ELECTRIC POWER CONTROL DEVICE, ELECTRIC POWER CONTROL METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20150120372A1
• Filed: 05/13/2013
• Published: 04/30/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Shizuno, Takayuki
• Application Number:
  US14/399,703
• Publication Number:
  US 20150120372A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.25
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/16 by display
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2250/20 by driver identification
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/65 involving identification of vehicles or their battery types
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: H01M 10/44 Methods for charging or discharging circuits for charging H02J7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/008 involving trading of energy or energy transmission rights
• 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 7/0071 with a programmable schedule
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 40/70 Smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the energy generation sector
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/10 Energy storage using batteries
• 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 10/50 : Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid

Abstract

An electric power control device includes an electric power control policy storage unit which stores an electric power control policy in which the maximum electric power consumption of a charger is determined according to a customer rank indicating a degree of priority of a customer and an electric power unit price specified by a time zone, a customer identification information acquisition unit which acquires customer identification information of the customer which requests the use of the charging service, a customer rank determination unit which determines the customer rank based on customer information of the customer, and an electric power control unit which controls the maximum electric power consumption of the charger when providing the charging service to the customer based on the electric power unit price in a time zone in which the charging service is provided to the customer, the customer rank, and the electric power control policy.

Claims

1. An electric power control device comprising:

an electric power control policy storage unit which stores an electric power control policy in which the maximum electric power consumption of a charger is determined according to a customer rank indicating a degree of priority of a customer which uses a charging service in which a storage battery is charged by the charger and an electric power unit price specified by a time zone;

a customer identification information acquisition unit which acquires customer identification information by which the customer which requests the use of the charging service is identified;

a customer rank determination unit which determines the customer rank of the customer based on customer information about the customer identified by the customer identification information; and

an electric power control unit which controls the maximum electric power consumption of the charger when providing the charging service to the customer based on the electric power unit price in the time zone in which the charging service is provided to the customer identified by the customer identification information, the customer rank of the customer identified by the customer identification information, and the electric power control policy.

2. The electric power control device according to claim 1, wherein the electric power control unit controls the maximum electric power consumption of the charger by using the electric power control policy in which when the electric power unit price is high and the customer rank is low, the maximum electric power consumption of the charger is set to low and when the electric power unit price is low and the customer rank is high, the maximum electric power consumption of the charger is set to high.

3. The electric power control device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a customer information storage unit which stores the customer information about the customer of the charging service in which the storage battery is charged by using the charger;

an electric power unit price information acquisition unit which acquires the time zone and electric power unit price information including the electric power unit price in the time zone; and

an electric power unit price information storage unit which stores the electric power unit price information,

wherein the customer information storage unit stores information related to a usage situation at the time when the customer used the charging service or the service related to it in the past, and

wherein the customer rank determination unit determines the customer rank so as to indicate a good customer degree of the customer based on at least the information related to the usage situation of the customer.

4. The electric power control device according to claim 3,

wherein the customer information storage unit stores information related to one or more of a purchase price when the customer has used the charging service or the service related to it in the past, the number of use times, the number of points given by the provider of the charging service or the service related to it, and a flag of shareholder which indicates whether or not the customer is a shareholder holding a share related to a provider of the charging service or the service related to it, and

wherein the customer rank determination unit determines the customer rank based on information related to one or more of the purchase price of the customer, the number of use times, the number of points, and the flag of shareholder.

5. The electric power control device according to claim 1, wherein the customer rank determination unit differentiates the customer rank determined based on the customer information for each time zone.

6. (canceled)

7. An electric power control method comprising:

storing an electric power control policy in which the maximum electric power consumption of a charger is determined according to a customer rank indicating a degree of priority of a customer which uses a charging service in which a storage battery is charged by a charger and an electric power unit price specified by a time zone;

acquiring customer identification information by which the customer which requests the use of the charging service is identified;

determining the customer rank of the customer based on customer information about the customer identified by the customer identification information; and

controlling the maximum electric power consumption of the charger when providing the charging service to the customer based on the electric power unit price in the time zone in which the charging service is provided to the customer identified by the customer identification information, the customer rank of the customer identified by the customer identification information, and the electric power control policy.

8. The electric power control method according to claim 7, which comprises controlling the maximum electric power consumption of the charger by using the electric power control policy in which when the electric power unit price is high and the customer rank is low, the maximum electric power consumption of the charger is set to low and when the electric power unit price is low and the customer rank is high, the maximum electric power consumption of the charger is set to high.

9. A non-transitory storage medium for recording a computer program to allow a computer device to perform:

by using an electric power control policy storage unit which stores an electric power control policy in which the maximum electric power consumption of a charger is determined according to a customer rank indicating a degree of priority of a customer which uses a charging service in which a storage battery is charged by the charger and an electric power unit price specified by a time zone,

a customer identification information acquisition step acquiring customer identification information by which the customer which requests the use of the charging service is identified;

a customer rank determination step determining the customer rank of the customer based on customer information about the customer identified by the customer identification information; and

an electric power control step controlling the maximum electric power consumption of the charger when providing the charging service to the customer based on the electric power unit price in the time zone in which the charging service is provided to the customer identified by the customer identification information, the customer rank of the customer identified by the customer identification information, and the electric power control policy.

10. The non-transitory storage medium according to claim 9, wherein the electric power control step includes controlling the maximum electric power consumption of the charger by referring to the electric power control policy in which when the electric power unit price is high and the customer rank is low, the maximum electric power consumption of the charger is set to low and when the electric power unit price is low and the customer rank is high, the maximum electric power consumption of the charger is set to high.

11. An electric power control device comprising:

an electric power control policy storage means for storing an electric power control policy in which the maximum electric power consumption of a charger is determined according to a customer rank indicating a degree of priority of a customer which uses a charging service in which a storage battery is charged by the charger and an electric power unit price specified by a time zone;

a customer identification information acquisition means for acquiring customer identification information by which the customer which requests the use of the charging service is identified;

a customer rank determination means for determining the customer rank of the customer based on customer information about the customer identified by the customer identification information; and

an electric power control means for controlling the maximum electric power consumption of the charger when providing the charging service to the customer based on the electric power unit price in the time zone in which the charging service is provided to the customer identified by the customer identification information, the customer rank of the customer identified by the customer identification information, and the electric power control policy.