System and method of controlling delivery and/or usage of a commodity
First Claim
1. A method for managing demand for a commodity provided by a utility company, the utility company delivering the commodity to a plurality of customer sites, the customer sites each having a plurality of devices which use the commodity, including the steps of:
- providing a plurality of nodes, each node being associated with a corresponding device of the plurality of devices at the customer site;
defining an energy management program at the utility company having a subset of the plurality of devices for which usage of the commodity may be managed by activating the energy management program;
measuring, by each associated node, the instantaneous rate at which the commodity is being delivered to the associated device,receiving at the utility company in real time, the instantaneous rate at which the commodity is being delivered to each of the devices;
determining at the utility company, in real time, a capacity of the commodity that can be managed by the utility company by activating the energy management program, the capacity being determined by the instantaneous rate at which the commodity is being delivered to the subset of the plurality of devices;
selectively activating the energy management program at the utility company to manage the usage of the commodity by the subset of devices; and
determining an actual consumption of the commodity at each device of the plurality of devices at the customer site following activation of the program such that the utility company can verify, in real time, management of the commodity usage for each device of the plurality of devices at the customer site following activation of the program.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method manage delivery of energy from a distribution network to one or more sites. Each site has at least one device couple to the distribution network. The at least one device controllably consumes energy. The system includes a node and a control system. The node is coupled to the at least one device for sensing and controlling energy delivered to the device. A control system is coupled to the node and distribution network for delivering to the node at least one characteristic of the distribution network. The node for controls the supply of energy to the device as a function of the at least one characteristic.
405 Citations
36 Claims
-
1. A method for managing demand for a commodity provided by a utility company, the utility company delivering the commodity to a plurality of customer sites, the customer sites each having a plurality of devices which use the commodity, including the steps of:
-
providing a plurality of nodes, each node being associated with a corresponding device of the plurality of devices at the customer site; defining an energy management program at the utility company having a subset of the plurality of devices for which usage of the commodity may be managed by activating the energy management program; measuring, by each associated node, the instantaneous rate at which the commodity is being delivered to the associated device, receiving at the utility company in real time, the instantaneous rate at which the commodity is being delivered to each of the devices; determining at the utility company, in real time, a capacity of the commodity that can be managed by the utility company by activating the energy management program, the capacity being determined by the instantaneous rate at which the commodity is being delivered to the subset of the plurality of devices; selectively activating the energy management program at the utility company to manage the usage of the commodity by the subset of devices; and determining an actual consumption of the commodity at each device of the plurality of devices at the customer site following activation of the program such that the utility company can verify, in real time, management of the commodity usage for each device of the plurality of devices at the customer site following activation of the program. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 35, 36)
-
-
26. A system for managing demand for a commodity provided by a utility company, the utility company delivering the commodity to a plurality of customer sites, each customer site having a plurality of devices which use the commodity, comprising:
-
a utility interface, operable by a user at the utility company, for defining an energy management program having a subset of the plurality of devices for which usage of the commodity at the customer site may be managed by activating the energy management program; a distribution network for delivering the commodity to the subset of devices at the customer site; a plurality of nodes, each node associated with a respective device of the subset of devices at the customer site; and
,a control system coupled to the utility interface, the distribution network, and the nodes, for reducing the delivery of the commodity to the subset of the plurality of devices by activating the energy management program via the nodes, wherein the control system is operable to determine, in real time, a capacity of the commodity that can be managed by the utility company by activating the energy management program, the capacity being determined by an instantaneous rate at which the commodity is being delivered to each device of the subset of the plurality of devices at the customer site, wherein the control system is further operable to determine, in real time, an actual consumption of the commodity by each device of the subset of the plurality of devices at the customer site following activation of the energy management program. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
-
Specification