PWM based energy management with local distributed transformer constraints

• US 9,250,618 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2013
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Haier US Appliance Solutions, Inc. DBA GE Appliances (Haier Group Company)
• Original Assignee: General Electric Company
• Inventors: Burke, William Jerome, Besore, John Keith, Drake, Jeff Donald, Smith, Charles Ray, Najewicz, David Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): Gami, Tejal
• Application Number:
  US13/752,450
• Publication Number:
  US 20140214225A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• Field of Search: 700/295
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• 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 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2803 Home automation networks
• 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 20/20 End-user application control systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving

Abstract

The present subject matter relates energy management systems and methodologies wherein control over local appliances is implemented to control stress on a local transformer to which a plurality of user locations may be connected. Some of the user locations are provided with home energy management (HEM) devices that control operation of certain appliance at their location based in part on constraints associated with the local transformer. The HEMs may negotiate among themselves how to meet the constraints of the local transformer and, in certain circumstances, take into consideration estimates of usage at user locations connected to the local transformer but that do not have their own HEM.

Claims

1. An energy management system, comprising:

a central control system comprising a demand response server;

a power transmission system configured to supply electrical power to a plurality of user locations by way of a common local transformer; and

a plurality of home energy management systems in communication with said demand response server, each of said plurality of home energy management systems configured for communications with at least one home appliance,

wherein said demand response server is configured to transmit local transformer identification and local transformer constraint information to each of said plurality of home energy management systems whereby each of the plurality of home energy management systems that share the common local transformer together form a local network based on said transformer identification, such that each home energy management system in the local network is configured to communicate shared data with each of the other home energy management systems in the local area network and whereby each of said plurality of home energy management systems instructs the at least one home appliance to modify its energy consumption based at least in part on the shared data and the local transformer constraint information.

2. A system as in claim 1, wherein each of said home energy management systems is configured to control said at least one home appliance by at least one of permitting normal operation thereof, implementing load shifting, and implementing load shedding.

3. A system as in claim 1, wherein said at least one home appliance is configured to operate using a duty cycle based on criteria provided by instructions from its home energy management system.

4. A system as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of home energy management systems is configured to negotiate among each other via the local network to meet an aggregate energy consumption level.

5. A system as in claim 1, further comprising:

at least one additional home appliances in communications with said at least one of said plurality of home energy management systems,

wherein said home energy management system is configured to control each of the appliances with which it communicates to provide control of the appliances to achieve an aggregate energy usage.

6. A system as in claim 1, wherein said plurality of home energy management systems are each configured to estimate energy usage from usage locations served by said local transformer that have not shared data with the locally networked home energy management systems and to employ such estimated usage when controlling their own appliances.

7. A system as in claim 6, wherein said plurality of home energy management systems is configured to negotiate among each other via the local network to meet an aggregate energy consumption level.

8. A system as in claim 7, wherein said plurality of home energy management systems is configured so that individual homes are collectively controlled with the appliances within each home to maintain a negotiated energy usage level.

9. A method for management of energy usage, comprising:

coupling a plurality of user locations to a common local transformer to provide electrical power to said user locations;

coupling a home energy management system to at least one appliance at at least some of the user locations;

sending information regarding transformer identification and transformer constraints to each of the home energy management system;

implementing a local network among the home energy management systems that share the common local transformer based on the transformer identification;

sharing usage data associated with each home energy management system within the local network; and

operating the at least one appliance based at least in part on the shared data and the transformer constraint information, wherein the plurality of home energy management systems is configured to negotiate via the local network how to meet the transformer constraint.

10. A method as in claim 9, wherein each of the home energy management systems is configured to control the at least one home appliance by at least one of permitting normal operation thereof, implementing load shifting, and implementing load shedding.

11. A method as in claim 9, wherein the at least one home appliances is configured to operate using a duty cycle based on criteria provided by instructions from its home energy management system.

12. A method as in claim 9, further comprising:

coupling at least one additional home appliances to the home energy management systems; and

controlling each appliances with which the home energy management system is coupled to provide control of the appliances to achieve the transformer constraint.

13. A method as in claim 9, wherein the plurality of home energy management systems are each configured to estimate energy usage from usage locations served by the local transformer that have not shared data with the locally networked home energy management systems and to employ such estimated usage when controlling their own appliances.

14. A method as in claim 13, wherein said plurality of home energy management systems is configured to negotiate how to meet the transformer constraint.

15. A method as in claim 14, wherein said plurality of home energy management systems is configured so that individual homes are collectively controlled with the appliances within each home.

16. A power distribution and control system, comprising:

a central control system;

a source of power;

at least one local transformer;

a plurality of power consumption locations each coupled to receive power from said at least one local transformer;

at least one power consuming device located at each of said plurality of power consumption locations;

an energy management device located at each of said plurality of power consumption locations; and

an advanced metering infrastructure configured to provide communications between said central control system and each said energy management device,

wherein said central control system is configured to transmit local transformer identification and local transformer constraint information to each of said energy management devices whereby each of the plurality of energy management devices that share the at least one local transformer together form a local network based on said transformer identification, such that each home energy management system in the local network is configured to communicate shared data with each of the other home energy management systems in the local area network, and whereby each of said plurality of energy management devices instructs the at least one home appliance to modify its energy consumption based at least in part on the shared data to meet the constraints of the local transformer.

17. A system as in claim 16, wherein said energy management devices are configured to negotiate among themselves how to meet the constraints of the local transformer.

18. A system as in claim 17, wherein said central control system is configured to transmit information to the energy management devices relating to the total number of user locations couple to said local transformer and wherein the energy management devices are configured to negotiate among themselves how to meet the constraints of the local transformer based at least in part on estimations of usage from usage locations not sharing data with the locally networked energy management devices.

19. A system as in claim 18, wherein the energy management devices are configured to collectively control individual home appliances within each home to meet the constraints of the local transformer.