US Patent 9444275 Intelligent integrated battery module

An energy storage system is provided. The system includes a plurality of energy storage modules connected in parallel. Each energy storage module has an energy storage source, a bidirectional current converter configured for supplying charge to the energy storage source from a power source and for discharging current for use by an electrical device, a monitoring module for monitoring the energy storage source and the current converter, and a controller configured to control the current converter based upon monitored characteristics of the storage source and the current converter to produce a respective output signal for each module. A communications module is in connection with each output signal of the energy storage modules and configured for communicating a combined output signal with one of the power source and the electrical device.