TRANSCEIVER AND CHARGING COMPONENT FOR A POWER AGGREGATION SYSTEM

• US 20090040029A1
• Filed: 10/15/2008
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Gridpoint (Twenty First Century Utilities LLC)
• Original Assignee: V2Green, Inc. (Twenty First Century Utilities LLC)
• Inventors: Bridges, Seth W., Pollack, Seth B., Kaplan, David L.
• Application Number:
  US12/252,209
• Publication Number:
  US 20090040029A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/310.110
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/51 Photovoltaic means
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/52 Wind-driven generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/63 in response to network capacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 55/00 Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/026 using a predictor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00007 using the power network as support for the transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/008 involving trading of energy or energy transmission rights
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/322 the battery being on-board an electric or hybrid vehicle, e.g. vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G], power aggregation, use of the battery for network load balancing, coordinated or cooperative battery charging
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/38 Arrangements for parallely feeding a single network by two or more generators, converters or transformers
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007 Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/34 Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other dc sources, e.g. providing buffering H02J7/14 takes precedence
• 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 90/14 : Plug-in electric vehicles
• 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 10/126 : 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 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 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/121 : using the power network as support for the transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/14 : Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/16 : Energy services, e.g. dispersed generation or demand or load or energy savings aggregation

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for a power aggregation system. In one implementation, a system includes a transceiver device physically coupled to an electric resource, the transceiver device being configured to provide information about the electric resource to a charging component. Additionally, such a system may include a charging component, the charging component being coupled to the electric resource via a charging medium and communicatively coupled to the transceiver device. The charging component may also be configured to receive the electric resource information from the transceiver and, in response, effectuate charge control management of the electric resource.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a transceiver device, physically coupled to an electric resource, to provide information about the electric resource; and

a charging component, physically coupled to the electric resource via a charging medium and communicatively coupled to the transceiver device, to receive the information about the electric resource from the transceiver and, in response, effectuate charge control management of the electric resource.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver device is a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag containing an electric resource identifier or a device that connects to a data port of the electric resource.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the charging component is:

an intelligent plug device that is physically connected to the charging medium and an outlet of a power grid,

a charging station, or

another external control system.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the information about the electric resource includes at least one of an electric resource identifier, a state of charge of the electric resource, and/or a time since a last charge.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein effectuating charge control management comprises starting, stopping, or level-setting, by the charging component, a flow of power between a power grid and the electric resource.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the electric resource is a mobile electric vehicle that is connectable to a power grid.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the transceiver device is communicatively coupled to the charging component via the charging medium, a separate conductor, or a wireless connection.

8. A method, comprising:

obtaining information about an electric resource via a data port of the electric resource; and

providing the information to a charging component that is coupled to the electric resource via a charging medium and to a power grid via an outlet of the power grid and is able effectuate charge control management based at least in part on the provided information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the charging component is one of a plurality of geographically dispersed charging components, and the providing includes providing the information to the one of the charging components that the electric resource is coupled to.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising providing security for the information provided to the charging component, the charging component being specifically paired with the transceiver device.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving charging commands from the charging component or flow control server; and

providing the charging commands to the electric resource, the electric resource having charge control management capabilities.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the electric resource is a mobile electric vehicle that is connectable to a power grid and the data port is an OBD-II connector of the electric vehicle.

13. The method of claim 8, wherein the providing comprises providing the information to the charging component via the charging medium, a separate conductor, or a wireless connection.

14. A charging component, comprising:

a computer readable medium having a plurality of programming instructions which, when executed, perform operations including

receiving information about an electric resource that is connectable to the charging component via a charging medium,

providing the information to a flow control server, and

in response, receiving one or more commands from the flow control server to cause the charging component to effectuate charge control management of the electric resource.

15. The charging component of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed, effectuate charge control management based at least in part on the received commands, and the effectuating includes starting, stopping, or level-setting a flow of power between a power grid and the electric resource.

16. The charging component of claim 14, wherein the charging component is portable and may be physically coupled to any of a plurality of power grid outlets and/or charging stations.

17. The charging component of claim 14, wherein the information is entered by a user associated with the electric resource.

18. The charging component of claim 14, wherein the information is entered by the user via swiping a credit card or other identifier of the user through a reader associated with the charging component.

19. The charging component of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed, estimate a state of charge of the electric resource based at least in part on a charging current flowing to the electric resource.

20. The charging component of claim 14, wherein the instructions, when executed, estimate a state of charge of the electric resource based at least in part on a duration of time since the electric resource was last coupled to the charging component via the charging medium.