FORWARD-LOOKING TRANSACTIVE PRICING SCHEMES FOR USE IN A MARKET-BASED RESOURCE ALLOCATION SYSTEM

• US 20120278220A1
• Filed: 04/28/2011
• Published: 11/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Original Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Inventors: Chassin, David P., Fuller, Jason C., Pratt, Robert G., Kumar, Nirupama Prakash, Fisher, Andrew R.
• Granted Patent: US 9,245,297 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

Disclosed herein are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for distributing a resource (such as electricity) using a resource allocation system. One of the disclosed embodiments is a method for generating a bid value for purchasing electricity in a market-based resource allocation system. In this embodiment, a desired performance value indicative of a user'"'"'s desired performance level for an electrical device is received. Price information from an electricity futures market is received. A bid value for purchasing electricity from a local resource allocation market sufficient to operate the electrical device at the desired performance level is computed. In this embodiment, the computing is performed based at least in part on the desired performance value and based at least in part on the price information from the electricity futures market.

Claims

1. A method for generating a bid value for purchasing electricity in a market-based resource allocation system, comprising:

receiving a desired performance value indicative of a user'"'"'s desired performance level for an electrical device;

receiving price information from an electricity futures market;

with computing hardware, computing a bid value for purchasing electricity from a local resource allocation market sufficient to operate the electrical device at the desired performance level, the computing being performed based at least in part on the desired performance value and based at least in part on the price information from the electricity futures market; and

transmitting the bid value to a computer that operates the local resource allocation market.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the electricity futures market is a day-ahead electricity market.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises receiving one or more user tolerance values indicative of the user'"'"'s willingness to tolerate variations from the desired performance level, and wherein the computing the bid value is additionally based at least in part on the one or more user tolerance values.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the electrical device is one of an air-conditioning unit, heating unit, hot water heater, or refrigerator;

and

wherein the one or more user tolerance values indicate a lower temperature limit, an upper temperature limit, or both a lower temperature limit and an upper temperature limit.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the price information from the electricity futures market comprises cleared prices from the electricity futures market, and wherein the computing of the bid value is performed using an average of the cleared prices from the electricity futures market and a standard deviation of the cleared prices from the electricity futures market.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising computing the average and the standard deviation with the computing hardware or receiving the average and the standard deviation from a remote source.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing of the bid value is additionally based at least in part on price information from the local resource allocation market.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the computing of the bid value is performed using one or more weighted sums computed from the price information from the electricity futures market and from the price information for the local resource allocation market.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein one or more of the weighted sums are controlled by a variable weighting factor that varies in response to one or more of the time of day or current demand in the local resource allocation market.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the price information from the electricity futures market comprises price information for a fixed window of time from a day-ahead market, and wherein the price information from the local resource allocation market comprises price information for a rolling window of time.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the electricity futures market operates using a longer time interval than the local resource allocation market.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting an indication of a current state of the electrical device and a requested quantity for electricity along with the bid value.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving from the computer that operates the local resource allocation market a an indication of a dispatched value for a current or next upcoming time frame for the local resource allocation market;

comparing the bid value to the dispatched value; and

generating a signal to activate the electrical device based on the comparison.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

computing an expected dispatch value from the dispatched value, one or more earlier dispatched values, and the price information from the electricity futures market; and

adjusting the desired performance value based at least in part on the expected dispatch value.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the electrical device is one of an air-conditioning unit, heating unit, hot water heater, refrigerator, dish washer, washing machine, dryer, oven, microwave oven, pump, home lighting system, electric vehicle charger, or home electrical system.

16. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instruction which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 1.

17. A system comprising memory and a processor programmed to perform the method of claim 1.

18. A method for generating a bid value for purchasing electricity in a market-based resource allocation system, comprising:

receiving an indication of a current status of a system controlled by an electrical device;

receiving dispatched index values from a day-ahead market for electricity;

with computing hardware, computing a bid value for purchasing electricity, the bid value being based at least in part on the indication of the current status of the system and based at least in part on the dispatched index values from the day-ahead market for electricity; and

transmitting the bid value to a computer that operates a local resource allocation market for the electricity.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the method further comprises receiving a user comfort setting selected by a user, the user comfort setting being selected from at least a first user comfort setting and a second user comfort setting, the first user comfort setting indicating the user'"'"'s willingness to pay more to achieve a desired status of the system controlled by the electrical device relative to the second user comfort setting, and wherein the bid value is additionally based at least in part on the user comfort setting.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein the electrical device is a pump and the current status is a measurement of a water level affected by the pump.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein the electrical device is an electric charger for charging a battery, and wherein the current status of the system is the state of charge of the battery.

22. A method for generating a bid value for purchasing electricity in a market-based resource allocation system, comprising:

receiving a user comfort setting selected by a user, the user comfort setting being selected from at least a first user comfort setting and a second user comfort setting, the first user comfort setting indicating the user'"'"'s willingness to pay more to achieve a desired performance level for an electrical device relative to the second user comfort setting;

receiving a cleared price for electricity from a local resource allocation market from which the electrical device receives electricity;

receiving price information from an electricity futures market;

with computing hardware, computing a probability value of operating the electrical device based at least in part on the user comfort setting, the cleared price for electricity from the local resource allocation market, and the price information from the electricity futures market;

generating a random number;

determining whether to operate the electrical device by comparing the random number to the probability value; and

generating a signal for causing the electrical device to operate based on the comparison.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the electricity futures market is a day-ahead electricity market.

