JP5852950B2 - Power demand control system and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a power demand control system and method for preventing tightness of power supply and demand.

As power shortages are expected to continue over the medium to long term, technologies that efficiently use power to save power consumption are attracting attention in order to prevent tight supply and demand.
For example, Patent Document 1 describes an automatic control system and an automatic control method for recognizing a user's entry and exit from a facility using an RFID tag and controlling home appliances based on the presence status of the user.

  In addition, in Patent Document 2, when there is no person in the installation room in the home mode, the air conditioner is saved and the operation is stopped after a certain period of time, the lighting fixture is turned off or the low illumination is turned on, and in the absence mode. A security robot is described that turns off the luminaire during the day, turns on the luminaire during the night, and turns off the light during the night.

  If these technologies are adopted, the home electric appliances are automatically controlled, which makes it possible to save power consumption and reduce the electricity bill.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-320828 JP 2006-318173 A

In general, power consumption is required to be reduced in the daytime in summer when demand peaks occur, or in the time when power supply and demand is tight, such as when the power supply of a power company is reduced due to equipment failure.
However, since the techniques described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 reduce power consumption by controlling home appliances such as home appliances depending on whether or not there are people in the customer's home, It is difficult to reduce power consumption in a time zone where power saving is truly required, such as a time zone expected to be tight. In other words, the power consumption reduction method that does not take into account the power supply and demand situation cannot cope with the need for further power saving when the supply capacity is insufficient. On the other hand, even when there is a margin in supply capacity, power consumption is unconditionally suppressed, which is not preferable in terms of power leveling and maintenance of user comfort.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above circumstances, and the purpose of the invention is to reduce power consumption in a time zone in which it is necessary to truly reduce power consumption, such as a time zone in which power supply and demand is expected to be tight. An object of the present invention is to provide a power demand control system and method capable of effectively performing processing.

In order to achieve the above object, one aspect of the present invention is that an information processing device operated by a power provider or another service provider and a plurality of customer homes in a power supply area are provided with power from the power provider. A power demand control system that controls the power demand of the customer's home by communicating with a customer home control device connected to a plurality of home devices operating in response to supply via a communication network. Then, the information processing device creates a power consumption reduction control plan for a plurality of home appliances in the customer's home and transmits it to the customer home control device, and the power supplier is expected to be tight in power supply and demand If it is, notification information to that effect is transmitted to the consumer premises control device. Further, the information processing apparatus acquires the maximum power consumption, which is a power attribute of the customer premises equipment, as the power demand information of the customer premises, and sums the maximum power consumption for the plurality of consumer premises. The tightness of power supply and demand in the region is predicted from the amount and the amount of power supplied from the power transmission equipment. On the other hand, the customer premises control device receives and stores the information indicating the power consumption reduction control plan transmitted from the information processing device, and in this state, the information processing device accompanies a tight prediction of the power supply and demand. When the notification information is received, control is performed to limit the operations of the plurality of home devices based on the information representing the stored power consumption reduction control plan, and the stored power consumption reduction control plan is further displayed. The input of information for correcting the information to be expressed is received, and the stored power consumption reduction control plan is updated based on the input correction information.

One aspect of the present invention is characterized by comprising the following various aspects.
In the first aspect, the consumer home control device generates power attribute information of the plurality of home devices and transmits the power attribute information to the information processing device, and the information processing device is transmitted from the consumer home control device. Based on the power attribute information, a power consumption reduction control plan for the plurality of home devices is created.

The second mode is the power consumption reduction control plan created based on the power attribute information transmitted from the consumer premises control device by the information processing device, or the power consumption reduction updated based on the correction information. The power demand is predicted based on the control plan.

  According to one aspect of the present invention, in the customer premises control device, the power consumption reduction control provided from the information processing device when receiving notification information indicating that the tightness of power supply and demand is expected from the information processing device. A process for restricting the operations of a plurality of in-home devices is performed based on information representing a plan. For this reason, it becomes possible to reduce the power consumption of the customer's home in a time zone where power saving is truly required, such as a time zone where power supply and demand is expected to be tight. In addition, since the power consumption reduction control plan is created by the information processing apparatus and provided to the consumer's home, the user at the customer's home does not need to create a power consumption reduction control plan by himself.

