SOFTWARE ABSTRACTION LAYER FOR ENERGY GENERATION AND STORAGE SYSTEMS

• US 20140025215A1
• Filed: 07/19/2012
• Published: 01/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tesla Inc.
• Original Assignee: SolarCity Corporation (Tesla Inc.)
• Inventors: Carlson, Eric Daniel, Varadarajan, Karthikeyan
• Granted Patent: US 9,831,677 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/292
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/22 The renewable source being solar energy
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2300/24 of photovoltaic origin
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/381 Dispersed generators
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/35 with light sensitive cells
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 10/30 Wind power
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/56 Power conversion systems, e.g. maximum power point trackers
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/50 Energy storage in industry with an added climate change mitigation effect

Abstract

A software abstraction layer for energy generation and/or storage systems. In one embodiment, a method is provided that can comprise receiving, by a site gateway, one or more standardized operating parameters for a physical component of an energy storage system, and translating, by the site gateway, the one or more standardized operating parameters into one or more vendor specific parameters, where the one or more vendor specific parameters are specific to a vendor-defined communication protocol supported by the physical component. The physical component can then be controlled using the one or more vendor specific parameters.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a site gateway, one or more standardized operating parameters for a physical component of an energy storage system;

translating, by the site gateway, the one or more standardized operating parameters into one or more vendor specific parameters, the one or more vendor specific parameters being specific to a vendor-defined communication protocol supported by the physical component; and

controlling, by the site gateway, the physical component using the one or more vendor specific parameters.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein controlling the physical component using the one or more vendor-specific parameters comprises transmitting a command comprising the one or more vendor-specific parameters to the physical component.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the physical component is a battery inverter/charger.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the one or more standardized operating parameters are derived from a control command received by the site gateway from a remote server.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the control command comprises a schedule for charging and discharging a battery device coupled with the battery inverter/charger.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising grouping, by the site gateway, two or more physical components of the energy storage system into a logical device;

and

providing, by the site gateway, an interface to the logical device for controlling the two or more physical components.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the two or more physical components are heterogeneous components of the energy storage system.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the two or more physical components include a battery inverter/charger and a battery device, and wherein the logical device is a logical storage appliance.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the interface is configured to expose operating parameters of the logical storage appliance that are derived from operating parameters of the battery inverter/charger and the battery device, the operating parameters of the logical storage appliance including temperature, state of charge, state of health, energy capacity, peak power output, and peak power input.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the interface is configured to hide operating parameters of the battery inverter/charger and the battery device that are not needed for control of the logical storage appliance, the operating parameters of the battery inverter/charger and the battery device including DC voltage, minimum and maximum voltage, and maximum current.

11. The method of claim 6 further comprising:

grouping, by the site gateway, the logical device and one or more other logical devices into an aggregated logical device; and

providing, by the site gateway, an interface to the aggregated logical device for controlling the logical devices.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the logical devices in the aggregated logical device each correspond to a logical storage appliance comprising a battery inverter/charger and a battery device, the logical storage appliance having a peak power output value defining a maximum amount of power it can provide.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

receiving, by the site gateway, a request for power from the aggregated logical device; and

distributing, by the site gateway, the request among the logical devices in the aggregated logical device based on their respective peak power output values.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

determining, by the site gateway, when a logical device in the aggregated logical device has failed; and

dynamically redistributing the request among the remaining, active logical devices in the aggregated logical device.

15. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

determining, by the site gateway, a likelihood of failure for each logical device in the aggregated logical device; and

adjusting, by the site gateway, one or more parameters of the aggregated logical device based on the likelihood of failure determined for each logical device.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein adjusting one or more parameters of the aggregated logical device comprises adjusting published peak power output of the aggregated logical device.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein the energy storage system is configured to generate energy via photovoltaic (PV) modules and to store energy in a battery device.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon program code executable by a computer system, the program code comprising:

code that causes the computer system to receive one or more standardized operating parameters for a physical component of an energy storage system;

code that causes the computer system to translate the one or more standardized operating parameters into one or more vendor specific parameters, the one or more vendor specific parameters being specific to a vendor-defined communication protocol supported by the physical component; and

code that causes the computer system to control the physical component using the one or more vendor specific parameters.

19. A computer system comprising:

a processor configured to;

receive one or more standardized operating parameters for a physical component of an energy storage system;

translate the one or more standardized operating parameters into one or more vendor specific parameters, the one or more vendor specific parameters being specific to a vendor-defined communication protocol supported by the physical component; and

control the physical component using the one or more vendor specific parameters.

20. The computer system of claim 19 wherein the computer system is a site gateway installed at a site of the energy storage system.