Policy-based energy management

• US 10,296,987 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2008
• Issued: 05/21/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyndryl Incorporated
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Boss, Gregory J., Doran, James R., Hamilton, II, Rick A., Sand, Anne R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Weisenfeld, Aryan E
• Application Number:
  US12/208,510
• Publication Number:
  US 20100063643A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,904 Days
• Field of Search: 705 11
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

In general, the present invention discloses a policy-based decision system to manage energy consumption within a complex system, such as a municipality, business or home. These policies help to control energy usage, either for the purpose of conservation or to contend with a shortage situation. In general, policies may be set based on business requirements, including energy demand, energy supply, safety, Quality of Service (QoS) settings per object or groupings, convenience, risk analysis output or events. Among other things the approach described herein discloses the following: creation and management of policies; selection of optimal throttling plan to achieve energy conservation requirements; running of simulation scenarios based on different policies and/or reduction requirements; conducting of risk analysis for different scenarios; etc.

Claims

1. A method for policy-based energy management, the method employing at least one computing device programmed to perform the following steps:

automatically discovering, by at least one computer device, each of a plurality of entities and devices in an energy system;

enrolling, by the at least one computer device, the discovered entities and devices hierarchically in a hierarchy in an energy management system;

forming, by the at least one computer device, a hierarchical tree of the hierarchy that reflects connections of the each of the plurality of entities within the energy system;

associating, by the at least one computer device, a set of energy management policies with at least a subset of the entities and devices of the hierarchy in the hierarchical tree;

initiating an energy conservation request; and

traversing, by the at least one computer device, the hierarchy in the hierarchical tree and selecting an optimal energy throttling plan based on the set of policies to satisfy the energy conservation request by first dictating an energy reduction policy that defines an overall energy reduction percentage at a top layer, wherein the top layer determines energy reduction in a set of entities in a layer immediately below the top layer by allocating a non-zero percentage of available energy that is based on the overall energy reduction percentage to a first entity and a different non-zero percentage of available energy that is based on the overall energy reduction percentage to a second entity, each of the set of entities corresponding to a branch of a set of branches in the hierarchy, and then continuing down a series of layers of each of the set of branches of the hierarchy by allocating a percentage of available energy that is based on an energy reduction percentage of a parent entity until end devices at a bottom of the hierarchy have all received energy throttling instructions, and wherein each entity or device at each of the series of layers of each of the set of branches is delegated by a parent entity or device to dictate energy reduction to the entity or device at a next layer below in the series of layers, wherein an energy management policy for a first device of a particular type that is associated hierarchically with one entity is different from an energy management policy of a second device of the particular type that is associated hierarchically with a different entity.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising running a set of simulation scenarios based on the optimal energy throttling plan.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising conducting a risk analysis for the optimal energy throttling plan.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the set of energy management policies based on a desired quality of service.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating the set of energy management policies based on a set of events.

6. The method of claim 1, the set of energy management policies dictating how energy should be apportioned among the entities and the devices within the hierarchy.

7. A computer system operating with a plurality of modules to provide policy-based energy management, the computer system comprising:

a computer processing unit device;

a memory device operably associated with the computer processing unit device;

PCM program storable in the memory device and executable by the computer processing unit device, the PCM program comprising instructions that cause the computer system to;

automatically discover each of a plurality of entities and devices in an energy system;

enroll the discovered entities and devices hierarchically in a hierarchy in an energy management system;

form a hierarchical tree of the hierarchy that reflects connections of the each of the plurality of entities within the energy system;

associate a set of energy management policies with at least a subset of the entities and devices of the hierarchy in the hierarchical tree;

initiate an energy conservation request; and

traverse the hierarchy in the hierarchical tree and select an optimal energy throttling plan based on the set of policies to satisfy the energy conservation request by first dictating an energy reduction policy that defines an overall energy reduction percentage at a top layer, wherein the top layer determines energy reduction in a set of entities in a layer immediately below the top layer by allocating a non-zero percentage of available energy that is based on the overall energy reduction percentage to a first entity and a different non-zero percentage of available energy that is based on the overall energy reduction percentage to a second entity, each of the set of entities corresponding to a branch of a set of branches in the hierarchy, and then continuing down a series of layers of each of the set of branches of the hierarchy by allocating a percentage of available energy that is based on an energy reduction percentage of a parent entity until end devices at a bottom of the hierarchy have all received energy throttling instructions, and wherein each entity or device at each of the series of layers of each of the set of branches is delegated by a parent entity or device to dictate energy reduction to the entity or device at a next layer below in the series of layers, wherein an energy management policy for a first device of a particular type that is associated hierarchically with one entity is different from an energy management policy of a second device of the particular type that is associated hierarchically with a different entity.

