MANAGING A DEMAND ON AN ELECTRICAL GRID USING A PUBLICLY DISTRIBUTED TRANSACTIONS LEDGER

• US 20180165660A1
• Filed: 12/13/2017
• Published: 06/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2016
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Walmart Apollo, LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Wal-Mart Stores Texas LLC (WalMart Inc.)
• Inventors: High, Donald R., Wilkinson, Bruce Walter, Mattingly, Todd, McHale, Brian Gerard, O'Brien, V, John J., Cantrell, Robert, Jurich, JR., Joseph
• Application Number:
  US15/840,724
• Publication Number:
  US 20180165660A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/065 using e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/085 involving remote charge determination or related payment systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/14 specially adapted for billing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/145 Payments according to the detected use or quantity
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/00 Business processing using cryptography postage metering system using cryptography G06Q2250/05
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/008 Rewarding for providing delivery of electricity to the network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0637 Modes of operation, e.g. cipher block chaining [CBC], electronic codebook [ECB] or Galois/counter mode [GCM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3239 involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

A method and system for managing a demand on an electrical grid is provided, including: receiving a capped total amount of cryptocurrency available to purchase units of energy from an energy provider, the capped amount of cryptocurrency being recorded in a publicly distributed transaction ledger, allocating a portion of the cryptocurrency of the capped total amount of cryptocurrency to each energy consumption device, wherein the portion of the cryptocurrency allocated to each energy consumption device is recorded in the ledger, receiving, a request from an energy consumption device of the plurality of energy consumption devices that the energy metering device purchase an energy unit, using the portion of cryptocurrency allocated to the first energy consumption device, accessing the publically distributed transaction ledger in response to receiving the request from the first energy consumption to verify that the first energy consumption device has a remaining amount of cryptocurrency.

Claims

1. A method for managing a demand on an electrical grid, comprising:

receiving, by an energy metering device, a capped total amount of cryptocurrency available to purchase units of energy from an energy provider over a period of time for a single network connected to the electrical grid, the capped total amount of cryptocurrency being recorded in a publicly distributed transaction ledger;

detecting, by the energy metering device, a plurality of energy consumption devices associated with the single network;

allocating, by the energy metering device, a portion of the cryptocurrency of the capped total amount of cryptocurrency to each energy consumption device, wherein the portion of the cryptocurrency allocated to each energy consumption device is recorded in the publicly distributed transaction ledger;

receiving, by the energy metering device, a request from an energy consumption device of the plurality of energy consumption devices that the energy metering device purchase an energy unit from the energy provider, using the portion of cryptocurrency allocated to the first energy consumption device, the request based on a current energy need of the first energy consumption device;

accessing, by the energy metering device, the publically distributed transaction ledger in response to receiving the request from the first energy consumption to verify that the first energy consumption device has a remaining amount of cryptocurrency; and

purchasing, by the energy metering device, a unit of energy from the energy provider to be delivered to the first energy device after verifying that the first energy consumption device has sufficient cryptocurrency to spend on energy.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, in response to a request to purchase the energy unit by the energy metering device, the energy provider accesses the publicly distributed database to verify that the energy metering device has not exceeded the capped total amount of cryptocurrency available to purchase energy.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the period of time is at least one of a day, a month, a three month period, a six month period, and a year.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of energy consumption devices are interconnected over a communication network, the energy metering device is connected to the plurality of energy consumption devices over the communication network, and the energy metering device is connected to the energy provider over the communication network.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein, if the energy consumption device has no remaining cryptocurrency, an additional energy consumption device on the single network transfers cryptocurrency to the energy consumption device, and the transfer is recorded in the publicly distributed transaction ledger.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the energy metering device accesses the publicly distributed transaction ledger to verify that the additional energy consumption device has cryptocurrency to sell to the energy consumption device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein accessing further includes verifying that the single the capped total amount of cryptocurrency is not exceeded.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the single network is at least one of:

a residence, a commercial building, an office, and a neighborhood comprising a plurality of residences.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of energy consumption devices includes an appliance, a light source, an entertainment console, a computing device, a heating system, a cooling system, and a water heating system, that connects to the internet.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating, by the energy metering device, an average energy need of each energy consumption device of the plurality of energy consumption devices over the period of time, wherein the allocation is based on the average need of each energy consumption device.

