WO2009020606A1

WO2009020606A1 - System to manage demand driven load control

Info

Publication number: WO2009020606A1
Application number: PCT/US2008/009422
Authority: WO
Inventors: Rajesh Ramesh
Original assignee: Honeywell International Inc.
Priority date: 2007-08-09
Filing date: 2008-08-06
Publication date: 2009-02-12

Abstract

A system includes a first subsystem configured to estimate energy demand among a plurality of energy consuming devices and to schedule energy consumption among the energy consuming devices responsive to the demand. A second subsystem is coupled to the first subsystem, and the second subsystem is configured to manage a load of the plurality of energy consuming devices as a function of the schedule of energy consumption.

Description

SYSTEM TO MANAGE DEMAND DRIVEN LOAD CONTROL

Related Applications

[0001] This application claims priority under 35 U.S. C. § 119 to India

Application No. 1692/DEL/2007, filed August 9, 2007, which application is incorporated herein by reference and made a part hereof.

Technical Field

[0002] Various embodiments relate to demand for electricity, and in an embodiment, but not by way of limitation, to managing demand driven load control.

Background

[0003] In order to meet the growing demand for electricity, electric utilities have employed demand side management strategies. A Demand Side

Response (DSR) describes a consumer's response to a curtailment signal, i.e., a signal sent by the electric utility to a consumer's dwelling cutting back on the power supplied to the consumer or a particular appliance of the consumer. To be acceptable however, these demand side management strategies must not adversely affect the comfort of the consumer when these strategies affect such things as air conditioning.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0004] FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example embodiment of a

Demand Side Response system.

[0005] FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart of an example process executed in a Demand Side Response system.

[0006] FIG. 3 illustrates another block diagram of an example embodiment of a Demand Side Response system.

[0007] FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a residence that is part of a

Demand Side Response system. [0008] FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of a controller of a Demand

Side Response system. [0009] FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of another controller of a

Demand Side Response system.

Detailed Description [0010] In the following detailed description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings that show, by way of illustration, specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. It is to be understood that the various embodiments of the invention, although different, are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Furthermore, a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described herein in connection with one embodiment may be implemented within other embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, it is to be understood that the location or arrangement of individual elements within each disclosed embodiment may be modified without departing from the scope of the invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims, appropriately interpreted, along with the full range of equivalents to which the claims are entitled. In the drawings, like numerals refer to the same or similar functionality throughout the several views.

[0011] Embodiments of the invention include features, methods or processes embodied within machine-executable instructions provided by a machine-readable medium. A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism which provides (i.e., stores and/or transmits) information in a form accessible by a machine (e.g., a computer, a network device, a personal digital assistant, manufacturing tool, any device with a set of one or more processors, etc.). In an exemplary embodiment, a machine-readable medium includes volatile and/or non- volatile media (e.g., read only memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memory devices, etc.), as well as electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.)).

