METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING A GRID CONNECTION POINT USING A TAG

• US 20120109402A1
• Filed: 10/27/2011
• Published: 05/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AES Corporation
• Original Assignee: AES Corporation
• Inventors: Shelton, John Christopher, Zahurancik, John Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,283,857 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/297
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/545 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/0069 relating to the isolation, e.g. ground fault or leak current
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 3/04 Cutting off the power supply under fault conditions protective devices and circuit arrangements in general H01H; H02H
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/16 Connectors, e.g. plugs or sockets, specially adapted for charging electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/18 Cables specially adapted for charging electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/305 Communication interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/31 Charging columns specially adapted for electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/51 Photovoltaic means
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/53 Batteries
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/54 Fuel cells
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/62 in response to charging parameters, e.g. current, voltage or electrical charge
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/63 in response to network capacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/665 Methods related to measuring, billing or payment
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/68 Off-site monitoring or control, e.g. remote control
• 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: B60L 58/12 responding to state of charge [SoC]
• CPC Class Codes: B60W 10/26 for electrical energy, e.g. batteries or capacitors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/40 Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check credit lines or negative lists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 : Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/12 : Accounting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 : Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/005 : dispensed for the electrical charging of vehicles electrical charging as such, B60L50/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/008 : Rewarding for providing delivery of electricity to the network
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/0005 : the elements or equipment being or involving power plugs or sockets
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/00 : The network for supplying or distributing electric power characterised by its spatial reach or by the load
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/22 : The load being a portable electronic device
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 4/00 : Circuit arrangements for mains or distribution networks not specified as ac or dc
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00032 : characterised by data exchange
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00036 : Charger exchanging data with battery
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/00047 : with provisions for charging different types of batteries
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0014 : Circuits for equalisation of charge between batteries
• 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 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/00 : Market activities related to the operation of systems integrating technologies related to power network operation or related to communication or information technologies
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/12 : Billing, invoicing, buying or selling transactions or other related activities, e.g. cost or usage evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/16 : Energy services, e.g. dispersed generation or demand or load or energy savings aggregation

Abstract

An electrical outlet, an electrical outlet cover for use with an electrical outlet and methods of identifying a grid connection point for bill processing of a charging event and managing energy services are disclosed. The electrical outlet cover includes a cover unit having a receptacle opening configured to align with a receptacle of the electric outlet and an identification unit configured to present a unique identification that is associated with the electrical outlet. In an embodiment, a method includes establishing an identity tag at a grid connection point (GCP) that unique identifies the GCP, receiving identity tag information to uniquely identify the GCP and monitoring charge event information indicating attributes of the charging event. The method further includes associating the charge event information with the identity tag information, as associated information; and sending the associated information for reconciliation of billing accounts associated with the GCP and the mobile charging device.

Claims

1. An electrical outlet cover for use with an electrical outlet, comprising:

a cover unit having at least one receptacle opening configured to align with an electrical receptacle of the electric outlet; and

an identification unit configured to present a unique identification that is associated with the electrical outlet.

2. The electrical outlet cover of claim 1, wherein the identification unit is one of a bar code or an RFID tag.

3. The electrical outlet cover of claim 2, wherein the identification unit is retrofit to the electrical outlet cover.

4. The electrical outlet cover of claim 1, wherein the identification unit is embedded in the electrical outlet cover.

5. The electrical outlet cover of claim 1, wherein the identification unit is attached to a surface of the cover unit by one of an adhesive or a fastener which holds the cover unit to the electrical outlet.

6. An electrical outlet, comprising:

a housing having a front opening;

an electrical receptacle mounted in the housing;

a cover having at least one receptacle opening configured to align with the electrical receptacle, the cover configured to close the front opening; and

an identification unit configured to present a unique identification that is associated with the electrical outlet.

