Systems for provisioning energy generation and storage systems

• US 10,277,031 B2
• Filed: 02/26/2015
• Issued: 04/30/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tesla Inc.
• Original Assignee: SolarCity Corporation (Tesla Inc.)
• Inventors: Carlson, Eric Daniel, Varadarajan, Karthikeyan
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Thiem
• Application Number:
  US14/633,098
• Publication Number:
  US 20150280437A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,524 Days
• Field of Search: 29825, 29703, 29704, 29707, 29709, 700291, 700275, 700286, 700295, 700297
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/68 Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/02021 for solar cells electrical connection means, e.g. junction boxes, specially adapted for structural association with photovoltaic modules H02S40/34
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00004 characterised by the power network being locally controlled
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00006 characterised by information or instructions transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated power network element or electrical equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/14 The load or loads being home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/28 Arrangements for balancing of the load in a network by storage of energy
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/32 using batteries with converting means
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• 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: Y02E 10/50 Photovoltaic [PV] energy
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/70 Smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the energy generation sector
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/70 Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 10/7072 Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/12 Electric charging stations
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/16 Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: Y02T 90/167 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/123 : the energy generation units being or involving renewable energy sources
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/126 : the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/14 : Energy storage units
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/12 : Energy storage units, uninterruptible power supply [UPS] systems or standby or emergency generators, e.g. in the last power distribution stages
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 : Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/242 : Home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/12 : Remote or cooperative charging
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/12 : characterised by data transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated electrical equipment
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49117 : Conductor or circuit manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/53013 : Computer input

Abstract

Techniques for provisioning energy generation and/or storage systems. In one embodiment, a method is provided that can comprise automatically determining, by a site gateway, information pertaining to one or more components of an energy storage system, where the site gateway and the one or more components are located at a customer site. The method can further comprise configuring, by the site gateway, the energy storage system based on the automatically determined information.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an energy storage system including one or more components located at a customer site; and

a site gateway including a processor, the site gateway communicatively coupled to the energy storage system,

wherein the processor is configured to automatically;

receive, from a remote server, a component database for the energy storage system;

receive, from each component in the one or more components, a component identifier that uniquely identifies the component;

retrieve, from the component database, information for the one or more components by querying the component database using the component identifiers; and

program each of the one or more uniquely identified components for operation at the customer site without manual on-site programming.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein the processor is further configured to program itself to interoperate with the one or more components.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the component identifier received from each component of the one or more components is a model number, a serial number, or a media access control (MAC) address of the component.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the component identifier is received from each component of the one or more components via a wireless link.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the energy storage system comprises an energy generation component to generate energy via photovoltaic (PV) modules and an energy storage component to store energy in a battery device.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the information pertaining to the one or more components includes specifications of the battery device.

7. The system of claim 6 wherein the specifications of the battery device include chemistry, capacity, peak power output, charge limits, or nominal voltage.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the information pertaining to the one or more components includes a number of PV modules and inverters and specifications of each PV module and inverter.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the information pertaining to the one or more components includes a number of battery inverter/chargers and specifications of each battery inverter/charger.