| 摘要 |
An electrical energy storage device comprises a plurality of energy cell slots for receiving energy cells 20 and a controller that estimates a characteristic of a cell in each slot and applies charge and discharge currents to each cell slot dependent upon the estimated characteristic currently associated with that slot. There may be a controller for each slot that can estimate the type of storage device in each slot. There may be a single controller for all slots or multiple controllers each controlling one or more slot. The storage devices in the cell slots may be supercapacitors or rechargeable batteries of different capacities. Each cell slot may have a bi-directional DC to DC converter 30 controlled by the controller. The controller can: estimate characteristics periodically, or after a charge or a discharge phase; perform a charge/discharge cycle on startup; store a history of estimates; and control currents as a function of stored characteristics. Estimation of cell characteristics such as: power capability; storage capacity; cell impedance; energy cell type and cell chemistry allows the charging/discharging currents applied to each cell to be optimised. |
