Nec Energy Solutions, Inc.

Ron Amit

Yevgeny Maltsev

Gregory Tremelling

Oleg Kerbel

In an embodiment, an energy storage system includes one or more storage cells, charge/discharge circuitry, and charger wakeup circuitry. After the storage cells become depleted below an energy level threshold, the charge/discharge circuitry disconnects the storage cells from a main circuit associated with the storage system. The charger wakeup circuitry allows a limited amount of current to bypass the charge/discharge circuitry in order to present a current-limited voltage from the storage cells at the terminals. The voltage presented at the terminals is pulsed on and off when an external device is connected across the terminals. The voltage presented to the terminals is detected by the external device. After detecting the voltage, the external device performs an operation in response to detecting the condition.

Energy storage system charger wake-up

According to example configurations herein, a clamp circuit includes: i) a power dissipation circuit disposed between a first node and a second node of the clamp circuit, and ii) a capacitive element disposed in a control path between the first node and a control input of the power dissipation circuit. During operation, when a voltage spike occurs at the first node, such as caused by opening of a respective switch, the capacitive element in the control path conveys a portion of energy from the first node to control activation of the power dissipation circuit. That is, during the voltage spike, based on conveyance of the energy over the control path, the power dissipation circuit turns ON to dissipate the transient voltage, protecting a main power switch.

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Newton, MA, United States of America

Ron Amit