24. The method of claim 22, wherein the price information from the electricity futures market comprises cleared prices from the electricity futures market, and wherein the computing of the probability value is performed using an average of the cleared prices from the electricity futures market and a standard deviation of the cleared prices from the electricity futures market.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising computing the average and the standard deviation with the computing hardware or receiving the average and the standard deviation from a remote source.

26. The method of claim 22, wherein the computing of the probability value is performed based at least in part on the price information from the electricity futures market and at least in part on price information from the local resource allocation market.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the computing of the probability value is performed based at least in part on one or more weighted sums computed from the price information from the electricity futures market and from the price information for the local resource allocation market.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein one or more of the weighted sums is controlled by a variable weighting factor.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein the price information from the electricity futures market comprises price information from a fixed window of time from a day-ahead electricity market, and wherein the price information from the local resource allocation market comprises price information for a rolling window of time.

30. The method of claim 22, wherein the electrical device is one of an air-conditioning unit, heating unit, hot water heater, refrigerator, dish washer, washing machine, dryer, oven, microwave oven, pump, home lighting system, electric vehicle charger, or home electrical system.

31. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions for causing a computer to perform the method of claim 22.

32. A system comprising memory and a processor programmed to perform the method of claim 22.

33. A method for generating an offer value for offering to supply electricity in a market-based resource allocation system, comprising:

with computing hardware, computing an offer value indicative of a value at which electricity can be supplied by a generator for a current or next upcoming time frame, the offer value being based at least in part on dispatched index value information from an electricity futures market;

submitting the offer value along with a value indicative of a quantity of electricity that can be supplied by the generator during the current or the next upcoming time frame to the resource allocation system controlled by the resource allocation market; and

receiving from the resource allocation market a dispatched index value for the current or upcoming time frame.

34. The method of claim 33, further comprising:

comparing the dispatched index value to the offer value; and

activating the generator in response to the comparison.

35. The method of claim 33, wherein the electricity futures market is a day-ahead electricity market.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the dispatched index value information comprises cleared prices associated with the electricity futures market, and wherein the computing of the offer value is performed using an average of the cleared prices from the electricity futures market and a standard deviation of the cleared prices from the electricity futures market.

37. The method of claim 36, further comprising computing the average and the standard deviation with the computing hardware or receiving the average and the standard deviation from a remote source.

38. The method of claim 33, wherein the computing of the offer value is performed based at least in part on historical dispatched index values for electricity from the electricity futures market and at least in part on historical dispatched index values from the local resource allocation market.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the computing of the offer value is performed based at least in part on one or more weighted sums computed from the historical dispatched index values from the electricity futures market and the historical dispatched index values from the local resource allocation market.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein one or more of the weighted sums are controlled by a variable weighting factor.

41. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instruction which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 33.

42. A system comprising memory and a processor programmed to perform the method of claim 33.

43. A method of operating a resource allocation system, comprising:

receiving a plurality of requests for electricity from a plurality of end-use electrical devices, wherein each of the requests indicates a requested quantity of electricity, a device-requested index value indicative of a maximum price a respective end-use electrical device will pay for the requested quantity of electricity, and an indication of whether the respective end-use electrical device is currently active;

using computing hardware, computing a responsive load currently experienced in the resource allocation system by summing the requested quantities of electricity from one or more of the electrical devices that also are currently active; and

using the computing hardware, computing an unresponsive load in the resource allocation system by computing a difference between the responsive load and a total load currently experienced by the resource allocation system.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising:

using computing hardware, determining a dispatched index value at which electricity is to be supplied based at least in part on the device-requested index values and the unresponsive load.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the dispatched index value is determined using an auction process, and wherein the method further comprises submitting the unresponsive load as a request for electricity having a requested quantity of electricity and a requested index value, the requested quantity of electricity corresponding to the unresponsive load.

46. The method of claim 44, wherein the requested index value for the unresponsive load is higher than all other requests for electricity.

47. The method of claim 44, wherein the requested index value for the unresponsive load is at a market price cap.

48. The method of claim 44, wherein the method further comprises receiving a plurality of offers for supplying electricity from a plurality of resource suppliers, each of the offers indicating an offered quantity of electricity and a supplier-requested index value indicative of a minimum price for which a respective supplier will produce the offered quantity of electricity, and wherein the determining the dispatched index value is based at least in part on the device-requested index values, the supplier-requested index values, and the unresponsive load.

49. The method of claim 43, wherein the acts of receiving the plurality of requests for electricity, computing the responsive load, and computing the unresponsive load are repeated at periodic intervals.

50. The method of claim 43, further comprising transmitting the dispatched index value to at least one of the end-use electrical devices.

51. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instruction which when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform the method of claim 43.

52. A system comprising memory and a processor programmed to perform the method of claim 43.