[0012] Such instructions are utilized to cause a general or special purpose processor, programmed with the instructions, to perform methods or processes of the embodiments of the invention. Alternatively, the features or operations of embodiments of the invention are performed by specific hardware components which contain hard-wired logic for performing the operations, or by any combination of programmed data processing components and specific hardware components. Embodiments of the invention include digital/analog signal processing systems, software, data processing hardware, data processing system-implemented methods, and various processing operations, further described herein. [0013] A number of figures show block diagrams of systems and apparatus of embodiments of the invention. A number of figures show flow diagrams illustrating systems and apparatus for such embodiments. The operations of the flow diagrams will be described with references to the systems/apparatuses shown in the block diagrams. However, it should be understood that the operations of the flow diagrams could be performed by embodiments of systems and apparatus other than those discussed with reference to the block diagrams, and embodiments discussed with reference to the systems/apparatus could perform operations different than those discussed with reference to the flow diagrams. [00141 FlG. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of a system 100 to manage demand driven load control. The system 100 includes a first subsystem 110, a second subsystem 120, and a third subsystem 130. The subsystem 110 has an estimation unit 112, a scheduling unit 114, and an enterprise aggregation unit 116. The subsystem 120 includes a Sensor Unit 121, a Demand Side Response (DSR) unit 122, a DSR Gateway Unit 124, and a DSR Display Unit 128, and an Energy Measurement Unit 129. The sensor unit 121 can either be a single sensor or a combination of multiple sensors. It can measure parameters like temperature, humidity, and it can also detect whether there are persons in the vicinity. The DSR unit 122 includes an ON/OFF control module 123 and a set point control module 127. The DSR Gateway unit 124 has a DSR Aggregation Unit 125 and DSR Command Unit 135. It receives input from an energy measurement unit 129 at an associated appliance or other power consuming device, and sensor measurements from the Sensor unit 121. The DSR Command Unit 135 sends commands to the DSR Unit 124. The subsystem 130 includes aggregation at the zone aggregation unit 131 and a scheduling at zone scheduling unit 132. The zone aggregation unit 131 aggregates data for a particular zone, such as particular street or a particular group of buildings on a campus. A communication infrastructure can connect the first subsystem 110, the second subsystem 120, and the third subsystem 130. The Display Unit at residence/business 128 can be used for displaying actions performed by the DSR Gateway 124. The Display unit 128 can also be used to display any specific messages from first subsystem or the third subsystem. [0015] The system 100 functions as follows. The energy measurement unit 129 at a residence/business measures the energy consumption of one or more energy consuming devices and/or appliances at the residence. The DSR aggregation unit 125 (at the residence) receives all the data from the energy measurement unit 129, and transmits that data to the zonal aggregation unit 131. The zonal aggregation unit transfers the data to the enterprise aggregation unit 116. It also transmits the information from the sensor unit 121. The enterprise aggregation unit 116 provides that data to the estimation unit 112. Since the enterprise aggregation unit 116 receives load data from all the DSR residence aggregation units 125 in the enterprise, the data provided to the estimation unit 112 includes the load profiles of the entire enterprise. [0016] The estimation unit 112 triggers the scheduling unit 114 by providing inputs on the required action of the Demand Side Response. For example, the scheduling function provided by the scheduling unit 114 can be as simple as sending the required energy savings in a particular zone to the DSR Scheduling Zonal Unit 132. The DSR Zonal Scheduling Unit 132 then sends the message to the DSR Gateway 124. The DSR Gateway 124 sends the message to the DSR unit 122. The DSR unit 122 implements the required energy savings by invoking one or more of the ON/OFF control module 123 and/or the set point control module 127. The ON/OFF control module 123 provides/denies power to those devices which need to be added/removed to/from the electrical circuit, and the set point control module 127 alters the set point (e.g., the temperature setting of an air conditioning unit and/or a hot water heater) of a power consuming device or appliance. [0017] FIG. 2 illustrates in block diagram/flowchart form an example of the functionality of the system 100 of FIG. 1. In block 210, energy consumption at an energy-consuming device or appliance is measured. This measurement includes energy verification. Energy verification is the measurement, using reliable and certifiable means, that the DSR has actually saved the required power (as calculated by the estimation unit 112). hi block 215, sensor measurements within the home, such as a temperature measurement, are performed. At 220, the energy consumption for each appliance at a residence is aggregated, and at 225, the energy consumption for each appliance throughout the enterprise is aggregated. At 255, other functions are considered such as the inside temperature (of the house) and/or the outside temperature. At 230, an estimation of the energy consumption is calculated, hi this calculation, the weather forecast is taken into account, and DSR profiles can be considered to forecast the need based on historical usage patterns. Based on this estimation, the amount of power supplied throughout the enterprise, including to particular residences and appliances, is scheduled (235). At 240, the power management strategy of the estimation unit 112 is implemented. This can involve set point control (244) (raise or lower the setting of an appliance) and/or an ON/OFF control (246) of an appliance. A consumer can be given the ability to manually override these scheduling implementations (250). The system can also produce reports, calculate and analyze trends, and display information to operators (260). [0018] FIG. 3 illustrates an example of two portions of a management system — the control center 310 and a home (or residence or business). FIG. 3 does not show the DSR Zonal Gateway 130, rather it shows direct communication between the control center 310 and the home. Introduction of the DSR Zonal Gateway 130 creates the concept of zones and the DSR Zonal Gateway 130 acts as the aggregator for that zone. FIG. 3 further illustrates DSR Aggregation Servers (DAS) 315 and DSR Aggregation clients 320. The DSR servers 315 provide the enterprise functions for the DSR system such as the estimation of the amount of energy that should be saved and the ON/OFF control and set point control functions. The DSR servers 315 interact with one or more DSR communication boxes 325. The DSR server 315 also runs other algorithms to support the system. [0019] As noted, the DSR servers 315 communicate through a communication network with one or more residences (or places of business). The communication network can include a modem 347, a wireless router 345, wireless clients 355, an IR transmitter 360, and the DSR Gateway 361. In an example, the DSR servers 315 manage a demand driven load strategy of a hot water heater 335 and an air conditioning unit 340. The communication over the gateway can include one or more of Broadband over Power Lines (BPL), Digital Subscriber Lines (DSL), or other communication technologies. The communication terminates at the communication modem at the home 347. The router 345 and the wireless clients 355 enable the communication within the home via a WiFi LAN. For example, the router 345 could be a 802.11 b/g router. Associated with the hot water heater 335 and the air conditioning unit 340 are energy meters 336 and 341 respectively. The energy meters 336 and 341 communicate with the DSR servers 315 via the DSR gateway 361. In an example, the hot water heater 335 is controlled by a relay 370, and the air conditioning unit 340 is controlled with an Ethernet-based table top IR Transmitter 360.