  In addition, if the processing for creating and providing the power consumption reduction control plan is performed by, for example, an information processing apparatus operated by a third business operator different from the power business operator, the same type of processing is consolidated and efficiently performed. The power demand can be limited, and the electric power company can be spared the financial and time investment for creating and providing the power consumption reduction control plan.

  According to the first aspect, the information processing apparatus creates a power consumption reduction control plan for the home device based on the power attribute information of the plurality of home devices transmitted from the consumer home control device. For this reason, an appropriate power consumption reduction control plan is taken into consideration for each customer's home in consideration of the power attribute information of each home appliance, for example, the type and location of home appliances, the average power consumption value and the maximum power consumption value. It becomes possible to create.

  According to the second aspect, in the customer premises control device, the user can correct the power consumption reduction control plan sent from the information processing device. For this reason, even if the power consumption reduction control plan sent from the information processing device does not match the actual situation, it can be changed to the optimal power consumption reduction control plan according to the purpose of use of the home appliances for each customer's home It becomes. For example, air conditioning between customers who are subject to operation stop in the power consumption reduction control plan is excluded according to the visitor's schedule, or air conditioning and television in a child room that is not subject to operation stop in the power consumption reduction control plan It is possible to make corrections such as adding a lighting fixture to the operation stop target.

  According to the third aspect, in the information processing device, the power consumption reduction control plan created based on the power attribute information transmitted from the consumer premises control device, or the power consumption updated based on the correction information Electric power demand prediction is performed based on the reduction control plan. For this reason, it becomes possible to predict the power consumption reduction effect from the power consumption reduction control plan that the customer's home uses as basic data for the power consumption reduction process, and the power company reflects this prediction information in the power supply and demand plan. It is possible to optimize supply and demand.

  For example, based on the predicted value of the power consumption reduction effect, for example, whether the power company needs to start a standby power plant or whether it is necessary to purchase power from another power company. It becomes possible to judge. It is also possible to determine whether the service area for which power consumption is to be reduced is expanded or reduced.

The figure which shows the whole structure of the electric power demand control system which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. The block diagram which shows the structure of the HEMS server of the electric power demand control system shown in FIG. The block diagram which shows the structure of the aggregation server of the electric power demand control system shown in FIG. The block diagram which shows the structure of the area | region electric power supply-and-demand adjustment server of the electric power demand control system shown in FIG. The block diagram which shows the structure of the in-house electric power supply-and-demand adjustment server of the electric power demand control system shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the hourly electricity bill in normal times. The figure which shows the example of a change of the hourly electricity bill when the tightness of power supply-demand is anticipated. FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram showing data exchange for power demand control in the power demand control system shown in FIG. 1. The figure for demonstrating the first half part of the electric power demand control operation | movement in the electric power demand control system shown in FIG. The figure for demonstrating the second half part of the electric power demand control operation | movement in the electric power demand control system shown in FIG.

Embodiments according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[One Embodiment]
(Constitution)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a power demand control system according to an embodiment of the present invention, where PS is a power company, HM1 to HMn (n is a natural number, for example, 100 houses) are customer homes, Reference numeral 6 denotes an aggregation server operated by the information collecting company, and 7 denotes a home power supply / demand adjustment server 7 operated by the service company.

  The electric power company PS includes a power transmission facility 1 and supplies electric power from the power transmission facility 1 to a plurality of customer homes HM1 to HMn via the transmission and distribution network PNW. In addition to the power transmission facility 1, the electric power company PS is provided with an intra-regional power supply and demand adjustment server 2 as an information processing apparatus. This regional power supply and demand adjustment server 2 can communicate with the HEMS server 4 provided in each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn via the communication network CNW. Note that the communication network CNW includes the Internet and an access network for accessing the Internet. As the access network, a wired telephone network, a wired LAN (Local Area Network), a mobile phone network, a wireless LAN, or the like is used.

  The customer homes HM1 to HMn include a plurality of home appliances 31 to 3k (k: natural number) including home appliances, a distribution board 5, and a HEMS (Home Energy Management System) server 4 as a consumer home control device. The electric power supplied from the power transmission facility 1 of the electric power company PS is supplied to the home devices 31 to 3k via the distribution board 5. In FIG. 1, for the sake of simplicity of illustration, the configuration in the customer's home is shown only for HM1, and illustration of HM2 to HMn is omitted.

  Incidentally, the HEMS server 4 is configured as follows. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration. That is, the HEMS server 4 includes a control unit 41, a communication interface 42, an input unit 43, a storage unit 44, a control signal transmission unit 45, and a home appliance information reception unit 46.

