Managing devices within micro-grids

• US 9,515,491 B2
• Filed: 09/18/2013
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bhageria, Gopal Kumar, Klein, Kevin A., Reboul, Jean-Gael Fabien
• Primary Examiner(s): Yanchus, III, Paul
• Application Number:
  US14/030,146
• Publication Number:
  US 20150081127A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,175 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/25352 Preemptive for critical tasks combined with non preemptive, selected by attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/66 Regulating electric power
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00 Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
• 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: H02J 3/38 Arrangements for parallely feeding a single network by two or more generators, converters or transformers
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 4/00 Circuit arrangements for mains or distribution networks not specified as ac or dc
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 10/30 Wind power
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving

Abstract

An approach to provide power from power supply devices to power consuming devices based on using priority levels for each of the power consuming and supply devices. The approach includes the steps of receiving information of a power consuming device from an energy management, including criticality information obtained from a universal appliance service system. The approach further includes receiving power supply information of one or more power supply devices associated with an electric grid, and receiving a power request from the power consuming device. The approach further includes determining that the power consuming device receives power from the power supply device, based on the criticality information and the power supply information.

Claims

1. A method comprising the steps of:

receiving information of a power consuming device from an energy management (EM) system, including criticality information obtained from a universal appliance service (UAS) system;

receiving power supply information of one or more power supply devices associated with an electric grid;

receiving a power request from the power consuming device; and

determining, by a computing device, that the power consuming device receives power from the power supply device, based on the criticality information and the power supply information,

wherein the EM system receives the criticality information directly from the UAS system, and the UAS system determines the criticality of the power consuming device based on the power consuming device'"'"'s location in comparison to remaining power consuming devices,

the criticality information of the power consuming device includes identification that the power consuming device is a critical power consuming device or a non-critical power consuming device,

the critical power consuming device is a device structured to provide one of heat, cooling, lighting, and pumping in a catastrophic event comprising at least one of a hurricane, an earthquake, and a terrorist attack, and

the UAS system changes the criticality of the power consuming device from the non-critical power consuming device to the critical power consuming device based on the catastrophic event.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the UAS system determines the criticality of the power consuming device further based on a particular time period and device type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the UAS system receives the information of the power consuming device directly from a third party source.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the UAS system receives the information of the power consuming device directly from a device manufacture to determine the criticality information and provides the information of the power consuming device to the EM system, which generates a load profile which includes power demand requirements of the power consuming device at different times of a day.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the UAS system receives the power consuming device'"'"'s location and the identification of device type from the EM system and, in combination with the information of the power consuming device, determines the criticality of the power consuming device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of receiving information of the power consuming device and receiving power supply information are performed using one of Simple Internet Protocol (SIP) communication messages and Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) messages.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the power supply information is received as a power supply profile and the information of the power consuming device is received as a load profile from the EM system, wherein the load profile includes the criticality information of the power consuming device received from the UAS system;

the power supply profile is associated with one or more of the power supply devices; and

the load profile is associated with the power consuming device and additional power consuming devices.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the power supply profile includes electrical characteristics for each of the power supply devices as determined by the UAS system.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the power consuming device receives the power includes:

determining an amount of power being requested by the power consuming device;

determining an amount of generated power and an amount of reserve power available from the one or more power supply devices; and

determining that at least one of the amount of generated power and the amount of reserve power is sufficient to provide the amount of power being requested, to the power consuming device while maintaining integrity of the electric grid.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising sending a message to the computing device that the power is available for both the critical power consuming device and the non-critical power consuming device, and when there is enough power for the non-critical power consuming device, providing the power to the non-critical power consuming device.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising providing a load profile to the electric grid, the load profile information comprising an amount of power consumption requirements at different times for the power consuming device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the steps of claim 1 are provided by a service provider on at least one of a subscription, advertising, and fee basis; and

the service provider at least one of creates, deploys, and maintains a computer infrastructure that executes the steps of claim 1.

13. A system comprising:

a CPU, a computer readable memory and a computer readable storage media;

program instructions to receive information regarding one or more power consuming devices;

program instructions to receive criticality levels for each of the power consuming devices as obtained from a universal appliance service (UAS) system in direct communication with an energy management (EM) system;

program instructions to receive power supply information regarding one or more power supply devices;

program instructions to determine that power is available from the power supply devices to operate a selected one or more of the power consuming devices; and

program instructions to place a request for power of a non-critical power consuming device of the one or more power consuming devices into a queue for a delayed operating time when there is not enough power to operate both a critical power consuming device and the non-critical power consuming device;

wherein each of the program instructions are stored on the computer readable storage media for execution by the CPU via the computer readable memory,

wherein the UAS system determines the criticality levels of the power consuming devices based on the power consuming devices'"'"' location in comparison to remaining power consuming devices,

the information of the one or more power supply devices includes identification that each of the one or more power supply devices is the critical power consuming device or the non-critical power consuming device,

the critical power consuming device is a device structured to provide one of heat, cooling, lighting, and pumping in a catastrophic event comprising at least one of a hurricane, an earthquake, and a terrorist attack, and

the UAS system changes a criticality of each of the one or more power supply devices from the non-critical power consuming device to the critical power consuming device based on the catastrophic event.

14. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

program instructions to allocate the power to each of the power consuming devices based on the power from the power supply devices and priority of each of the power consuming devices determined by the UAS system.

15. The system of claim 13, further comprising:

program instructions to allocate the power to the non-critical power consuming device when there is available power supply from the power supply devices.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the UAS system determines the criticality levels of the one or more power consuming devices further based on device information received from a third party source, other than the power consuming devices.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein:

the device information includes power demand information and a quantity of the one or more power consuming devices.

18. A computer program product comprising a computer usage storage device having readable computer code embodied in the storage device, the computer program product includes at least one component to:

receive power consumption information for a power consuming device from a third party;

receive, from an energy management (EM) system, a location, an identifier, and a device type for the power consuming device;

determine electrical characteristics of the power consuming device based on the power consumption information, and the identifier and the device type received from the EM system;

determine criticality of the power consuming device based on the power consumption information and the location of the power consuming device in comparison to remaining power consuming devices, the identifier, and the device type received from the EM system; and

send the criticality of the power consuming device to the EM system,

wherein the power consuming information of the power consuming device includes identification that the power consuming device is a critical power consuming device or a non-critical power consuming device,

the critical power consuming device is a device structured to provide one of heat, cooling, lighting, and pumping in a catastrophic event comprising at least one of a hurricane, an earthquake, and a terrorist attack, and

the EM system changes the criticality of the power consuming device from the non-critical power consuming device to the critical power consuming device based on the catastrophic event.