Control systems and methods for virtual power plants

• US 20080188955A1
• Filed: 09/29/2006
• Published: 08/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Dittes, Uwe
• Granted Patent: US 7,813,814 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/19
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 17/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2203/20 Simulating, e g planning, reliability check, modelling or computer assisted design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/00 Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/20 Information technology specific aspects, e.g. CAD, simulation, modelling, system security

Abstract

Systems and methods for the control of distributed systems are presented, particularly virtual power plants. Control software therefore communicates through an interface with decentralized devices. Modules are provided to formulate strategies based on predicted demand for the system, for controlling individual system devices, for system evaluation, for accounting purposes and to provide a user interface.

Claims

1. A distributed system control unit, comprising

at least one communications interface;

the at least one communications interface coupled at least indirectly to two modules;

wherein a first of the two modules comprises executable code for controlling at least two geographically distributed devices; and

wherein a second of the two modules comprises executable code for developing a strategy to control the at least two geographically distributed devices.

2. The control unit of claim 1, wherein the distributed system comprises a virtual power plant.

3. The control unit of claim 1, wherein the first of the two modules comprises a separate interface for each of the at least two geographically distributed devices.

4. The control unit of claim 1, further comprising a third module, comprising executable code for evaluating the current state of each of the at least two geographically distributed devices.

5. The control unit of claim 1, wherein the first of the two modules comprises an interface for communication with the second of the two modules.

6. The control unit of claim 5, wherein the second of the two modules comprises an interface for communication with the first of the two modules.

7. The control unit of claim 4, further comprising a fourth module, comprising executable code for accepting system state data and generating thereupon a report of costs and revenue.

8. The control unit of claim 1, further comprising a third module comprising executable code for providing a communications pathway between the first and second of the two modules.

9. The control unit of claim 8, wherein the at least one communications interface coupled at least indirectly to two modules is coupled to the at least two modules via the third module.

10. The control unit of claim 5, wherein the interface for communication with the second of the at least two modules comprises an Application Programming Interface.

11. The control unit of claim 1, wherein the second of the two modules comprises executable code for receiving data relating to the cost to performance function of at least one of the plurality of geographically distributed devices.

12. A method for controlling a plurality of geographically distributed devices, comprising the steps of:

receiving data comprising active status and output of at least one device through a communications interface;

calculating a system state;

calculating, based on the system state and historical data, a predicted demand; and

controlling through the communications interface the at least one device corresponding to the predicted demand.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of receiving data comprising active status and output of at least one device through a communications interface further comprises receiving data representative of the active status of all devices through at least one communication interface.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of calculating based on cost to performance data for each active device a strategy based on the predicted demand.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the strategy comprises data indicating a future active status of each device.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of generating a report based on the system state.

17. The method of claim 12, wherein the step of controlling through the communications interface the at least one device corresponding to the predicted demand comprises controlling each of the plurality of devices through an interface specific to each device type.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one of the plurality of geographically distributed devices is a power generator.

19. A machine readable medium having computer code embedded therein which, when executed causes the machine to perform a method comprising the steps of:

receiving data from a plurality of power generating devices, the data indicating an active state and, if active, an output of each device;

receiving historical data from a database;

calculating a predicted power demand; and

controlling each of the plurality of devices to change a system state if the predicted demand is different than a present system state.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

storing the predicted power demand;

evaluating a previously stored predicted power demand by comparing it against a current system state; and

updating a prediction model based on the comparison.