Smart Charging Technologies for Portable Electronic Devices

S. Hild*, S. Leavey, C. Graf, B. Sorazu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In this article we describe our efforts of extending demand-side control concepts to the application in portable electronic devices, such as laptop computers, mobile phones and tablet computers. As these devices feature built-in energy storage (in the form of batteries) and the ability to run complex control routines, they are well-suited for the implementation of smart charging concepts. We developed simple hardware and software based prototypes of smart charging controllers for a laptop computer that steer the charging process depending on the frequency of the electricity grid and in case of the software implementation also based on the battery charge status. If similar techniques are incorporated into millions of devices in UK households, this can contribute significantly to the stability of the electricity grid, help to mitigate the short-term power production fluctuations from renewable energy sources and avoid the high cost of building and maintaining conventional power plants as standby reserve.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)328-336
Number of pages9
JournalIEEE Transactions on Smart Grid
Volume5
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Demand side control
  • smart charging
  • smart grids

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