DEMAND RESPONSE SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20130159052A1
• Filed: 08/21/2012
• Published: 06/20/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KT Corporation
• Original Assignee: KT Corporation
• Inventors: SEO, Ho-Seok, KIM, Yoon-Kee
• Granted Patent: US 10,311,387 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.31
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

A demand response system and method. The demand response system includes a power rate reception unit for receiving information about charge rates for a unit of power from an external power trading server. An amount-of-power used reception unit receives information about amounts of power used by a customer from a gateway, a first data generation unit which generates first data including information about charge rates for a unit of power for respective time spans, a second data generation unit which generates second data including information about amounts of power used by the customer for the respective time spans, and a third data generation unit which generates third data including information about index power charges for the customer for the respective time spans.

Claims

1. A demand response method comprising:

generating first data comprising information about charge rates for a unit of power for respective time spans;

generating second data comprising information about amounts of power used for the respective time spans; and

generating third data comprising information about index power charges for the respective time spans calculated based on the first data and the second data.

2. The demand response method according to claim 1, further comprising dividing the third data into a plurality of index sections.

3. The demand response method according to claim 2, further comprising calculating real-time charges for the power used by a customer by multiplying real-time charge rates for the unit of power by real-time amounts of power used by the customer.

4. The demand response method according to claim 3, further comprising generating a Demand Response (DR) signal when use of the power is in an index section of the plurality of index sections in which each real-time charge for the power is present.

5. The demand response method according to claim 4, further comprising controlling an electric home appliance in response to receiving the generated DR signal.

6. The demand response method according to claim 1, wherein the first data is a set of charge rates for the unit of power for the respective time spans, which have been obtained during a specific period of time.

7. The demand response method according to claim 1, wherein the first data is an average of charge rates for the unit of power for each identical time span that is repeated during a predetermined period of time.

8. The demand response method according to claim 1, wherein the second data is a set of amounts of power used by a customer for the respective time spans, which have been obtained during a specific period of time.

9. The demand response method according to claim 1, wherein the second data is a customer baseline load which is an average of amounts of power used by a customer for each identical time span, which is repeated during a predetermined period of time.

10. The demand response method according to claim 2, wherein the dividing the third data into the plurality of index sections comprises:

dividing a range from a minimum index power charge to a maximum index power charge of the third data into a plurality of index sections having an identical size; and

dividing one of the plurality of index sections having the maximum index power charge as an upper limit into a plurality of index subsections.

11. The demand response method according to claim 2, wherein the dividing the third data into the plurality of index sections comprises:

dividing a range from a minimum index power charge to a maximum index power charge of the third data into the plurality of index sections,

wherein a size of the plurality of index sections increases in a direction from an index section having the maximum index power charge as an upper limit to an index section having the minimum index power charge as a lower limit.

12. The demand response method according to claim 2, wherein the dividing the third data into the plurality of index sections comprises:

dividing a range from a minimum index power charge to a maximum index power charge of the third data into the plurality of index sections,

wherein a number of index sections set in a first range having the maximum index power charge as an upper limit is greater than a number of index sections set in a second range having the minimum index power charge as a lower limit, and

wherein the second range has a size identical to the first range.

13. The demand response method according to claim 2, wherein the dividing the third data into the plurality of index sections comprises dividing a range above a preset index power charge into the plurality of index sections.

14. The demand response method according to claim 10, further comprising:

when the real-time charge for power is below a lowest index section, generating a DR signal corresponding to the lowest index section, and

when the real-time charge for power is above a highest index section, generating a DR signal corresponding to the highest index section.

15. A demand response method comprising:

dividing a range above a preset index power charge into a plurality of index sections;

obtaining information about real-time charge rates for a unit of power;

obtaining information about real-time amounts of the power used;

calculating real-time power charges based on the obtained information about the real-time charge rates and based on the obtained information about the real-time amounts

when each of the real-time power charges is present in one of the plurality of index sections, generating a Demand Response (DR) signal corresponding to the one index section; and

controlling an electric home appliance in response to the DR signal.

16. A demand response system comprising:

a power rate reception unit which receives information about charge rates for a unit of power from an external power trading server;

an amount-of-power used reception unit which receives information about amounts of power used by a customer from a gateway installed in premises of the customer;

a first data generation unit which generates first data comprising information about charge rates for the unit of power for respective time spans based on the received information about the charge rates;

a second data generation unit which generates second data comprising information about amounts of power used by the customer for the respective time spans based on the received information about the amounts of power used; and

a third data generation unit which generates third data comprising information about index power charges for the customer for the respective time spans obtained based on the first data and the second data.

17. The demand response system according to claim 16, further comprising a Demand Response (DR) signal control unit which divides the index power charges of the third data into a plurality of index sections.

18. The demand response system according to claim 17, further comprising a real-time charge for power calculation unit, which calculates the real-time charges for the power used by the customer by multiplying the real-time charge rates for the unit of power, which are received from the power rate reception unit, by the real-time amounts of power used by the customer, which are received from the amount-of-power used reception unit.

19. The demand response system according to claim 18, wherein, when each of the real-time power charges is present in one of the plurality of index sections, a DR signal corresponding to the one index section is generated by the DR signal control unit.