SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MANAGING ENERGY CONSUMPTION

• US 20140117758A1
• Filed: 10/27/2013
• Published: 05/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric Industries SAS (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric Industries SAS (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Pai, Rohit
• Granted Patent: US 9,640,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 307/29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/14 The load or loads being home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/64 The condition being economic, e.g. tariff based load management
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/32 using batteries with converting means
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/242 Home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid

Abstract

A control unit with data analyzer is connected to database and configured to receive user inputs such as time driven mode, supply driven mode and automatic mode and operate the system with respect to the selected mode, tariff opted and user input commands, and signals the storage unit to get charged from the input source or to supply power to all the lines or to the selected lines from storage unit. The control unit during the time when energy prices are less, signals to charge the storage unit and supplies power to all appliances through the input source and during the time when energy prices are more, signals to shut off the non critical loads and utilize the charged power from storage unit to selected lines.

Claims

1. A system for managing energy consumption, said system comprises,

an utility interface module (101) receiving power from the power grid (102) and supplying power through distribution lines (106) and a storage unit (108) charging from said input source (102) and supplying power to the required distribution lines (106) as communicated;

a control unit (109) having a data analyzer (110) and connected to database (111) configured with utility interface module (101) and user interface module (103); and

a user interface module (103) for reading user inputs;

said control unit (109) receive inputs through user interface module (103) on multiple modes such as time driven mode, supply driven mode and automatic mode and operate with respect to the selected mode, tariff opted and user input commands, and signals said storage unit (108) to get charged from said input source (102) or to supply power to all the lines (106) or to the selected lines from said storage unit (108);

wherein said control unit (109), during the time when energy prices are less, signals to charge the storage unit (108) and supplies power to all appliances through the input source (102) and during the time when energy prices are more, signals to shut off the non critical loads and utilize the charged power from storage unit to selected lines (106);

wherein said control unit (109) receives the time slab information such as peak period, off peak period and shoulder period from the power grid (102) through the utility interface module (101) and signals to charge or discharge the storage unit (108) based on the next time slab, available charge in the storage unit (108) and the load condition in the distribution lines (106).

2. The energy consumption management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein in time driven mode, the control unit (109) reads the tariff information entered by the user through the user interface (104 or 105), and in supply driven mode, the control unit (109) reads the tariff information provided from the power grid (102).

3. The energy consumption management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein in automatic mode, the control unit (109) dynamically reads the tariff information from the power grid (102) when there is communication between the power grid (102) and system.

4. The energy consumption management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein in automatic mode, said control unit (109) automatically calculates tariff information by analyzing the historical data when no communication exist between the power grid (102) and the control unit (109), wherein said control unit (109) shifts to automatic mode when there is a communication failure in the system, such as grid communication and user interface communication.

5. The energy consumption management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein when there is no historical data present in the database (111) and no communication with the utility source (102), the control unit shifts to time driven mode and intimates the user.

6. The energy consumption management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said control unit (109) establishes communication to receive the power tariff information from the power grid (102) and to transfer the data in between the control unit (109), storage interface module (107), user interface module (103), database (111).

7. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein during the off peak period, said control unit (109), signals to charge the storage unit (108) till it is fully charged and run all the lines through the utility source (102).

8. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein during the peak period, said control unit (109) signals to shut off the non critical lines and shift all possible lines on the storage unit (108), and signals to shift the lines (106) back to utility source (102) if the charge in the storage unit (108) is below threshold.

9. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein during the shoulder period, said control unit (109) signals to charge the storage unit (108) if the next time slab is peak period and signals to drive the lines (106) from the storage unit (108) if the next time slab is off peak period.

10. The energy consumption management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system is configured for line level scheduling and turning off the non critical loads during the time when energy prices are high.

11. The energy consumption management system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system has separate lines (106) to drive light loads, heavy loads and non-critical loads.

12. The energy consumption management system as claimed in the claim 1, wherein an event manager (112) is configured with the system for registering the events and communicating said events to the user.

13. A method for managing energy consumption, said method comprising the steps of,

receiving power from the utility source (102) and supplying power through distribution lines (106) and charging a storage unit (108) through the power received from the source (102) and supplying power to the required lines (106) as communicated;

configuring the system with a control unit (109) having a data analyzer (110) and the database (111), to receive inputs on multiple modes such as time driven mode, supply driven mode and automatic mode and receiving the time slab information such as peak period, off peak period and shoulder period from the utility source (102) through the utility interface module (101);

identifying the mode selected in the user interface module (103) and the time slab information from the utility source (102) and signaling through said control unit (109) to charge or discharge the storage unit (108) based on the mode selected, next time slab, available charge in the storage unit (108) and the load condition in the distribution lines (106).

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said method comprises establishing communication in between the control unit (109), storage unit (108), user input devices (104 &

105) and database (111) and.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein said method comprises calculating the electricity bill and consumption by analyzing consumption patterns.