Wide Area Management System, Wide Area Management Device, Building Management Device and Wide Area Management Method

• US 20160209821A1
• Filed: 08/29/2013
• Published: 07/21/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Systems, Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Systems, Ltd. (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: HASHIMOTO, Kazuo, ENMEI, Fumio, KANEKO, Minoru, OGATA, Yuji
• Granted Patent: US 10,310,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/042 using digital processors G05B19/05 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2639 Energy management, use maximum of cheap power, keep peak load low
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2642 Domotique, domestic, home control, automation, smart house
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

An increase in communication traffic at the time of transmission of commands of controlling power consumption of individual buildings can be suppressed so as to be low. A wide area management system includes a wide area management device that includes a database that stores a command table and a transmission unit that transmits a control command to each uppermost-level building management device and building management devices, each of which includes a database that stores a management table and a building-associated correspondence table, a transfer unit where, in a case where a reception unit receives the control command, specifies lower-level building management devices by referring to the management table and transfers the received control command to each of the specified building management devices, an event program extraction unit that extracts an event program corresponding to the control command from a building-associated correspondence table, and an event program execution unit that executes the extracted event program to control power consumption of the buildings.

Claims

1. A wide area management system which manages power consumed in buildings, comprising:

a wide area management device; and

building management devices installed to correspond to the respective buildings,

wherein the wide area management device includes;

a first management table storage unit which stores a management table storing information of lower-level building management devices managed by each building management device as an upper-level representative management device for each building management device; and

a transmission unit which specifies an uppermost-level building management device by referring to the management table stored in the first management table storage unit and transmits one control command instructing reduction of power consumption of each building for each specified building management device, and

wherein each building management device includes;

a second management table storage unit which stores the management table;

an event program storage unit which stores an event program describing a content of control which is to be performed on each facility device in the building corresponding to the building management device in association with the control command in order to implement the control command;

a reception unit which receives the control command from the wide area management device or the upper-level representative management device;

a transfer unit which, in a case where the reception unit receives the control command, specifies lower-level building management devices managed by the self building management device as a representative management device by referring to the management table stored in the second management table storage unit and transfers the received control command to each of the specified building management devices;

an event program extraction unit which, in a case where the reception unit receives the control command, extracts the event program corresponding to the control command from the event program storage unit; and

an event program execution unit which executes the extracted event program to control the power consumption of each facility device in the building corresponding to the self building management devices.

2. The wide area management system according to claim 1,

wherein, in a case where the first management table storage unit stores the management table, the transmission unit specifies the uppermost-level building management device by referring to the management table and transmits the management table to the specified building management device,

wherein, in a case where the reception unit receives the management table from the wide area management device or the upper-level representative management device, the reception unit stores the received management table in the second management table storage unit, and

wherein, in a case where the second management table storage unit stores the management table, the transfer unit specifies the lower-level building management devices by referring to the management table and transfers the management table to the specified building management devices.

3. The wide area management system according to claim 1,

wherein each building management device further includes:

a power information storage unit which stores information of the power consumption of the buildings corresponding to the building management devices in association with the self building management device and the lower-level building management devices;

a power information collection unit which collects the information of the power consumption of the building corresponding to the self building management device to store the information in the power information storage unit and collects the information of the power consumption of the buildings corresponding to the lower-level building management devices from the lower-level building management devices to store the information in the power information storage unit; and

an additional command transmission unit which, after the transfer unit transfers the control command received by the reception unit to each of the lower-level building management devices and the event program execution unit of the self building management device executes the event program corresponding to the control command, calculates a sum of the power consumption of the building corresponding to the self building management device and the buildings corresponding to the lower-level building management devices by referring to the power information storage unit, in a case where the calculated sum of the power consumption is equal or larger than power consumption of which reduction is instructed by the control command, generates an additional command instructing new reduction of power consumption, and transmits the generated additional command to the event program extraction unit of the self building management device or to at least one of the lower-level building management devices.

4. The wide area management system according to claim 3, wherein the additional command transmission unit selects one destination for the additional command among the event program extraction unit of the self building management device and the lower-level building management devices corresponding to the buildings of which the power consumption is smaller than the power consumption instructed by the control command and transmits the additional command to the selected building management device.

5. The wide area management system according to claim 3, wherein the additional command transmission unit transmits the additional command to each of the event program extraction unit of the self building management device and the lower-level building management devices corresponding to the buildings of which the power consumption is smaller than the power consumption instructed by the control command.