[0020] FIG. 4 illustrates a block diagram of a residence 400. The residence 400 is installed with boxes 410, 420 for the controlling, measuring, and communicating functions of the hot water heater 335 and the air conditioning units 340. The wireless gateway 430 communicates with the boxes 410 and 420, such as by using the 802.1 lb/g protocol. In this example, the box 410 is associated with controlling an air conditioning unit, and includes logic for temperature measurement, communicating with the DSR servers 315, receiving control instructions from the DSR servers, and implementing those instructions. Similarly, the box 420 is associated with a hot water heater, and it can host the gateway interface with the DSR servers, measure the energy consumption of air conditioning, hot water heating, and other circuits, and it can control one or more of the circuits such as the hot water circuit. [0021] FIG. 5 illustrates an example physical implementation 500 of a

DSR unit 122 and a DSR gateway 124 for a hot water circuit in block diagram form. The implementation 500 includes a wireless client 505. The wireless client connects to the wireless gateway by converting the 802.11 b/g wireless network into Ethernet packets. A power supply 513 powers the wireless client 505 and the DSR Gateway 515. The implementation 500 further includes an energy meter 525 for the hot water heater, and an energy meter 530 for the air conditioning unit. A relay 535 is coupled to and receives commands from the DSR Gateway 515.

[0022] The energy meter 525 measures the energy on the hot water heater circuit, and the energy meter 530 measures the energy on the air conditioning circuit. A switch 540 cuts off power to the power supply 513, thereby disabling the DSR, and allowing a customer to disable (i.e., manually override) the system.

[0023] FIG. 6 illustrates an example physical implementation 600 of a

DSR set point control module and a DSR Sensor unit 620 for an air conditioning circuit in block diagram form. The implementation 600 is normally placed inside of a residence. A power supply unit 610 takes a 230V input (or other higher voltage input) and generates voltages appropriate for the wireless client , IR Transmitter 625, and the DSR Sensor Unit 620. The IR transmitter 625 enables communication between the implementation 600 and the air conditioning unit, such as to alter the set point of the air conditioning unit. [0024] The implementations 500 and 600 both can have wireless clients that connect to the wireless router. The wireless routers connect to the communication technology within the home to connect to the outside world — this may be BPL, DSL, broadband, or other communication technology. A wireless LAN (802.11 b/g) is formed between the wireless router and the wireless clients within the implementations 500 and 600. Each device is assigned an IP address. For the home, the DSL or BPL modem is assigned an externally addressable IP address. The IR transmitter, the DSR sensor, and the DSR Gateway (e.g., RTU) are assigned IP addresses within the internal LAN formed within the house. For the network, the server is assigned an IP address. The DSR-Gateway communicates to the DSR servers over a BPL modem (or DSL or broadband) and the wireless LAN (formed by the wireless client within implementation 500 and the wireless router near the BPL modem). The DSR Gateway communicates to the temperature sensor and IR transmitter over the wireless LAN. Communication from the server reaches the DSR Gateway via the DSL/BPL modem which can have port forwarding enabled. [0025] For ON/OFF control, the DSR Gateway (e.g., RTU) controls the relay of the hot water heater circuit using the relay via the digital output on the DSR Gateway. The DSR Gateway is thus directly connected to the relay.

