Power aggregation system for distributed electric resources

• US 10,279,698 B2
• Filed: 08/11/2016
• Issued: 05/07/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 08/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gridpoint (Twenty First Century Utilities LLC)
• Original Assignee: V2Green, Inc. (Twenty First Century Utilities LLC)
• Inventors: Bridges, Seth W., Pollack, Seth B., Kaplan, David L.
• Primary Examiner(s): McAndrew, Christopher P
• Application Number:
  US15/234,843
• Publication Number:
  US 20160347195A1
• Time in Patent Office: 999 Days
• Field of Search: 320107
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 2240/80 Time limits
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/00 Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/51 Photovoltaic means
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/52 Wind-driven generators
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/63 in response to network capacity
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 53/64 Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates
• CPC Class Codes: B60L 55/00 Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 13/026 using a predictor
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00007 using the power network as support for the transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/008 involving trading of energy or energy transmission rights
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/322 the battery being on-board an electric or hybrid vehicle, e.g. vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G], power aggregation, use of the battery for network load balancing, coordinated or cooperative battery charging
• 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 7/007 Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/04 Regulation of charging current or voltage
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 7/34 Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other dc sources, e.g. providing buffering H02J7/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• 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 10/126 : the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/14 : Energy storage units
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 : Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 30/14 : Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/121 : using the power network as support for the transmission
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/14 : Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/16 : Energy services, e.g. dispersed generation or demand or load or energy savings aggregation

Abstract

Systems and methods are described for a power aggregation system. In one implementation, a method includes establishing a communication connection with each of multiple electric resources connected to a power grid, receiving an energy generation signal from a power grid operator, and controlling a number of the electric resources being charged by the power grid as a function of the energy generation signal.

Claims

1. A power system, comprising:

a flow controller, operable to communicate with one or more electric vehicles intermittently connected to a power grid, each vehicle having constraints, the flow controller comprising;

a connection manager operable to communicate with the one or more electric vehicles;

a database operable to store historical data for the one or more electric vehicles;

a prediction engine operable to make predictions about a connection between the one or more electric vehicles and the power grid using the historical data; and

a constraint optimizer operable to;

(i) determine an availability of the one or more electric vehicles to establish the connection to the power grid based on the constraints; and

(ii) send a power flow control signal, via the connection manager, to the one or more electric vehicles when the constraints are satisfied,

wherein the prediction engine is operable to build a plurality of parameterized models configured to make the predictions, and each model of the plurality of parameterized models is configured to make the predictions about a plurality of the one or more electric vehicles.

2. The power system of claim 1, wherein:

the constraints comprise an available service for the one or more electric vehicles and a pricing level for the available service; and

the constraint optimizer is operable to determine an availability of the one or more electric vehicles to provide the available service to the power grid based on the pricing level.

4. The power system of claim 1, wherein the prediction engine is operable to predict a behavior of the power grid.

5. The power system of claim 1, further comprising a charging component communicatively coupled to the flow controller, wherein the charging component is operable to:

establish the connection between the one or more electric vehicles and the power grid;

receive the power flow control signal from the flow controller; and

send information about the connection to the flow controller.

6. The flow controller claim 1, further comprising a directory server operable to communicate with at least one other flow controller.

7. The power system of claim 6, wherein the directory server is operable to communicate with the at least one other flow controller based on a location of the one or more electric vehicles.

8. The power system of claim 6, wherein the directory server outputs a signal when the at least one other flow control server is available to communicate.

9. The power system of claim 1, further comprising a grid interaction manager operable to send the power flow control signal to a power grid operator of the power grid when the constraints of the one or more electric vehicles are satisfied.

10. The power system of claim 9, wherein the grid interaction manager is operable to send the power flow control signal to the power grid operator at various points of time after the constraints are satisfied.

11. The power system of claim 1, wherein the constraints of the one or more electric vehicles include one or more of:

a price sensitivity;

a revenue sensitivity;

a manual override; and

an owner preference.

12. The power system of claim 1, wherein the connection manager outputs a signal if the one or more electric vehicles remain disconnected from the power grid for a predetermined amount of time.

14. The power system of claim 5, wherein the charging component charges the one or more electric vehicles according to a standard charging mode when there is no communication with the flow controller.

15. The power system of claim 14, wherein the standard charging mode includes preprogrammed instructions.

16. The power system of claim 14, wherein the standard charging mode includes instructions about when to charge the one or more electric vehicles.

17. The power system of claim 14, wherein the standard charging mode includes a learned behavior of the one or more electric vehicles.

18. The power system of claim 14, wherein the charging component is configured to cache information about the connection when there is no communication with the flow controller.

19. The power system of claim 1, wherein the constraint optimizer is operable to select a time and rate of charge and a time and rate of discharge of the one or more electric vehicles based on the historical data.

3. A power system, comprising:

a flow controller, operable to communicate with one or more electric vehicles intermittently connected to a power grid, each vehicle having constraints, the flow controller comprising;

a connection manager operable to communicate with the one or more electric vehicles;

a database operable to store historical data for the one or more electric vehicles;

a prediction engine operable to make predictions about a connection between the one or more electric vehicles and the power grid using the historical data; and

a constraint optimizer operable to;

(i) determine an availability of the one or more electric vehicles to establish the connection to the power grid based on the constraints; and

(ii) send a power flow control signal, via the connection manager, to the one or more electric vehicles when the constraints are satisfied,

wherein the constraints comprise a price sensitivity and an available service for the one or more electric vehicles and a pricing level for the available service,

wherein the constraint optimizer is operable to determine the availability of the one or more electric vehicles to provide the available service based on a price of energy and the price sensitivity, and

wherein the constraint optimizer is further operable to determine an availability of the one or more electric vehicles to provide the available service to the power grid based on the pricing level.

13. A power system, comprising:

a flow controller, operable to communicate with one or more electric vehicles intermittently connected to a power grid, each vehicle having constraints, the flow controller comprising;

a connection manager operable to communicate with the one or more electric vehicles;

a database operable to store historical data for the one or more electric vehicles;

a prediction engine operable to make predictions about a connection between the one or more electric vehicles and the power grid using the historical data; and

a constraint optimizer operable to;

(i) determine an availability of the one or more electric vehicles to establish the connection to the power grid based on the constraints; and

(ii) send a power flow control signal, via the connection manager, to the one or more electric vehicles when the constraints are satisfied,

wherein the prediction engine is operable to build a separate parameterized model corresponding to each electric vehicle of the one or more electric vehicles, and each separate parameterized model is configured to make predictions about a behavior of the corresponding one electric vehicle.