  The communication interface 42 uses the communication protocol defined by the communication network CNW under the control of the control unit 41, the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company, the in-house power supply and demand adjustment server 7 of the service company, and the power business Data communication is performed with the power supply / demand adjustment server 2 in the area of the person PS.

  The input unit 43 includes a keyboard and a mouse, or a touch panel type input device, and is used by a user at a customer's home to input correction information for a power consumption reduction plan sent from the home power supply / demand adjustment server 7 described later.

The in-home device information receiving unit 46 communicates with the in-home devices 31 to 3k under the control of the control unit 41, and receives in-home device information from the in-home devices 31 to 3k.
The storage unit 44 includes a nonvolatile memory such as a flash memory that can be written to and read from time to time, and is used to store in-home device information and information indicating a home device control plan.
The control signal transmission unit 45 has a function of transmitting operation control signals of the in-home devices 31 to 3k output from the control unit 41 described later to the in-home devices 31 to 3k.

  The control unit 41 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit). As control functions necessary for carrying out the present embodiment, a home device information collection / transmission control unit 411, a home device control plan acquisition control unit 412, and a control plan are provided. A correction control unit 413 and a home appliance operation control unit 414 are provided. These control functions are realized by causing the CPU to execute an application program.

  The home device information collection / transmission control unit 411 acquires the home device information from the home devices 31 to 3k via the home device information receiving unit 46, stores the acquired home device information in the storage unit 44, and includes a communication interface. The process which transmits to the aggregation server 6 of an information collection provider from 42 is performed.

  The home appliance control plan acquisition control unit 412 receives the service provider's in-house power from the communication interface 42 when the electricity price change notification is sent from the in-region power supply / demand adjustment server 2 of the power provider PS in accordance with the forecast of tight power supply / demand. A request to create a home appliance control plan is transmitted to the supply and demand adjustment server 7. Then, when information indicating the home appliance control plan is sent from the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7, the information indicating the home device control plan is received by the communication interface 42 and stored in the storage unit 44.

  When the correction request for the home appliance control plan stored in the storage unit 44 is input by the input unit 43, the control plan correction control unit 413 reads the home appliance control plan and displays it on a display unit (not shown). Then, in accordance with the correction information input following the correction request, the displayed home appliance control plan is corrected, the corrected home appliance control plan is stored in the storage unit 44, and the communication interface 42 A process of transmitting to the in-house power supply / demand adjustment server 7 of the service provider is performed.

  When the electricity price change notification is sent from the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the electric power provider PS, the in-home device operation control unit 413, in the time zone targeted for power consumption reduction specified by the electricity price change notification, Based on the information representing the in-home device control plan stored in the storage unit 44, a control signal for individually controlling the operation of the in-home devices 31 to 3k is generated. And the process which transmits this produced | generated control signal toward the household devices 31-3k from the control signal transmission part 45 is performed.

  The aggregation server 6 of the information collection company is configured as follows. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration. That is, the aggregation server 6 includes a control unit 61, a communication interface 62, and a home appliance information storage unit 63.

  The communication interface 62 uses the communication protocol defined by the communication network CNW under the control of the control unit 61, and the HEMS server 4, the in-region power supply / demand adjustment server 2 of the power company PS, and the in-house power of the service company Data communication is performed with the supply and demand adjustment server 7.

  The in-home device information storage unit 63 is used to store the in-home device information transmitted from the HEMS server 4 of each of the consumer homes HM1 to HMn in association with the identification information of the consumer home of the transmission source.

  The control unit 61 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and includes a home device information reception transfer control unit 611 and a home device information transmission control unit 612 as control functions necessary for carrying out the present embodiment. Yes. Each of the control units 611 and 612 is realized by causing the CPU to execute an application program.

  Upon receiving the home device information transmitted from the HEMS servers 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn via the communication interface 62, the home device information reception / transfer control unit 611 stores the received home device information in the home device information storage unit 63. While saving, the process which transfers to the in-area electric power supply-demand adjustment server 2 of the electric power provider PS from the communication interface 62 as the information showing the electric power demand of consumer homes HM1-HMn is performed.

  When the home appliance information transmission control unit 612 receives the home appliance information acquisition request from the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 of the service provider, the home appliance information transmission control unit 612 reads out the corresponding home appliance information from the home appliance information storage unit 63 and reads this The home appliance information is transmitted from the communication interface 62 to the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 of the requesting service provider.

