METHOD FOR LOAD CONTROL USING TEMPORAL MEASUREMENTS OF ENERGY FOR INDIVIDUAL PIECES OF EQUIPMENT
First Claim
1. In an electrical distribution system by which a utility supplies electricity to one or more pieces of equipment at each utility'"'"'s customer'"'"'s location, each piece of equipment placing an electrical load on the system when it is operating, a method of shedding electrical load placed on the system comprising:
- connecting at least one piece of equipment at a location to a load control apparatus;
profiling by the load control apparatus, on a temporal basis, the electricity usage of the piece of equipment, said profiling being characterized not by the amount of energy consumed by the piece of equipment during a defined interval of time, but rather by the duration of time during successive predetermined intervals of time the piece of equipment was energized or de-energized; and
,when a load control event occurs in which load on the system must be shed, shedding load by the load control apparatus as a function of the profile created for the piece of equipment thereby to prevent system instability or overload, and to control operating costs of the system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A method for load control in an electrical distribution system using energy usage profiles based on temporal measurements. A load control unit (10) installed at a customer site profiles equipment (E1-En) directly connected to the load control unit and remotely located equipment (RE1-REn) wirelessly connected to the load control unit using measurements of time rather than energy usage. This reduces the cost and complexity of the load control unit. Profiling is done for individual pieces of load controlled equipment rather than for the site as a whole. This improves data resolution. The load control unit controls the load only when the equipment is powered, and adaptively synchronizes load shedding during this time, so to improve local load control performance. Termination of a load control event results in gradual reduction in load shedding so to control the inrush of demand seen by the distribution system. Performance metrics related to the load control are provided to the utility such that complexity of the system is reduced through decreased computations.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. In an electrical distribution system by which a utility supplies electricity to one or more pieces of equipment at each utility'"'"'s customer'"'"'s location, each piece of equipment placing an electrical load on the system when it is operating, a method of shedding electrical load placed on the system comprising:
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connecting at least one piece of equipment at a location to a load control apparatus; profiling by the load control apparatus, on a temporal basis, the electricity usage of the piece of equipment, said profiling being characterized not by the amount of energy consumed by the piece of equipment during a defined interval of time, but rather by the duration of time during successive predetermined intervals of time the piece of equipment was energized or de-energized; and
,when a load control event occurs in which load on the system must be shed, shedding load by the load control apparatus as a function of the profile created for the piece of equipment thereby to prevent system instability or overload, and to control operating costs of the system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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31. In an electrical distribution system by which a utility supplies electricity to one or more pieces of equipment at each utility'"'"'s customer'"'"'s location, each piece of equipment placing an electrical load on the system when it is operating, a load control apparatus connected to the pieces of equipment and controlling the shedding of electrical load placed on the system by the respective pieces of equipment comprising:
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a power sensor connected to each piece of equipment and sensing when electricity is being supplied to that piece of equipment; a load control logic unit responsive to inputs from the sensor for profiling, on a temporal basis, the electricity usage of the piece of equipment, said profiling being characterized not by the amount of energy consumed by the piece of equipment during a defined interval of time, but rather by the duration of time during successive predetermined intervals of time the piece of equipment was energized or de-energized; and
,a load control switch for shutting off electricity to each piece of equipment during occurrence of a load control event in which load on the system must be shed, the load control apparatus shedding load as a function of the energization profiles created for each piece of equipment thereby to prevent system instability or overload, and to control operating costs of the system. - View Dependent Claims (32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. In an electrical distribution system by which a utility supplies electricity to one or more pieces of equipment at each utility'"'"'s customer'"'"'s location, each piece of equipment placing an electrical load on the system when it is operating, a method of controlling operation of the equipment throughout a load control event so to effectively manage the total load placed on the distribution system throughout the event comprising:
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providing load control apparatus communicating load control commands to each piece of load control equipment, the apparatus being directly connected to a piece of equipment located proximate to the apparatus or communicating with a piece of equipment located remotely from the apparatus over a communications link; profiling by the load control apparatus the electricity usage of the piece of equipment, the profile being temporally based and continuously updated to reflect recent usage of the equipment, said profiling being characterized not by the amount of energy consumed by the piece of equipment during a defined interval of time, but rather by the duration of time during successive predetermined intervals of time the piece of equipment was energized or de-energized; and
,when a load control event occurs in which load on the distribution system must be shed, shedding load by the load control apparatus as a function of the energization profile created for the piece of equipment and restoring the load at the end of the event, the shedding and restoring of load including selectively controlling each piece of equipment to stagger the shedding of load by the equipment at the beginning of the event and to stagger the restoring of the equipment load at the end of the event thereby to facilitate a smooth transition into and out of load control so as to provide system stability throughout the event.
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Specification