[0026] For energy measurement, energy meters are connected to the hot water circuit and the air conditioning circuit. The controller 500/600 receives the amount of energy consumed by the hot water circuit and the air conditioning circuit using the energy meters via pulse inputs connected to the DSR Gateway 515. A higher resolution energy meter can be used for the air conditioning circuit.

[0027] For temperature measurement, the temperature within a room is assessed by the temperature sensor. The DSR Gateway 515 acquires the temperature information via the wireless LAN. [0028] For air conditioning control, it is achieved by programming codes into the IR transmitter offline during configuration of the IR transmitter. The IR transmitter can also have a receiving function for such programming. The code can be activated via remote commands from the DSR Gateway 515, which is controlled by commands from the DSR servers. [0029] In the foregoing detailed description, various features are grouped together in one or more examples or examples for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is not to be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimed examples of the invention require more features than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matter lies in less than all features of a single disclosed example. Thus the following claims are hereby incorporated into the detailed description as examples of the invention, with each claim standing on its own as a separate example. It is understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. It is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Many other examples will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. In the appended claims, the terms "including" and "in which" are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms "comprising" and "wherein," respectively. Moreover, the terms "first," "second," and "third," etc., are used merely as labels, and are not intended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

[0030] The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b) to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. The Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Claims

1. A system comprising: a first subsystem configured to estimate energy demand among a plurality of energy consuming devices and to schedule energy consumption among said energy consuming devices responsive to said demand; and a second subsystem, coupled to said first subsystem, said second subsystem configured to manage a load of the plurality of energy consuming devices as a function of said schedule of energy consumption.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said second subsystem further comprises a demand side response gateway configured to execute energy control of said energy consuming devices as a function of a plan of an energy consumption pattern.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said gateway is part of a communication network of a zonal gateway management system, the zonal gateway management system communicating with said first subsystem.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said energy consuming devices comprise one or more of an air conditioning unit or a hot water heater.

5. The system of claim 1 , further comprising one or more energy meters coupled to said one or more energy consuming devices.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a display unit, the display unit configured to provide one or more of messages from a demand side response zonal gateway or the first subsystem.

7. A system comprising: a first subsystem, the first subsystem comprising an estimation module, a scheduling module, and an enterprise aggregation module; and a second subsystem, coupled to the first subsystem, the second subsystem comprising a demand side response unit and a residence aggregation unit, the demand side response unit further comprising an ON/OFF control module, a set point control module, and an energy measurement module; wherein the energy measurement module is configured to measure energy consumption at one or more energy consuming devices; the residence aggregation unit is configured to receive data from the energy measurement module and transmit said data to said enterprise aggregation module; the enterprise aggregation module is configured to aggregate said data from one or more of said residence aggregation units and transmit said data to said estimation module; and the estimation module is configured to implement a demand side response by triggering said scheduling module.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the ON/OFF control module is configured to switch power on or off to the one or more energy consuming devices.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the set point control module is configured to alter a set point of the one or more energy consuming devices.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the first subsystem and second subsystem are coupled by a communication infrastructure.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the second subsystem is associated with one or more of a private residence or a place of business.

12. The system of claim 7, wherein the energy consuming devices comprise one or more of an air conditioning unit and a hot water heater.

13. The system of claim 7, further comprising one or more energy meters coupled to said one or more energy consuming devices.

14. The system of claim 7, further comprising a display unit, the display unit configured to provide information relating to the demand side response unit, a demand side response zonal gateway, or the first subsystem.

15. A process comprising: measuring an amount of energy consumed by one or more energy consuming devices; aggregating the amount of energy consumed by the one or more energy consuming devices; estimating the energy consumption of a future time period; and scheduling an amount of power to be supplied as a function of the estimated energy consumption.

16. The process of claim 15, further comprising verifying that the energy consumption was actually saved.

17. The process of claim 15 , wherein the aggregating the amount of energy consumed by the one or more energy consuming devices comprises: aggregating the energy consumed by one or more energy consuming devices at a residence; and aggregating the energy consumed by energy consuming devices at a plurality of residences.

18. The process of claim 15, where the estimating the energy consumed in a future time period uses one or more of a predicted outside temperature and a historical usage pattern.

19. The process of claim 15, wherein the scheduling the amount of power to be supplied comprises one or more of an ON/OFF change or a set point change.

20. The process of claim 15, further comprising overriding the scheduling of the amount of power to be supplied.