8. The computer system of claim 7, the PCM program further comprising instructions that cause the computer system to run a set of simulation scenarios based on the optimal energy throttling plan.

9. The computer system of claim 7, the PCM program further comprising instructions that cause the computer system to conduct a risk analysis for the optimal energy throttling plan.

10. The computer system of claim 7, the PCM program further comprising instructions that cause the computer system to create the set of energy management policies based on a desired quality of service.

11. The computer system of claim 7, the PCM program further comprising instructions that cause the computer system to create the set of energy management policies based on a set of events.

12. The computer system of claim 7, the set of energy management policies dictating how energy should be apportioned among the entities and the devices within the hierarchy.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium containing a program product for policy-based energy management, the computer readable medium comprising a set of program instructions for causing a computer system to:

automatically discover each of a plurality of entities and devices in an energy system;

form a hierarchical tree of the hierarchy that reflects connections of the each of the plurality of entities within the energy system;

enroll the discovered entities and devices hierarchically in a hierarchy in an energy management system;

associate a set of energy management policies with at least a subset of the entities and devices of the hierarchy in the hierarchical tree;

initiate an energy conservation request; and

traverse the hierarchy in the hierarchical tree and select an optimal energy throttling plan based on the set of policies to satisfy the energy conservation request by first dictating an energy reduction policy that defines an overall energy reduction percentage at a top layer, wherein the top layer determines energy reduction in a set of entities in a layer immediately below the top layer by allocating a non-zero percentage of available energy that is based on the overall energy reduction percentage to a first entity and a different non-zero percentage of available energy that is based on the overall energy reduction percentage to a second entity, each of the set of entities corresponding to a branch of a set of branches in the hierarchy, and then continuing down a series of layers of each of the set of branches of the hierarchy by allocating a percentage of available energy that is based on an energy reduction percentage of a parent entity until end devices at a bottom of the hierarchy have all received energy throttling instructions, and wherein each entity or device at each of the series of layers of each of the set of branches is delegated by a parent entity or device to dictate energy reduction to the entity or device at a next layer below in the series of layers, wherein an energy management policy for a first device of a particular type that is associated hierarchically with one entity is different from an energy management policy of a second device of the particular type that is associated hierarchically with a different entity.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium containing the program product of claim 13, the computer readable medium further comprising a set of program instructions for causing the computer system to run a set of simulation scenarios based on the optimal energy throttling plan.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium containing the program product of claim 13, the computer readable medium further comprising a set of program instructions for causing the computer system to conduct a risk analysis for the optimal energy throttling plan.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium containing the program product of claim 13, the computer readable medium further comprising a set of program instructions for causing the computer system to create the set of energy management policies based on a desired quality of service.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium containing the program product of claim 13, the computer readable medium further comprising a set of program instructions for causing the computer system to create the set of energy management policies based on a set of events.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium containing the program product of claim 13, the set of energy management policies dictating how energy should be apportioned among the entities and the devices within the hierarchy.

19. A method for deploying a system for policy-based energy management, comprising:

deploying a computer infrastructure being programmable to perform the following steps;

automatically discovering each of a plurality of entities and devices in an energy system;

enrolling the discovered entities and devices hierarchically in a hierarchy in an energy management system;

forming a hierarchical tree of the hierarchy that reflects connections of the each of the plurality of entities within the energy system;

associating a set of energy management policies with at least a subset of the entities and devices of the hierarchy in the hierarchical tree;

initiating an energy conservation request; and

traversing the hierarchy in the hierarchical tree and selecting an optimal energy throttling plan based on the set of policies to satisfy the energy conservation request by first dictating an energy reduction policy that defines an overall energy reduction percentage at a top layer, wherein the top layer determines energy reduction in a set of entities in a layer immediately below the top layer by allocating a non-zero percentage of available energy that is based on the overall energy reduction percentage to a first entity and a different non-zero percentage of available energy that is based on the overall energy reduction percentage to a second entity, each of the set of entities corresponding to a branch of a set of branches in the hierarchy, and then continuing down a series of layers of each of the set of branches of the hierarchy by allocating a percentage of available energy that is based on an energy reduction percentage of a parent entity until end devices at a bottom of the hierarchy have all received energy throttling instructions, and wherein each entity or device at each of the series of layers of each of the set of branches is delegated by a parent entity or device to dictate energy reduction to the entity or device at a next layer below in the series of layers, wherein an energy management policy for a first device of a particular type that is associated hierarchically with one entity is different from an energy management policy of a second device of the particular type that is associated hierarchically with a different entity.

20. The method of claim 19, the computer infrastructure further programmable to perform the step of running a set of simulation scenarios based on the optimal energy throttling plan.