Flexible administrative model in an electric vehicle charging service network

• US 9,852,386 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2012
• Issued: 12/26/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/18/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chargepoint, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Charepoint Incorporated
• Inventors: Solomon, James, Tormey, Milton T., Taylor, John Eduard
• Primary Examiner(s): CHOUDHURY, AZIZUL Q
• Application Number:
  US13/475,899
• Publication Number:
  US 20130311658A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,048 Days
• Field of Search: 709225, 320109
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/40 Business processes related to the transportation industry shipping G06Q10/083
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/48 for electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/0013 acting upon several batteries simultaneously or sequentially H02J7/1423 takes precedence
• 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 30/14 Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing

Abstract

A method and apparatus for creating one or more groups of electric vehicle charging objects includes receiving input from an organization to group a selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, creating the group in response to the received input, where the created group includes as its members the selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, and performing a set of acts for the members of the group as a whole.

Claims

1. A method for creating one or more groups of electric vehicle charging objects, comprising:

receiving first input from an organization to create a first group of a first selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, wherein the first selected set of electric vehicle charging objects includes a plurality of electric vehicle charging station objects that represent a plurality of electric vehicle charging stations respectively;

creating the first group in response to the received first input, wherein the created first group includes as its members the first selected set of electric vehicle charging objects; and

performing a set of one or more acts for the members of the first group, wherein performing the set of acts for the members of the first group includes performing the following;

receiving second input from the organization to grant a set of one or more rights over the first group to a different organization, wherein the set of one or more rights includes one or more of;

charging station rights and energy management rights, and

granting the set of rights to the different organization;

wherein the organization is a company and the different organization is a utility organization that supplies energy for the plurality of electric vehicle charging stations represented by the plurality of electric vehicle charging station objects;

receiving third input from the organization to create a second group of a second selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, wherein the second selected set of electric vehicle charging objects further includes a plurality of administrator objects that represent a plurality of administrators respectively;

creating the second group in response to the received third input, wherein the created second group includes as its members the second selected set of electric vehicle charging objects; and

performing a set of one or more acts for the members of the second group.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving fourth input from the organization that indicates a purpose of the first group.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving fourth input from the organization to create a third group of a third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, wherein the third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects includes a plurality of electric vehicle operator objects that represent a plurality of electric vehicle operators respectively;

creating the third group in response to the received fourth input, wherein the created third group includes as its members the third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects; and

performing a set of one or more acts for the members of the third group.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving fourth input from the organization to create a third group of a third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, wherein the third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects includes a plurality of electric vehicle objects that represent a plurality of electric vehicles respectively;

creating the third group in response to the received fourth input, wherein the created third group includes as its members the third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects; and

performing a set of one or more acts for the members of the third group.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the set of rights further includes one or more of:

network management rights, station management rights, station partner rights, installation rights, detailed usage analysis rights, and summary usage analysis rights.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the energy management rights include demand response rights allowing the utility organization to shed at least some load being drawn by the plurality of electric vehicle charging stations represented by the plurality of electric vehicle charging station objects.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that provides instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause said processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving first input from an organization to create a first group of a first selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, wherein the first selected set of electric vehicle charging objects includes a plurality of electric vehicle charging station objects that represent a plurality of electric vehicle charging stations respectively;

creating the first group in response to the received first input, wherein the created first group includes as its members the first selected set of electric vehicle charging objects; and

performing a set of one or more acts for the members of the first group, wherein performing the set of acts for the members of the first group includes performing the following;

receiving second input from the organization to grant a set of one or more rights over the first group to a different organization, wherein the set of one or more rights includes one or more of;

charging station rights and energy management rights, and

granting the set of rights to the different organization;

wherein the organization is a company and the different organization is a utility organization that supplies energy for the plurality of electric vehicle charging stations represented by the plurality of electric vehicle charging station objects;

receiving third input from the organization to create a second group of a second selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, wherein the second selected set of electric vehicle charging objects further includes a plurality of administrator objects that represent a plurality of administrators respectively;

creating the second group in response to the received third input, wherein the created second group includes as its members the second selected set of electric vehicle charging objects; and

performing a set of one or more acts for the members of the second group.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the medium further provides instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operation:

receiving fourth input from the organization that indicates a purpose of the first group.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the medium further provides instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operations:

receiving fourth input from the organization to create a third group of a third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, wherein the third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects includes a plurality of electric vehicle operator objects that represent a plurality of electric vehicle operators respectively;

creating the third group in response to the received fourth input, wherein the created third group includes as its members the third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects; and

performing a set of one or more acts for the members of the third group.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the medium further provides instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause said processor to perform the following operations:

receiving fourth input from the organization to create a third group of a third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects, wherein the third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects includes a plurality of electric vehicle objects that represent a plurality of electric vehicles respectively;

creating the third group in response to the received fourth input, wherein the created third group includes as its members the third selected set of electric vehicle charging objects; and

performing a set of one or more acts for the members of the third group.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the set of rights further includes one or more of:

network management rights, station management rights, station partner rights, installation rights, detailed usage analysis rights, and summary usage analysis rights.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the energy management rights include demand response rights allowing the utility organization to shed at least some load being drawn by the plurality of electric vehicle charging stations represented by the plurality of electric vehicle charging station objects.