  The in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the electric power company PS is configured as follows. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration. That is, the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power company PS includes a control unit 21, a communication interface 22, and a storage unit 23.

  The communication interface 22 uses the communication protocol specified by the communication network CNW under the control of the control unit 21, and uses the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company, the in-house power supply / demand adjustment server 7 of the service company, and the HEMS server. Data communication with 4 is performed.

  The storage unit 23 uses a nonvolatile memory such as a hard disk or a flash memory that can be written and read as needed as a storage medium, and a power demand information database 231 and a power A charge database 232 and a power reduction effect information database 233 are provided.

  The power demand information database 231 is used to store information representing the power demands of the customer homes HM1 to HMn transferred from the aggregation server 6 of the information collecting company.

  The electric power rate database 232 stores information indicating the electric charges for each time zone for the service area, and information indicating the electric charges for each time zone when the tightness of power supply and demand is predicted. FIG. 6 shows an example of information representing the electricity charges for each time zone for normal use, and FIG. 7 shows an example of information representing the electricity charges for each time zone when the tightness of power supply and demand is predicted.

  The power reduction effect information database 233 is used to store information representing the power consumption reduction effect of each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn sent from the service provider home power supply and demand adjustment server 7.

  The control unit 21 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit). As control functions necessary for implementing this embodiment, a power demand information reception control unit 211, a power supply / demand monitoring unit 212, and a power rate change notification transmission unit are provided. 213 and a power reduction effect notification receiving unit 214. These control functions are realized by causing the CPU to execute an application program.

  The power demand information reception control unit 211 receives information representing the power demand of the customer homes HM1 to HMn transmitted from the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company via the communication interface 22, and the received consumer Information indicating the power demand of the homes HM1 to HMn is stored in the power demand information database 231 in association with the identification information of the customer homes HM1 to HMn.

  The power reduction effect notification receiving unit 214 receives the information indicating the power consumption reduction effect of the customer homes HM1 to HMn transmitted from the service provider's home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 via the communication interface 22, and receives the received information. The information indicating the power consumption reduction effect of the customer homes HM1 to HMn is stored in the power reduction effect information database 233 in association with the identification information of the customer homes HM1 to HMn.

  The power supply and demand monitoring unit 212 reads out the information indicating the power demand and the information indicating the power reduction effect in the customer homes HM1 to HMn from the power demand information database 231 and the power reduction effect information storage unit 223, respectively. Based on each information and information representing the power supply amount provided from the power transmission facility 1, a process of predicting the tightness of power supply and demand is performed.

  When the power supply / demand monitoring unit 212 predicts a power supply / demand tightness, the power charge change notification transmission unit 213 changes the power charge in the time zone in which the power supply database 232 expects the tightness. Read charge information. Then, the read price information by time zone, together with information indicating the time zone in which the tightness is expected, is sent as an electricity rate change notification from the communication interface 22 to the HEMS servers 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn in the service area. Process to send to.

  The service provider's residential power supply and demand adjustment server 7 is configured as follows. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration. That is, the service provider's home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 includes a control unit 71, a communication interface 72, and a storage unit 73.

  The communication interface 72 uses the communication protocol defined by the communication network CNW under the control of the control unit 71 to use the HEMS server 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn, the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company, and the power business. Data communication is performed with the power supply / demand adjustment server 2 in the area of the person PS.

  The storage unit 23 uses a nonvolatile memory such as a hard disk or a flash memory, which can be written and read as needed, as a storage medium. As a storage unit necessary for carrying out this embodiment, a home appliance information storage unit 731 The control plan storage unit 732 is included.

The home appliance information storage unit 731 is used to store home appliance information acquired from the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company.
The control plan storage unit 732 is used to store information representing the power consumption control plan of the home devices 31 to 3k created for each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn.

  The control unit 71 includes, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit). As control functions necessary for carrying out the present embodiment, a home appliance information acquisition control unit 711, a control plan creation unit 712, and a control plan transmission control unit 713 are provided. have. These control functions are realized by causing the CPU to execute an application program.

  The home appliance information acquisition control unit 711 receives the home appliance control plan creation request from the HEMS server 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn from the communication interface 62 to the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company. Send an acquisition request. Then, in response to this request, the home interface information of the customer homes HM1 to HMn returned from the aggregation server 6 is received by the communication interface 62 and stored in the home device information storage unit 731.

