Management of computing devices using modulated electricity

• US 10,234,835 B2
• Filed: 03/30/2015
• Issued: 03/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Liu, Jie, Janous, Brian, McKnight, Gregory Joseph, James, Sean, Bianchini, Ricardo
• Primary Examiner(s): Fureman, Jarede
• Assistant Examiner(s): Barnett, Joel
• Application Number:
  US14/673,829
• Publication Number:
  US 20160011575A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,450 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/02 using a single network for simultaneous distribution of power at different frequencies; using a single network for simultaneous distribution of ac power and of dc power
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/00 Management or operation of end-user stationary applications or the last stages of power distribution; Controlling, monitoring or operating thereof
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving

Abstract

This document relates to management of computing devices using modulated electricity. One example includes assigning a set of time slices to a computing device for drawing electricity and subsequently causing the computing device to adjust consumption of the electricity by assigning a different set of time slices to the computing device.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a filter configured to;

receive mixed-frequency electricity having green electricity generated by a renewable power source mixed with brown electricity generated by a carbon fuel source, the green electricity being modulated at a first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity being modulated at a second alternating current frequency, and

attenuate the second alternating current frequency of the mixed-frequency electricity to obtain filtered green electricity that is predominantly of the first alternating current frequency; and

a computing device confiqured to designate computing jobs powered by the filtered green electricity as green computing jobs and other computing jobs powered by the brown electricity as brown computing jobs.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a second filter configured to;

receive the mixed-frequency electricity having the green electricity modulated at the first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity modulated at the second alternating current frequency, and

attenuate the first alternating current frequency of the mixed-frequency electricity to obtain filtered brown electricity that is predominantly of the second alternating current frequency, the filtered brown electricity being used to power the brown computing jobs.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising:

a first server powered by the filtered green electricity and configured to run the green computing jobs; and

a second server powered by the filtered brown electricity and configured to run the brown computing jobs.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the computing device is further configured to:

send an instruction to the first server to reduce consumption of the filtered green electricity while allowing the second server to continue uncapped consumption of the filtered brown electricity.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the computing device is configured to:

send an instruction to a switch, the instruction causing the switch to open and prevent the filtered green electricity from reaching the first server.

6. The system of claim 2, further comprising a meter configured to separately meter usage of the filtered green electricity and the filtered brown electricity.

7. The system of claim 2, the renewable power source being a local renewable power source, the system further comprising:

electrical hardware configured to modulate the green electricity generated by the local renewable power source into the first alternating current frequency.

8. The system of claim 7, further comprising an electrical line carrying the green electricity at the first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity at the second alternating current frequency, the brown electricity being provided by an electrical grid.

9. A system comprising:

an electrical line carrying modulated electricity having green electricity produced by a green power source and brown electricity produced by a brown power source modulated at different alternating current frequencies, the green electricity being modulated at a first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity being modulated at a second alternating current frequency;

a filter configured to attenuate the second alternating current frequency to obtain filtered green electricity;

a rectifier configured to convert the filtered green electricity into direct current; and

a computing device configured to run green computing jobs powered by the direct current.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a battery charqeable by the rectifier, the computing device drawing the direct current from the battery.

11. The system of claim 9, the computing device being configured to draw the direct current from the rectifier.

12. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

a second filter configured to attenuate the first alternating current frequency to obtain filtered brown electricity;

a second rectifier configured to convert the filtered brown electricity into second direct current; and

a second computing device configured to run brown computing jobs powered by the second direct current.

13. A method comprising:

obtaining mixed-frequency electricity having green electricity produced by a renewable power source and brown electricity produced by a fossil fuel power source modulated at different alternating current frequencies, the green electricity being modulated at a first alternating current frequency and the brown electricity being modulated at a second alternating current frequency;

attenuating the second alternating current frequency of the mixed-frequency electricity to obtain filtered green electricity that is predominantly of the first alternating current frequency; and

powering green jobs on a computing device using the filtered green electricity.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

rectifying the filtered green electricity to provide green direct current; and

powering the computing device using the green direct current.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

attenuating the first alternating current frequency to obtain filtered brown electricity that is predominantly of the second alternating current frequency; and

powering brown computing jobs on a second computing device using the filtered brown electricity.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

rectifying the filtered brown electricity to provide brown direct current; and

powering the second computing device using the brown direct current.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

charging a first battery with the green direct current;

charging a second battery with the brown direct current;

powering the computing device with the first battery; and

powering the second computing device with the second battery.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving an instruction to stop drawing green electricity; and

responsive to the instruction, causing the computing device to stop drawing the filtered green electricity.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

generating the green electricity with a renewable energy generator that produces green direct current; and

inverting the green direct current into the first alternating current frequency.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising:

mixing the green electricity at the first alternating current frequency with the brown electricity at the second alternating current frequency.