Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Motomichi Katou

Shinji Miyauchi

Manabu Takahashi

Hiroshi Nagasato

Masato Kihara

Yoshikazu Tanaka

Yasuhiro Mori

Hiroaki Kaku

Keiichi Sato

Akihito Ootani

Takanori Shimada

Nin Kake

Toru Kushisaka

Hitoshi Oishi

Hidetoshi Takubo

Masashi Fujii

The cogeneration system includes: a cogeneration apparatus which generates electric power using supplied fuel gas and supplies the electric power and heat; a heat accumulator which accumulates the heat supplied by the cogeneration apparatus; a controller which controls at least start and stop of the cogeneration apparatus; and a display unit that displays a remaining power generation duration which is a length of time for which the cogeneration apparatus can continue power generation. The controller further calculates the remaining power generation duration based on a remaining heat accumulation capacity which is a difference between (a) a maximum accumulable heat amount which is the amount of heat the heat accumulator is capable of accumulating and (b) a current accumulated heat amount that is the amount of heat currently accumulated in the heat accumulator, and causes the display unit to display the calculated remaining power generation duration.

Cogeneration system and method for controlling same

A fuel cell system includes a fuel processor; a fuel cell stack; a first water tank; a combustor; a water discharge passage connected to a water drain port formed in the first water tank to discharge the water from inside of the first water tank; a water filling detector configured to detect that at least one of the water drain port and the water discharge passage is filled with water; a water supply unit for supplying the water to the first water tank; and a controller configured to execute a water filling step of supplying the water to the first water, supply the combustible gas to the combustor via the first water tank and cause the combustor to combust the combustible gas, when the water filling detector detects that at least one of the water drain port and the water discharge passage is filled with water.

Fuel cell system and operation method thereof

A fuel cell system () includes: a fuel cell (); a fuel processor () including a reformer () and a CO reducer (); a combustor (); a first air supply device (); an electric heater (); a power supply device (); a power outage detector (); and a controller (). The controller is configured such that, in a power outage state where the power outage detector has detected the power outage before the fuel cell generates electric power, the controller performs at least one of: increasing a supply amount of the combustion air to be greater than in a power supplied state where the power outage detector does not detect the power outage; and decreasing a supply amount of the combustible gas to be less than in the power supplied state, and decreases an amount of heating by the electric heater.

Fuel cell system

A controller in a fuel cell system operates a fuel cell in a normal mode or in a special mode. In the normal mode, the fuel cell is operated to satisfy at least one of a first operation condition and a second operation condition, under the first operation condition an operation time of the fuel cell per unit period is equal to or shorter than a unit allowable operation time, under the second operation condition the number of times of operation of the fuel cell per unit time is equal to or less than a unit allowable number of times of operation, and in the special mode, the fuel cell is operated without being limited by at least one of the first operation condition and the second operation condition.

Fuel cell system and operation method thereof which ensures the system will perform normal operation after operating in a special operation mode

A distributed power supply system is configured to execute a process for determining whether or not to permit a diagnostic process in such a manner that it is determined whether or not a difference between a set upper limit value and an actual measurement current value is not less than a load current value, the set upper limit value being a predetermined upper limit value set with respect to a detected current of a current sensor, the measurement current value being detected by the current sensor in a state where the diagnostic process is not executed, and the load current value being a value of a current flowing from a commercial power utility to a power load during execution of the diagnostic process; and if it is determined that the difference is not less than the load current value, the controller permits the diagnostic process.

Distributed power supply system and control method thereof

Included are: a basic operation plan creating sectionconfigured to create a basic operation plan based on durable years (e.g., 10 years) and a durable operating time (e.g., 40000 hours) of a fuel cell, such that the fuel cellis operated within the range of at least one of a first allowable operating time (e.g., 11 hours) per predetermined unit period (e.g., per day) and the number of durable start-ups (e.g., 4000 times) per predetermined unit period; a special operation plan creating sectionconfigured to create a special operation plan such that the fuel cellis operated within the range of at least one of a second allowable operating time (e.g., 20 hours) per predetermined unit period (e.g., per day) and a second allowable number of start-ups per predetermined unit period, the second allowable operating time being longer than the first allowable operating time, the second allowable number of start-ups being greater than the first allowable number of start-ups; an operation plan selecting sectionconfigured to select one of the basic operation plan and the special operation plan; and a fuel cell operating sectionconfigured to operate the fuel cellbased on the operation plan selected by the operation plan selecting section

Fuel cell operating method and fuel cell system

A power generating system of the present invention includes: a package (); a power generator (); a combustible gas passage (); a first device configured to operate by a first voltage using a DC power generated by the power generator (); a second power supply circuit () configured to generate the DC power of the first voltage; a first connecting unit () arranged between the first device and the second power supply circuit (); a control circuit () configured to control the first device using the DC power of the first voltage; and a first power supply circuit () configured to generate a power of a second voltage higher than the first voltage, and the package () is divided by a dividing wall () into a first space () in which the power generator (), the combustible gas passage (), the first device, the first connecting unit (), and the control circuit () are arranged and a second space () in which the first power supply circuit () and the second power supply circuit () are arranged.

Power generating system

A fuel cell system of the present invention includes: a fuel cell () configured to generate electric power using a fuel gas and an oxidizing gas; an anode off gas channel () through which an anode off gas discharged from an anode () of the fuel cell () flows; a gas-liquid separator () disposed on the anode off gas channel () to separate moisture from the anode off gas, and including a water reservoir () configured to store the separated moisture as water; a temperature detector () configured to detect a temperature of the water reservoir (); and an operation allowing device () configured not to allow an operation of the fuel cell system in a case where the temperature detected by the temperature detector () is equal to or higher than a first threshold that is higher than a standard ambient temperature.

The invention provides a power generation system having a power generator () configured to generate DC power; an electric power load (); a current detector configured to detect a current flowing between a system power supply () and an interconnection point (); and a switch () configured to switch to supply the DC power from the power generator () and AC power which is fed from the system power supply () through the interconnection point (), to the electric power load ().

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Nara, Japan

Motomichi Katou