A portable power station (PPS) unit includes a controller that receives AC current information of AC input current at an AC input port and produces a control signal that is used to control the PPS unit to operate as a voltage source or a current source, and to control an AC output current at substantially the same magnitude, frequency, and phase as the AC input current. A PPS apparatus includes two or more PPS units connected together such that the AC output power of one PPS unit is connected to the AC input port of a next PPS unit; wherein a first PPS unit is a voltage source and each of the second or more PPS units is a current source, and a total AC output power of the PPS apparatus is substantially a sum of the AC output power produced by the two or more PPS units.

A photovoltaic power generation plant includes a plurality of photovoltaic generators cooperative in producing photovoltaic power. Coupled with the photovoltaic generators in the plurality of photovoltaic generators are respective sensor devices, the sensor devices including sensor circuits of the individual current-to-voltage characteristics of the photovoltaic generators. The sensor circuits in the sensor devices can be activated to sense the individual current-to-voltage characteristics of the photovoltaic generators, with the individual current-to-voltage characteristic being indicative of the functionality of each photovoltaic generator.

A slave battery management system (BMS) for communicating with a master battery management system (BMS) of a vehicle, in one example includes a power supply configured to receive power from a battery module and transmit the received power, a state measurement sensor configured to measure state information of at least one of a voltage and a temperature of the battery module, a communicator configured to transmit and receive communication signal to and from the master BMS, and a controller programmed to control an on/off time of the communicator. Further, the power supply of the slave BMS includes a power supply unit and a switching unit disposed between the power supply unit and the controller.

Various embodiments of kiosks for purchasing mobile phones and other mobile electronic devices from users are disclosed herein. In some embodiments, the kiosks include an apparatus to turn a mobile phone over on an inspection surface. This apparatus can enable the kiosk to visually inspect both the front and back sides of the mobile device on the inspection surface with an inspection system (e.g., imaging devices, lighting devices, etc.) positioned above the inspection surface, and can eliminate the need to position a second inspection system below a transparent inspection surface to visually inspect, e.g., the back side of the mobile device through the transparent inspection surface. In some embodiments, the kiosk also includes a wireless mobile phone charging device that can be used for, e.g., phone charging and identification.

A system of modules which control and measure energy usage at a building which are in communication with a software program executing on a remote server controlled by a third party. The third party said usage via the software program which communicates with the modules to modify energy usage and demand for energy and is responsible or liable for energy usage charges the building where the third party does not actually use the energy.

A wireless control system for a household appliance is provided. The wireless control system for a household appliance includes an electronic housing. The electronic housing is dimensioned to and designed to be secured within a household appliance. The electronic housing includes a power kill switch. The power kill switch is connected to a power supply of the household appliance in a manner that enables the power supply of the household appliance to be enabled and disabled. The power kill switch is also connected to a wireless signal transceiver. The wireless signal transceiver is designed to receive activation and deactivation signals.

Techniques for forecasting solar power generation include a computing device determining a clear-sky solar power generation level for a photovoltaic installation; receiving, from a first measurement device, measurement data indicating an amount of cloud cover at a first location of the first measurement device, wherein the first measurement device and the photovoltaic installation are located in a same geographical area; and generating a solar power generation forecast for the photovoltaic installation based on the clear-sky solar power generation level and the measurement data.

A circuit breaker comprises a solid-state bidirectional switch, a switch control circuit, current and voltage sensors, and a processor. The solid-state bidirectional switch is connected between a line input terminal and a load output terminal of the circuit breaker, and configured to be placed in a switched-on state and a switched-off state. The switch control circuit control operation of the bidirectional switch. The current sensor is configured to sense a magnitude of current flowing in an electrical path between the line input and load output terminals and generate a current sense signal. The voltage sensor is configured to sense a magnitude of voltage on the electrical path and generate a voltage sense signal. The processor is configured to process the current and voltage sense signals to determine operational status information of the circuit breaker, a fault event, and power usage information of a load connected to the load output terminal.

In a method for monitoring an electrical energy transmission device, time-resolved operating state data, environmental state data, and/or sensor sensor data are recorded. The operating state data relate to current, past and/or future operating states of the electrical energy transmission device; the environmental state data relate to current, past, and/or future states in an environment of the electrical energy transmission device; the sensor data are detected by at least one sensor of the electrical energy transmission device. The operating state data, the environmental data, and/or the sensor data are processed with a computational model to calculate a temperature curve of current, past and/or future temperatures of at least one module of the electrical energy transmission device. Based on the calculated temperature curve, a thermal load capacity of the module is determined based on a thermal load threshold for the module.

A battery-centric virtual grid system may include battery modules, each including: one or more battery cells, one or more processors that obtain performance information from the one or more battery cells, the one or more processors configured to identify a respective device being powered by the respective modules from the plurality based on the respective performance information and to determine characteristics of the respective device being powered by the respective module from the plurality based on the performance information or configured to receive data from the respective device powered by the module from the plurality, the one or more transceivers configured to remotely receive and transmit data, thus the respective device becoming part of an IOT network via the respective module, and an enclosure at least partially enclosing the one or more battery cells, the one or more module processors, and the one or more transceivers.