7. The electrical outlet of claim 6, wherein the identification unit is one of a bar code or an RFID tag.

8. The electrical outlet of claim 6, wherein the identification unit is embedded in the cover.

9. The electrical outlet of claim 6, wherein the identification unit is attached to a surface of the cover by one of an adhesive coating or a fastener which holds the cover to the electrical outlet.

10. A plug-in vehicle for connection to a charging station having a station connector, comprising:

an electric storage unit for storing electric power from the charging station;

a plug-in vehicle connector configured to connect to the charging station for storage of the electric power in the electric storage unit; and

an identification reader that is coupled to the plug-in vehicle connector for reading a unique identity presented by the charging station.

11. The plug-in vehicle of claim 10, wherein:

the charging station includes an RFID tag and the identification reader includes an RFID reader that is positioned in an operational range of the RFID tag to acquire the unique identifier of the charging station.

12. The plug-in vehicle of claim 11, wherein:

the RFID reader broadcasts a transmission to acquire the unique identifiers of charging stations and each respective charging station receiving the broadcast transmission sends a return transmission indicating a unique identifier of the respective charging station,

the RFID reader includes;

a signal level measurement unit that measures return signal strength of each return transmission from a respective charging station; and

a closest charging station determination unit for determining a closest charging station based on the measured returned signal strength of each return transmission.

13. The plug-in vehicle of claim 11, wherein:

the RFID broadcasts a transmission to acquire the unique identifier of charging stations and each respective charging station receiving the broadcast transmission sends a return transmission indicating a unique identifier of the respective charging station; and

the RFID reader includes a global positioning system for determining a global position of the RFID reader such that the global position of the RFID reader is matched to a closest global position associated with one of the respective charging stations to determine a closest charging station.

14. A charging station used to charge a plug-in vehicle via a plug-in vehicle connector, comprising:

an electrical power source for distributing electric power to the plug-in vehicle;

a power source connector configured to connect to the plug-in vehicle connector for charging the plug-in vehicle; and

an identification tag configured to present a unique identification that is associated with the charging station to the plug-in vehicle.

15. The charging station of claim 14, wherein an operational range of the identification tag is sufficient to acquire the unique identification when the plug-in vehicle is parked in a location for charging of the plug-in vehicle by the charging station.

16. The charging station of claim 14, wherein the identification tag is one or an active RFID tag or a passive RFID tag.

17. An energy storage unit configured to be coupled to a mobile device and to provide power to the mobile device, comprising:

an energy storage device configured to store energy therein;

a coupling unit configured to couple to the energy storage device and to selectively couple to an electric grid to charge or discharge the energy storage device; and

a controller configured to;

control the energy storage device to charge from or discharge to the electric grid when the mobile device is stationary;

determine a level of charging or discharging by energy storage device when the mobile device is stationary; and

report the determined quantity level and a unique identifier of the mobile device.

18. The energy storage unit of claim 17, wherein the energy storage unit and the mobile device are separately owned.

19. An energy storage life cycle prediction system, comprising:

an energy storage telemetry database configured to store a plurality of records, each of the plurality of records including;

an identifier associated with a respective energy storage unit, and

energy storage telemetry information indicating connection event information associated with the respective energy storage unit;

a controller configured to;

receive information from the energy storage telemetry database; and

determine an operational status of the respective energy storage unit based on the corresponding energy storage telemetry data, the operational status data including at least an anticipated time or anticipated time range for failure of the energy storage unit.

20. A method of managing energy services using an energy storage device powering a mobile device, comprising:

powering the mobile device using the energy storage device when the mobile device is moving;

coupling the energy storage device to an electric grid when the mobile device is stationary; and

controlling an operation of the energy storage device;

by a first entity in response to detecting that the mobile device is moving and

by a second entity in response to detecting that the mobile device is stationary; and

controlling an operation of the electric grid by the second entity such that responsive to coupling of the energy storage device to the electric grid, relinquishing, by the first entity, control of the energy storage device to the second entity controlling the electric grid.