time) that the electrical charging will cost (or discharging will pay) can be displayed in the subscriber interface. Such a map, shown schematically in FIG. 4, is dynamic and in real-time, since at any given time a charging station may use different rates, based on

13709179.1 factors such as the sources of the energy it is providing or receiving and even environmental factors such as temperature, on which charge is dependent. The map can also display member vehicle location, based on cellular telephone triangulation information or on GPS or the like.

[0024] In one embodiment, a subscriber network can assume a predictive role using the information it accumulates about its members and/or members of other networks. For instance, with recognition of a particular EV that is for example part of a particular network, and with availability, scheduling, cost and other data provided by the subscriber network database (SDB) 110, new services can be offered. One example is determining and informing the member of how much charge will be needed for a route (which can be a predicted route, based on past charging and discharging information, location information and other history) in view of the distance, and the availability and cost of charging along the predicted route. Moreover, the determination can be network-specific— that is, using charging stations of the specific subscriber network only, which can be the base network or the guest network— or it can be non-specific and factor in charging stations of other networks as well. In addition, predictions can be customized for financial optimization— that is, to minimize cost to the member. Alternatively, they can be customized for guarantee-of-origin (GO) preferences, such as 100 percent renewable, and so forth.

13709179.1

Claims

We claim:

1. A method for managing information relating to one or more electric vehicles (EVs) associated with a subscriber who is a member of one or more subscriber networks that provide EV charging services, the method comprising:

associating a plurality of the subscriber networks with a network administrator; and performing an information exchange in which information relating to an EV is delivered from a first subscriber network to a second subscriber network.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first subscriber network is a base network of the subscriber with whom the EV is associated, and the second subscriber network is a guest network of the subscriber with whom the EV is associated, and the information exchange relates to an information exchange session between the EV and a charging station of the second, guest network.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first subscriber network is a base network of the subscriber with whom the EV is associated, and the second subscriber network is a guest network of the subscriber with whom the EV is associated, and the information exchange relates to an information exchange session between the EV and a charging station of the first, base network.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating at least one subscriber network with a billing service selected from one or more of a public utility company, a telephone service provider, or a toll road entity.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising assigning to each subscriber network a unique domain of database IDs (DBIDs).

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising associating each domain with a set of member IDs that are assigned to individual members of a subscriber network.

13709179.1

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a transaction tag, said information exchange including delivery of said transaction tag.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising populating the transaction tag with information relating to one or more of the EV, EV battery, EV performance, EV battery performance, charging station identification, charging station location, subscriber, subscriber preference, subscriber network, inter- network relationship, guarantee of origin (G), payment information, charging rate, charging amount, charging time, discharging rate, discharging amount, discharging time, and authentication, authorization and accounting.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing one or more instantiations of the transaction tag at one or more of the EV, EV battery, or a database associated with the network administrator and/or a subscriber network.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, in connection with an information exchange session between an EV or EV battery and a charging station, subscriber identification information stored on a portable storage medium or delivered through telephone.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a subscriber interface.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising receiving subscriber preference information through the subscriber interface.

13. The method of claim 11, further comprising displaying a real-time map through the subscriber interface.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the real-time map includes guarantee of origin (GO) information indicative of one or more sources of electrical power at a charging station.

13709179.1

15. A system for linking a plurality of subscriber networks that are operative to provide charging services to EVs associated with subscribers that are members of one or more of the plurality of subscriber networks, the system comprising:

a network administrator configured to perform an information exchange, between a first subscriber network and a second subscriber network, in connection with an information exchange session between an EV associated with a subscriber of the first subscriber network and an electric charging station of a second subscriber network.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising one or more subscriber data bases each associated with a subscriber network and configured to store subscriber information therein.

17. The system of claim 15, further comprising a registration database for storing subscriber information therein.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the network administrator is configured to assign to each subscriber network a unique domain of database IDs (DBIDs).

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the network administrator is further configured to associate each domain with a set of member IDs that are assigned to individual members of a subscriber network.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the network administrator is configured to generate a transaction tag, said information exchange including delivery of said transaction tag.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the transaction tag includes information relating to one or more of the EV, EV battery, EV performance, EV battery performance, charging station identification, charging station location, subscriber, subscriber preference, subscriber network, inter- network relationship, guarantee of origin (G), payment information, charging rate, charging amount, charging time, discharging rate, discharging amount, discharging time, and authentication, authorization and accounting.

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22. The system of claim 15, further including a subscriber interface.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the network administrator is configured to receive subscriber preference information through the subscriber interface.

24. They system of claim 22, wherein the subscriber interface is configured to display a realtime map .

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the real-time map includes guarantee of origin (GO) information indicative of one or more sources of electrical power at a charging station.

13709179.1