Automated demand response system

• US 10,110,002 B2
• Filed: 01/06/2016
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Industry Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Industry Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Inventors: Imhof, Raphael, Songkakul, Pornsak, Marchi, Michael J., Rule, Thomas, Hiller, Paula, Ersch, Florian
• Primary Examiner(s): Diallo, Mamadou
• Application Number:
  US14/989,393
• Publication Number:
  US 20160118790A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,021 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/00 Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks

Abstract

A system and method for reducing an electrical load in a facility with a building automation system, includes first receiving information for a demand response event from an automated demand response server at an automated demand response client. After receipt of a new demand response event, the system determines a plurality of devices of the building automation system to be controlled during the demand response event. Next, the system prepares a schedule of control actions for the plurality of devices during the demand response event. The system then sends control messages to the building automation system to execute the control actions for the plurality of devices according to the schedule of control actions for the demand response event.

Claims

1. A method of reducing an electrical load in a facility with a building automation system, the method comprising:

receiving a demand response message related to a demand response event via a computer connected to a network, the demand response message identifying at least one demand response mode indicating at least a first level of load reduction for the demand response event;

responsive to receiving the demand response message, automatically generating a schedule of a plurality of control actions for at least one device for execution in association with the demand response event, wherein automatically generating the schedule includes identifying the at least one device of the building automation system to be controlled during the demand response event based on an association between the at least one device and the first level of load reduction indicated by the at least one demand response mode for the demand response event; and

sending control messages to the building automation system to execute the control actions for the at least one device according to the schedule of control actions for the demand response event.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing in memory predefined relationships of control strategies for a plurality of devices of the building automation system for each of a plurality of levels of load reduction; and

wherein automatically generating the schedule of a plurality of control actions further comprises automatically generating the schedule based at least in part on the stored predefined relationships.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the predefined relationships include an association between a first control strategy for the at least one device and the first level of load reduction, and an association between a second control strategy for the at least one device and a second level of load reduction of plurality of levels of load reduction.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the demand response message includes identifies at least a first demand response mode indicating the first level of load reduction, and a second demand response mode indicating a second level of load reduction.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein:

the demand response message includes information identifying a first start time and first stop time for the first demand response mode, and a second start time and second stop time for the second demand response mode; and

wherein automatically generating the schedule of the plurality of control actions includes automatically generating the schedule of the plurality of control actions based on the first start time, the first stop time, the second start time, and the second stop time.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one demand response mode includes a first demand response mode and a second demand response mode, each specified in the demand response message and associated with a respective start and end time, the at least one device is a single device, the method further comprising:

prior to receiving the demand response message, associating the single device with a first of the control actions predefined to occur during a first control period starting after the end of the first demand response mode and with a second of the control actions predefined to occur during a second control period starting before the start of the second demand response mode; and

after receiving the demand response message, determining that the first control action conflicts with the second control action based on the first control period overlapping with the second control period.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

prior to receiving the demand response message, associating each demand response mode with a plurality of time references, each combination of demand response mode and associated time reference being indicative of one of a plurality of demand response control periods, the first and second control periods each being one of the demand response control periods;

storing in memory a respective priority assigned to each combination of demand response mode and associated time reference; and

resolving the conflict between the first control action and the second control action based on the priority assigned to the combination of the first demand response mode and the associated time reference that is indicative of the first control period, and the priority assigned to the combination of the second demand response mode and the associated time reference that is indicative of the second control period.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the demand response message is received from a demand response automated server at an automated demand response client associated with the building automation system.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one device includes a plurality of devices, and wherein the automated demand response client is configured to determine the plurality of devices of the building automation system to be controlled during the demand response event, prepare the schedule of control actions, and send control messages to the building automation system to execute the control actions.

10. A method of reducing an electrical load in a facility with a building automation system, the method comprising:

receiving a demand response message related to a demand response event via a computer connected to a network, the demand response message identifying at least one demand response mode indicating a start time and an end time for the at least one demand response mode for the demand response event;

automatically generating a schedule of a plurality of control actions for at least one device for execution in association with the demand response event, wherein the control actions in the schedule are associated with a plurality of demand response control periods, wherein the plurality of demand response control periods include a first demand response control period occurring before the start time of the at least one demand response mode, a second demand response control period occurring between the start time and the end time, and a third demand response control period occurring after the end time of the at least one demand response mode; and

sending control messages to the building automation system to execute the control actions for the at least one device according to the schedule of control actions for the demand response event.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the first demand response control period occurs before the demand response event.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the third demand response control period occurs after the demand response event.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein:

the at least one demand response mode includes a first demand response mode and a second demand response mode each specified in the demand response message; and

wherein automatically generating a schedule of a plurality of control actions includes scheduling control actions for the first demand response mode and the second demand response mode in at least the second demand response control period.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising displaying on a graphical user interface a graph showing demand response events and a plurality of demand response modes associated with the demand response events during a selected period of time.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the graph shows the demand response events and demand response modes as a step function graph, and wherein graph is color coded in association with the plurality of demand response modes.

16. A system for reducing the electrical load in a building, the system comprising:

a building automation system (BAS) including a plurality of field panels configured to deliver control instructions to a plurality of devices in the building;

at least one memory storing predefined relationships of control strategies for a plurality of devices of the building automation system for each of a plurality of demand response modes; and

an automated demand response client configured to receive a message concerning a demand response event from an automated demand response server, the message including information concerning at least one demand response mode for the demand response event, the automated demand response client including,

a scheduler component configured to generate a schedule of control actions for at least one device of the plurality of devices during the demand response event, wherein generation of the schedule of control actions is based at least in part on the at least one demand response mode and the predefined relationships stored in the at least one memory, and

a BAS communications component configured to deliver the control actions of the schedule for the at least one device to the plurality of BAS field panels according to the schedule.

17. The system of claim 16 wherein the predefined relationships stored in the at least one memory include an association between a first control strategy for the at least one device and the first demand response mode, and an association between a second control strategy for the at least one device and a second demand response mode.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein each of the demand response modes corresponds to one of a plurality of load reduction levels for the building.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein:

the message includes information identifying at least a first demand response mode and a second demand response mode of the demand response event.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein:

the at least one demand response mode includes a first demand response mode and a second demand response mode each specified in the demand response message and associated with a respective start and end time;

the at least one device is a single device;

prior to receiving the demand response message, the automated demand response client is configured to associate the single device with a first of the control actions predefined to occur during a first control period starting after the end of the first demand response mode and with a second of the control actions predefined to occur during a second control period starting before the start of the second demand response mode; and

after receiving the demand response message, the automated demand response client is configured to determine that the first control action conflicts with the second control action based on the first control period overlapping with the second control period.