11. A system for managing a demand on an electrical grid, comprising:

an energy provider, the energy provider configured to deliver a limited amount of energy to a single network, the energy provider determining a capped total amount of cryptocurrency available for purchase by the single network; and

an energy metering device, the first energy metering device being associated with the single network, and communicatively coupled to the energy provider over a communication network;

wherein the first energy metering device manages the demand on the electrical grid by;

receiving, by the energy metering device, the capped total amount of cryptocurrency available to purchase units of energy from the energy provider over a period of time for the single network connected to the electrical grid, the capped total amount of cryptocurrency being recorded in a publicly distributed transaction ledger;

detecting, by the energy metering device, a plurality of energy consumption devices associated with the single network;

allocating, by the energy metering device, a portion of the cryptocurrency of the capped total amount of cryptocurrency to each energy consumption device, wherein the portion of the cryptocurrency allocated to each energy consumption device is recorded in the publicly distributed transaction ledger;

receiving, by the energy metering device, a request from an energy consumption device of the plurality of energy consumption devices that the energy metering device purchase an energy unit from the energy provider, using the portion of cryptocurrency allocated to the first energy consumption device, the request based on a current energy need of the first energy consumption device;

accessing, by the energy metering device, the publically distributed transaction ledger in response to receiving the request from the first energy consumption to verify that the first energy consumption device has a remaining amount of cryptocurrency; and

purchasing, by the energy metering device, a unit of energy from the energy provider to be delivered to the first energy device after verifying that the first energy consumption device has sufficient cryptocurrency to spend on energy.

12. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

an additional energy metering device associated with an additional network connected to the electrical grid.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein, in response to a request to purchase the energy unit by the energy metering device, the energy provider accesses the publicly distributed database to verify that the energy metering device has not exceeded the capped total amount of cryptocurrency available to purchase energy.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the period of time is at least one of:

a day, a month, a three month period, a six month period, and a year.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the plurality of energy consumption devices are interconnected over the communication network.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein, if the energy consumption device has no remaining cryptocurrency, an additional energy consumption device on the single network transfers cryptocurrency to the energy consumption device, and the transfer is recorded in the publicly distributed transaction ledger.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the energy metering device accesses the publicly distributed transaction ledger to verify that the additional energy consumption device has cryptocurrency to sell to the energy consumption device.

18. The system of claim 11, wherein accessing further includes verifying that the single the capped total amount of cryptocurrency is not exceeded.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the single network is at least one of:

a residence, a commercial building, an office, and a neighborhood comprising a plurality of residences.

20. A computer system, comprising:

a processor;

a memory device coupled to the processor; and

a computer readable storage device coupled to the processor, wherein the storage device contains program code executable by the processor via the memory device to implement a method for managing a demand of an electrical grid, the method comprising;

receiving, by an energy metering device, a capped total amount of cryptocurrency available to purchase units of energy from an energy provider over a period of time for a single network connected to the electrical grid, the capped total amount of cryptocurrency being recorded in a publicly distributed transaction ledger;

detecting, by the energy metering device, a plurality of energy consumption devices associated with the single network;

allocating, by the energy metering device, a portion of the cryptocurrency of the capped total amount of cryptocurrency to each energy consumption device, wherein the portion of the cryptocurrency allocated to each energy consumption device is recorded in the publicly distributed transaction ledger;

receiving, by the energy metering device, a request from an energy consumption device of the plurality of energy consumption devices that the energy metering device purchase an energy unit from the energy provider, using the portion of cryptocurrency allocated to the first energy consumption device, the request based on a current energy need of the first energy consumption device;

accessing, by the energy metering device, the publically distributed transaction ledger in response to receiving the request from the first energy consumption to verify that the first energy consumption device has a remaining amount of cryptocurrency; and

purchasing, by the energy metering device, a unit of energy from the energy provider to be delivered to the first energy device after verifying that the first energy consumption device has sufficient cryptocurrency to spend on energy.