Electrical resource controller

• US 9,589,241 B2
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Issued: 03/07/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Original Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Inventors: Schneider, John Felix, Brown, Christopher Allen
• Primary Examiner(s): MISIASZEK, AMBER ALTSCHUL
• Application Number:
  US13/077,913
• Publication Number:
  US 20120253881A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,168 Days
• Field of Search: 323/220, 327/11, 388/854, 361/5, 363/8, 705/7.28
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

In an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure, an electrical system is provided. The system comprises a controller including a plurality of machine implemented processing sequences. The electrical system also includes a plurality of sensors configured to receive input related to the environmental conditions of the environment surrounding the plurality of sensors and transmit the input to the controller, at least one power source in electrical communication with the controller. The electrical system further includes at least one storage device in electrical communication with the controller, and at least one device sensor in communication with an end user. The at least one device sensor includes memory, and the memory includes priority information regarding the priority of a device associated with the at least one device sensor. The at least one device sensor is operable to transmit information to the controller.

Claims

1. An automated electrical system control system, comprising:

an automated electrical system controller system including an interface section and a machine readable storage section comprising a machine readable instruction and data storage medium altered to store non-transitory machine readable instructions configured to be read by and operate said automated electrical system controller system comprising a plurality of said instructions to selectively generate a plurality of data structures and a plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions for operating the automated electrical system controller system to communicate with a plurality of sensors, creating/updating a plurality of said data structures comprising electrical resource management data structures, controlling a plurality of energy production sources, controlling a plurality of energy storage devices operable to respectively store electrical and mechanical energy, and controlling a plurality of energy consumption devices operable to consume respectively said electrical and mechanical energy, wherein said plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions comprising a first, second, and third plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions;

wherein the first plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions are adapted to operate said interface section to perform data interface actions with a plurality of potential disruption event databases comprising databases comprising;

failure status, degradation status, maintenance downtime schedule data, and operating information data from command, control, and energy transportation facilities operating or connected with said plurality of energy production sources and said plurality of energy consumption devices;

weather data from weather sources for areas where said plurality of energy production sources are located and a plurality of energy consumption devices are located including tsunami reporting and other real time event reporting databases; and

national security, civil defense, and intelligence threat databases;

wherein the second plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions are adapted to perform business analytics processing based on a plurality of business analytics data stored at least in said automated electrical system controller system, wherein said second plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions comprises instructions configured to generate and execute an analytics engine in said automated electrical system controller system comprising a decision engine section and rule base section executed by said decision engine section comprising a plurality of rules for operating the automated electrical system controller system to execute power planning decisions that operates based on said business analytics data and said rule base section, wherein the plurality of business analytics data comprises network component data, network data, node power requirements, node chain power consumption data, equipment or function priority data, location data, power grid data, supported entity/mission data, predicted power disruption impact data, power disruption cost data, threat to life indicator, threat to property indicator, threat to critical infrastructure indicator, threat to critical subsystem indicator, lost opportunity cost from disruption data, and predicted time of disruption data;

wherein the third plurality of machine readable instructions is adapted to control said automated electrical system controller system to produce a plurality of outputs comprising first, second, and third outputs;

a plurality of some of said sensors comprising environmental sensors are configured to measure and generate measurement outputs related to environmental conditions of one or more environments surrounding the plurality of said environmental sensors and transmit the output to the automated electrical system controller system, wherein said sensors measure said one or more environmental conditions that will or may impact production or consumption of electricity associated with said plurality of energy consumption devices;

at least one said energy production source is in electrical communication with the automated electrical system controller system;

at least one said energy storage device is in electrical communication with the automated electrical system controller system;

at least one said energy consumption device; and

at least one said device sensor in communication with the automated electrical system controller system and an end user interface system, the at least one device sensor including memory, the memory including priority information regarding a priority of one or more said energy consumption devices associated with the at least one device sensor, the at least one device sensor operable to transmit information to the automated electrical system controller system, wherein the automated electrical system controller system selectively energizes or deenergizes the devices associated with the at least one device sensor or vary energy produced by said energy production sources based at least in part on the priority information associated with each of the at least one device sensors and on available energy produced by the at least one said power production source as well as energy consumption of at least one said energy consumption devices receiving energy generated by said at least one energy production source.

2. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, further comprising at least one smart power consumption device, the at least one smart device operable to transmit information to the automated electrical system controller system without the use of the at least one device sensor.

3. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the first output comprises a network disruption prediction report comprising a list of network nodes, missions, locations or other elements comprising one or more said energy production sources which are presently at risk or are predicted to be at risk within 72 hours or less based on:

outputs from the first, second, and third machine readable instructions,

the plurality of business analytics data,

the data from the potential disruption event database, and

data provided by the at least one device sensor;

wherein the second output comprises a list and at least one network diagram showing a plurality of proposed network disruption prevention actions determined based on;

outputs from the first, second, and third machine readable instructions,

the plurality of business analytics data,

the data from the potential disruption event database, and

data provided by the at least one device sensor; and

wherein the third output comprises a critical path listing showing critical elements, nodes, or links from the first output with a proposed corrective action, including corrective actions which are automatically implemented by the electrical system.

4. The automated electrical system control system of claim 3, further comprising at least one portable computer in communication with the automated electrical system controller system to issue commands to the automated electrical system controller system, the at least one portable computer including an input/output portion adapted to display a graphical interface showing the first, second, and third outputs.

5. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the at least one power production source is at least one of a photovoltaic generator, a solar cell power generator, a concentrated solar power generator, a fossil fuel generator, a wind turbine generator, a pyrolysis power generator, a fuel cell power generator, a geothermal power generator, a hydroelectric power generator, a nuclear power plant, a wave powered power generator, or a connection to a local, national, or international electrical grid.

6. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of energy storage devices comprises at least one of dry cell batteries, wet cell batteries, rechargeable batteries, capacitors, fly-wheel energy storage systems, hydraulic energy storage systems, steam based systems, pressure based systems, the creation of biofuels, or the storage or heating of heated liquids or solids.

7. The automated electrical system control system of claim 6, wherein the rechargeable batteries comprises at least one lithium-ion, lithium, nickel-metal hydride, nickel cadmium, or lead-acid rechargeable batteries.

8. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, further comprising a power conditioner in electrical communication with the automated electrical system controller system, wherein said power conditioner comprises a section that receives commands from said automated electrical system controller system to convert power output from said energy production sources or energy storage devices to alter or change said power output to configure said power output that was configured for one said energy consumption device so it is compatible with a different said energy consumption device that has different power conditioning requirements.

9. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the automated electrical system controller system is operable to choose one or more of the one or more energy production sources to generate electricity based at least in part on the input received from the plurality of sensors.

10. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensors include at least one sensor to measure tactical information, said tactical information comprising position, movement, or number of personnel or equipment, a position of geological features or terrain characteristics, or the position, movement, and number of Government forces.

11. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the priority information is transmitted to the automated electrical system controller system over a power line.

12. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the priority information is stored in one or more radio frequency identification devices (RFID) associated with each of the at least one device sensors.

13. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein location of the RFID is tracked by a plurality of RFID sensors.

14. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the device sensor further transmits one or more codes to the automated electrical system controller system, and wherein the automated electrical system controller system interprets the one or more codes and energizes the device sensor based on the acceptance of one or more of the one or more codes.

15. The automated electrical system control system of claim 1, wherein the priority information associated with each of the at least one device sensors is changed based on the priority of the user operating the device sensor.

