Power aggregation system for distributed electric resources

• US 8,810,192 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2009
• Issued: 08/19/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gridpoint (Twenty First Century Utilities LLC)
• Original Assignee: Gridpoint (Twenty First Century Utilities LLC)
• Inventors: Bridges, Seth W., Pollack, Seth B., Kaplan, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): LEDYNH, BOT L
• Application Number:
  US12/427,958
• Publication Number:
  US 20090200988A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,945 Days
• Field of Search: 320/107, 320/137
• US Class Current: 320/107
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/51 Photovoltaic means
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/52 Wind-driven generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/63 in response to network capacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 55/00 Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/026 using a predictor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00007 using the power network as support for the transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/008 involving trading of energy or energy transmission rights
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/38 Arrangements for parallely feeding a single network by two or more generators, converters or transformers
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/007 Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/34 Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other dc sources, e.g. providing buffering H02J7/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• 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 10/14 : Energy storage units
• 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 40/121 : using the power network as support for the transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/14 : Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/16 : Energy services, e.g. dispersed generation or demand or load or energy savings aggregation

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for a power aggregation system. In one implementation, a method includes a establishing a communication connection with each of multiple electric resources connected to a power grid, receiving an energy generation signal from a power grid operator, and controlling a number of the electric resources being charged by the power grid as a function of the energy generation signal.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

establishing a communication connection between a flow control center and each of multiple electric resources connected to a power grid, the flow control center having a prediction engine and a constraint optimizer, wherein the flow control center is separate from the power grid and each of the multiple electric resources;

receiving, by the flow control center, historical connection time, charging location, and state of charge for each of the multiple electric resources;

predicting, by the prediction engine, the future connection time, charging location, and state of charge for each of the multiple electric resources based on the historical connection time, historical charging location, and historical state of charge for each of the multiple electric resources;

receiving, by the flow control center, an energy generation signal from a power grid operator associated with the power grid;

generating, by a constraint optimizer, control signals to charge or discharge one or more of the multiple electric resources based on system constraints of one or more of the multiple electric resources, the system constraints including the future connection time, location, and state of charge for each of the multiple electric resources, wherein the one or more electric resources are charged and discharged according to the system constraints.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow control center includes a contract manager, wherein the contract manager communicates with the energy markets and the grid operator to determine the availability, pricing levels and available services for each of the multiple electric resources, wherein the pricing levels and services are constrains of each of the multiple electric resources, and wherein the constrain optimizer determines the availability of each of the multiple electric resources to provide the control signals to charge or discharge one or more of the multiple electric resources to or from the power grid based on the pricing levels and available services.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the system constraints include the price sensitivity of an owner of at least one of the multiple electric resources, and wherein the constraint optimizer uses the price of energy to determine whether a price sensitivity of the owner is met.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

predicting, by the prediction engine, the behavior of the power grid.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein a charging component is communicatively coupled to the flow controller, further comprising:

receiving, by the charging component, signals from the flow controller to control the charging of one or more of the multiple electric resources connected to the charging component, and

sending, by the charging component, information indicating connection time, connection duration, and state of charge to the flow controller when the one or more electric resources are connected to the charging component.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating each of a plurality of the flow controllers with a control area and a power grid operator associated with the control area; and

informing, by a directory server, one or more of the multiple electric resources which of the plurality of flow controllers to communicate with.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the directory server is integrated with one of the plurality of flow controllers, further comprising:

interacting, by directory server, with one or more of the multiple electric resources or forwarding communication of the one or more multiple electric resources to another flow controller based on the location of the one or more of the multiple electric resources.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the directory server includes a publically accessible database, further comprising:

mapping, by the directory server, control areas to one or more of the plurality of flow control centers and signaling one of the multiple electric resources which flow control server to communicate with.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow controller includes a grid interaction manager, further comprising:

sending, by the grid interaction manager, a signal to the power grid operator that one or more of the multiple electric resources are available to service the power grid associated with the power grid operator within the constraints of the one or more of the multiple electric resources.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow controller includes a grid interaction manager, further comprising:

sending, by the grid interaction manager, a signal to the power grid operator indicating availability of the one or more of the multiple electric resources at various points in the future.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the constraints of the multiple electric vehicles include one or more of:

price sensitivity of the owner;

owner sensitivity to revenue relative to state of charge;

manual charging overrides; and

owner preferences.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow controller includes a connection manager, further comprising:

notifying, by connection manager, an owner of one or more of the multiple electric resources if the electric resource associated with the owner remains disconnected from the power grid for a predetermined amount of time.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

building, by the prediction engine, at least one parameterized model used to predict the behavior of one or more of the multiple electric resources.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

building, by the prediction engine, a plurality of parameterized models used to predict the behavior of associated sets of a plurality of one or more of the multiple electric resources.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

building, by the prediction engine, a separate parameterized model corresponding to each of the multiple electric resources, wherein each separate parameterized model predicts the behavior of the corresponding electric resource.

16. The method of claim 5, wherein the charging component charges one or more of the multiple electric resources according to a standard charging mode when there is no communication with the flow controller.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the standard charging mode includes preprogrammed instructions.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the standard charging mode includes instructions to charge one or more of the multiple electric resources when the time of use rates are low.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the standard charging mode includes learned behavior of one or more of the multiple electric resources.

20. The method of 17, wherein the transaction information of an instance where one of the multiple electric resources is connected to a charging component is cached and transmitted to the flow controller when communication is reestablished.