6. A wide area management device used for a wide area management system managing power consumed in buildings, comprising:

a management table storage unit which stores a management table storing information of lower-level building management devices managed by each building management device as an upper-level representative management device for each building management device installed to correspond to the respective buildings; and

a transmission unit which specifies an uppermost-level building management device by referring to the management table stored in the management table storage unit and transmits one control command instructing reduction of power consumption of each buildings to each specified building management device.

7. A building management device installed to correspond to each of buildings, comprising:

a management table storage unit which stores a management table storing information of lower-level building management devices managed by each building management device as an upper-level representative management device for each building management device; and

an event program storage unit which stores an event program describing a content of control which is to be performed on each facility device in the building corresponding to the building management devices in association with a control command instructing reduction of power consumption of each building in order to implement the control command;

a reception unit which receives the control command from the wide area management device or the upper-level representative management device;

a transfer unit which, in a case where the reception unit receives the control command, specifies lower-level building management devices managed by the self building management device as a representative management device by referring to the management table stored in the management table storage unit and transfers the received control command to each of the specified building management devices;

an event program extraction unit which, in a case where the reception unit receives the control command, extracts the event program corresponding to the control command from the event program storage unit; and

an event program execution unit which executes the extracted event program to control the power consumption of each facility device in the building corresponding to the self building management devices.

8. A wide area management method in a wide area management system including a wide area management device and building management devices installed in corresponding buildings to manage power consumed in the buildings,

wherein the wide area management device performs

a transmitting step of specifying an uppermost-level building management device by referring to a first management table storage unit storing a management table storing information of lower-level building management devices managed by each building management device as an upper-level representative management device for each building management device and transmitting one control command instructing reduction of power consumption of each building for each specified building management device, and

wherein each building management device performs:

a receiving step of receiving the control command from the wide area management device or the upper-level representative management device;

a transferring step of, in a case where the reception unit receives the control command, specifying lower-level building management devices managed by the self building management device as a representative management device by referring to a second management table storage unit storing the management table and transferring the received control command to each of the specified building management devices;

an event program extracting step of, in a case where the control command is received in the receiving step, extracting an event program corresponding to the control command in association with the control command in order to implement the control command by referring to an event program storage unit storing the event program describing a content of control which is to be performed on each facility device in the building corresponding to the building management device; and

an event program executing step of executing the extracted event program to control the power consumption of each facility device in the building corresponding to the self building management device.

9. The wide area management method according to claim 8,

wherein, in the transmitting step, in a case where the first management table storage unit stores the management table, the wide area management device specifies the uppermost-level building management device by referring to the management table and transmits the management table to the specified building management device,

wherein, in the receiving step, in a case where the management table is received from the wide area management device or the upper-level representative management device, each building management device stores the received management table in the second management table storage unit, and

wherein, in the transferring step, in a case where the second management table storage unit stores the management table, each building management device specifies the lower-level building management devices by referring to the management table and transfers the management table to the specified building management devices.

10. The wide area management method according to claim 8, wherein each building management device performs:

a power information collecting step of collecting the information of the power consumption of the building corresponding to the self building management device to store the information in the power information storage unit and collecting the information of the power consumption of the buildings corresponding to the lower-level building management devices from the lower-level building management devices to store the information in the power information storage unit; and

an additional command transmitting step of, after the control command received in the receiving step is transferred to each of the lower-level building management devices in the transferring step and the event program corresponding to the control command is executed in the event program executing step of the self building management device, calculating a sum of the power consumption of the building corresponding to the self building management device and the buildings corresponding to the lower-level building management devices by referring to the power information storage unit, in a case where the calculated sum of the power consumption is equal or larger than power consumption of which reduction is instructed by the control command, generating an additional command instructing new reduction of power consumption, and extracting the event program corresponding to the generated additional command in the event program extracting step or transmitting the generated additional command to at least one of the lower-level building management devices.

11. The wide area management method according to claim 10, wherein, in the additional command transmitting step, each building management device selects one destination for the additional command among the self building management device and the lower-level building management devices of which the power consumption is smaller than the power consumption instructed by the control command and transmits the additional command to the selected building management device.

12. The wide area management method according to claim 10, wherein, in the additional command transmitting step, each building management device transmits the additional command to each of the self building management device and the lower-level building management devices of which the power consumption is smaller than the power consumption instructed by the control command.