16. An automated electrical system controller comprising:

a machine readable storage medium altered to comprise a plurality of non-transitory machine readable instructions, comprising;

an adapter to receive data inputs including potential electrical power disruption related data from a plurality of environmental sensors operable to receive input related to one or more environments or surroundings or monitored by the plurality of environmental sensors, wherein said environmental sensors measure the one or more environmental conditions that will or may impact production, storage, or consumption of electricity associated with at least one of a plurality of electrical systems comprising one or more energy production systems that supply electrical power to one or more electrical energy consumption devices, said electrical energy consumption devices, and one or more electrical storage devices that supply electrical power to at least one of said electrical energy consumption devices;

a data aggregator to receive data from the adapter and group or organize the data including the potential electrical power disruption related data;

an analytics engine to receive the data comprising grouped or organized data from the data aggregator and analyze the data comprising the potential electrical power disruption related data to generate one or more power disruption determination output data based on matching at least one or more of said potential electrical power disruption related data with at least one power disruption condition comprising said one or more environmental condition that has occurred that will or may impact production, storage, or consumption of electricity associated with at least one of said plurality of electrical systems, the analytics engine outputs and said one or more power disruption determination output data;

a control module configured to receive said one or more power disruption determination output data from the analytics engine and output one or more power control commands to one or more of said plurality of electrical systems; and

at least one or more device sensors in communication with an end user, the at least one device sensors including memory, the memory including priority information regarding a priority of at least one of said plurality of electrical systems that are associated with one or more of the at least one device sensors, the at least one device sensors operable to transmit information to the adapter, wherein the control module selectively energizes or deenergizes at least one of the plurality of electrical systems that are associated with one or more of the device sensors based at least in part on one or more of the priority information and on available energy produced by at least one said energy production systems and energy consumed by at least one said energy consumption devices receiving energy generated by said at least one energy production systems.

17. The automated electrical system controller of claim 16, wherein the plurality of environmental sensors include at least one sensor to measure tactical information comprising position, movement, or number of personnel or equipment, a position of geological features or terrain characteristics, or position, movement, and number of government forces.

18. The automated electrical system controller of claim 16, wherein the analytics engine is operable to choose one or more of the one or more said energy production systems to generate electricity based at least in part on the input received from the plurality of environmental sensors.

19. The automated electrical system controller of claim 16, further comprising at least one portable computer in communication with the electrical system controller to issue commands to the electrical system controller.

20. The automated electrical system controller of claim 16, wherein the priority information is transmitted to the adapter or device sensors over a power line.

21. The automated electrical system controller of claim 16, wherein the priority information is stored in RFID associated with each of the at least one device sensors.

22. A method of operating an electrical system controller configured for predicting electrical requirements and electrical power disruptions and automatically controlling electrical equipment based on predictions of said electrical requirements and electrical power disruptions by said electrical system controller, comprising:

operating a control system to receive a plurality of data from one or more data input sources including at least one environmental sensor operable to receive a plurality of first inputs related to one or more environments and at least one device sensor operable to receive a plurality of second data from one or more end users regarding power usage and future requirements of one or more energy production sources and one or more devices comprising electrical consumption devices that receive power from at least one said energy production source, the at least one device sensor including memory, the memory including priority information regarding an assigned priority of each said one or more devices that is associated with each said at least one device sensor, the at least one device sensor operable to transmit device sensor information to said control system including said priority information;

operating said control system to extract key signatures from the plurality of first data received from the one or more data input sources based on matching one or more of said plurality of first data with a library comprising at least one or more power disruption event data associated with the electrical production devices which supply power to said electrical consumption devices;

operating said control system to learn and store the key signatures extracted from the plurality of first data received from the one or more said data input sources;

operating said control system to predict future power requirements or power disruptions associated with the key signatures and generate one or more future power requirement or power disruption predictions data; and

operating said control system to control power generation by at least one power production source as well as storage, and distribution of outputs of said power production source according to the one or more future power requirements or the power disruption predictions data by selectively energizing or deenergizing one or more of the devices associated with the at least one device sensor based at least in part on receipt of the one or more predictions, the priority information associated with each of the at least one device sensors and on available energy produced by at least one said power production source.