Power regulation of power grid via datacenter

• US 9,519,878 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2015
• Issued: 12/13/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Sankar, Sriram, Belady, Christian L., Kurien, T. Varugis, Sherman, Joseph M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsai, Henry
• Assistant Examiner(s): Daley, Christopher A
• Application Number:
  US14/679,699
• Publication Number:
  US 20150213387A1
• Time in Patent Office: 617 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/26 Power supply means, e.g. regulation thereof for memories G11C
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/305 in the event of power-supply fluctuations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/329 by task scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/10 Parallel operation of dc sources
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 1/106 for load balancing, symmetrisation, or sharing
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/10 Efficient use of energy, e.g. using compressed air or pressurized fluid as energy carrier
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/30 State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge

Abstract

One or more techniques and/or systems are provided for regulating an amount of power on a power grid using a datacenter. This allows demand to be more closely brought into alignment with supply. For example, when supply exceeds demand by a predetermined level, the datacenter may increase consumption, causing demand to increase, and when demand exceeds supply and/or comes within a predetermined threshold of supply, the datacenter may decrease consumption, causing demand to decrease. In this way, the datacenter can be utilized as a regulatory tool on the grid. It may be appreciated that given the technology used by and/or operations performed by datacenters, datacenters are uniquely situated to achieve these ends as compared to other (large) energy consumers, such as manufacturing facilities that cannot shift around and/or shut-down operations swiftly.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, at a power utility entity, information from a datacenter, the information being indicative of a throttling capacity of the datacenter to regulate power on a power grid configured to deliver electricity from electricity suppliers to the datacenter and to other consumers;

based on the received information indicative of the throttling capacity of the datacenter, transmitting a request to the datacenter to increase or decrease a power load consumed by the datacenter in order to generally balance an electricity supply and demand on the power grid; and

establishing an energy rate for any power consumed by the datacenter based at least in part upon the received information indicative of the throttling capacity of the datacenter.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the information is indicative of a current power demand of the datacenter.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the information is indicative of a forecasted power demand of the datacenter.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the throttling capacity of the datacenter corresponds to a minimum power consumption rate of the datacenter.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the throttling capacity of the datacenter corresponds to a maximum power consumption rate of the datacenter.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting the request includes:

transmitting, from the power utility entity, a request to increase or decrease the power load consumed by the datacenter according to the throttling capacity of the datacenter and the electricity supply currently available via the power grid to the datacenter and the other consumers.

7. A computing system, comprising:

one or more processing units; and

memory comprising instructions that when executed by at least one of the one or more processing units perform operations, comprising;

transmitting, from a datacenter to a power utility entity, information indicative of a throttling capacity of the datacenter to regulate power on a power grid supplying power to the datacenter and other consumers on the power grid, wherein the datacenter includes multiple servers configured to consume power from the power grid;

receiving, from the power utility entity, a request to adjust the power consumed by the datacenter in order to generally balance an electricity supply and demand on the power grid; and

in response to receiving the request, adjusting the power consumed by one or more of the servers in the datacenter from the power grid associated with the power utility entity in order to generally balance the electricity supply and demand on the power grid.

8. The computing system of claim 7 wherein adjusting the power consumed by one or more of the servers includes:

adjusting an amount of power consumed by one or more servers in the datacenter from the power grid within the throttling capacity of the datacenter.

9. The computing system of claim 7 wherein adjusting the power consumed by one or more of the servers includes changing a workload of the one or more servers in the datacenter.

10. The computing system of claim 7 wherein adjusting the power consumed by one or more of the servers includes creating a virtualized environment on the one or more servers in the datacenter, the virtualized environment being configured to execute a power consumption code configured to increase processor tasks and/or spin storage devices to convert electricity into heat.

11. The computing system of claim 7 wherein adjusting the power consumed by one or more of the servers includes:

instructing the one or more servers in the datacenter to terminate one or more currently executed processes.

12. A method for controlling power supply and consumption on a power grid, the method comprising:

determining, at a datacenter, a current throttling capacity of the datacenter, the throttling capacity indicative of at least one of a maximum amount of power or a minimum amount of power currently consumable by the datacenter;

transmitting, from the datacenter to a power utility entity, information indicative of the determined current throttling capacity of the datacenter to regulate power on a power grid supplying power to the datacenter and other consumers on the power grid associated with the power utility entity;

receiving, from the power utility entity, a request to adjust the power consumed by the datacenter in accordance with the current throttling capacity of the datacenter; and

in response to receiving the request from the power utility entity, adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter from the power grid in order to facilitate balancing an electricity supply and demand on the power grid.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein determining the current throttling capacity includes determining the current throttling capacity of the datacenter based on an amount of critical or non-critical tasks current performed in the datacenter.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein the datacenter includes multiple servers configured to execute one or more computing processes, and wherein adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter includes instructing one or more of the servers in the datacenter to terminate one or more of the processes currently executed on the one or more servers.

15. The method of claim 12 wherein the datacenter includes multiple servers configured to execute one or more computing processes, and wherein adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter includes instructing one or more of the servers in the datacenter to transfer one or more of the processes currently executed on the one or more servers to other servers in a different datacenter.

16. The method of claim 12 wherein the datacenter includes multiple servers configured to execute one or more computing processes, and wherein adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter includes instructing the one or more servers to create a virtualized environment on the one or more servers in the datacenter, the virtualized environment being configured to execute a power consumption code configured to increase processor loads and/or spin storage devices on the one or more servers to convert electricity into heat.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

in response to receiving the request, calculating an amount of power to be consumed by the datacenter in order to facilitate balancing the electricity supply and demand on the power grid; and

wherein adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter includes adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter in accordance with the calculated mount of power to be consumed by the datacenter.

18. The method of claim 12 wherein:

the datacenter includes a power generator at the datacenter; and

adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter includes instructing the power generator to power up in order to supplement or replace power supplied by the power grid.

19. The method of claim 12 wherein:

the power consumed by the datacenter is associated with a current energy rate; and

wherein adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter includes adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter in accordance with the current energy rate.

20. The method of claim 12 wherein:

the request is a first request;

the datacenter includes multiple servers;

adjusting the power consumed in the datacenter includes instructing the one or more servers to execute a power consumption code configured to increase a processor load and/or spin a storage device on the one or more servers to convert electricity into heat; and

the method further includes;

receiving, from the power utility entity, a second request to adjust the power consumed by the datacenter; and

in response to receiving the second request from the power utility entity, instructing the one or more servers to terminate executing the power consumption code.