  The control plan creation unit 712 creates a home device control plan for each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn based on the home device information stored in the home device information storage unit 731 and stores it in the control plan storage unit 732 Perform the process.

  The control plan transmission control unit 713 reads out the home device control plan for each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn stored in the control plan storage unit 732, and transmits information indicating the read home device control plan from the communication interface 72. The process which each transmits toward the HEMS server 4 of applicable consumer house HM1-HMn is performed.

In addition, the control plan transmission control unit 713 displays a corresponding old control plan stored in the control plan storage unit 732 when a modified home appliance control plan is transmitted from the HEMS server 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn. A process of updating to the modified home appliance control plan is performed.
Furthermore, the control plan transmission control unit 713 uses the communication interface 72 as the information indicating the power consumption reduction effect by using the in-home device control plan or the modified control plan stored in the control plan storage unit 732 as the in-region power of the power provider PS. Processing to transmit to the supply and demand adjustment server 2 is also performed.

(Operation)
Next, the operation of the power demand control system configured as described above will be described. FIG. 8 is a sequence diagram showing data exchange for power demand control in the system, and FIGS. 9 and 10 are diagrams showing specific examples of the power demand control operation.
Here, it is assumed that there are 100 customer houses HM1 to HMn (n = 100) in the area, and the supply power of the power network 9 is 100 kW.

(1) Collection and notification of home device information In the customer homes HM1 to HMn, the HEMS server 8 first receives the home device information from the home devices 31 to 3k under the control of the home device information collection transmission control unit 411 of FIG. Acquired as shown in (1), and stores the acquired home device information in the storage unit 44. Here, the in-home device information is information indicating the power attributes of the in-home devices 31 to 3k, and includes, for example, information indicating the type of home appliance, its installation location, average power consumption, and maximum power consumption. Further, detailed data such as the manufacturer, model number, and date of manufacture of the device may be included.

Then, the HEMS server 8 transmits the acquired home device information to the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company as shown in (2) of FIG. 8 under the control of the home device information collection / transmission control unit 411. The aggregation server 6 receives the home device information transmitted from the HEMS servers 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn under the control of the home device information reception / transfer control unit 611, and sends the received home device information to the transmission source. The information is stored in the home device information storage unit 63 in association with the identification information of the customer's home. Then, as shown in (3) of FIG. 8, the received in-home device information is transferred to the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power company PS as information indicating the power demand of the customer homes HM1 to HMn.
In addition, it is not necessary to transfer in-house device information as information indicating the power demand, and the aggregation server 6 calculates the sum of the maximum power consumption based on the in-house device information of the customer homes HM1 to HMn in the area, for example. And you may make it transmit the sum total of the calculated maximum value of the power consumption in the area to the electric power supply-and-demand adjustment server 2 of the electric power provider PS as electric power demand information. The in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power company PS can grasp the in-region power supply and demand using this power demand information.

  The in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power company PS represents the power demand of the customer homes HM1 to HMn transmitted from the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company under the control of the power demand information reception control unit 211. Information is received, and the received information indicating the power demand of the customer homes HM1 to HMn is stored in the power demand information database 231 in association with the identification information of the customer homes HM1 to HMn.

  For example, for customer's home HM1, as shown in FIG. 9, model information of “TV”, “air conditioner”, “refrigerator”, “lighting 1” and “lighting 2”, and average power consumption and maximum power Is collected by the HEMS server 4 as in-home device information and is sent to the aggregation server 6, and is further transferred from the aggregation server 6 to the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power company PS. Similarly, collection and transfer processing of in-home device information is performed for the customer homes HM2 to HM100.

  The above-described collection / transfer processing of home device information is executed periodically (for example, at intervals of 10 minutes). Therefore, the power supply / demand adjustment server 2 in the region of the electric power company PS greatly differs from the current state based on the above-mentioned home device information that is regularly updated to determine the power demand in each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn in the region. It becomes possible to grasp without having to.

(2) Operation control of in-home equipment based on tight forecast of power supply and demand (2-1) Notification of change of electricity bill The power supply / demand adjustment server 2 in the electric power company PS uses the power supply and demand monitoring unit 212 to perform the above-mentioned consumer home HM1. The state of power supply and demand is monitored by comparing information representing power demand in HMn with information representing the amount of power supplied from the power transmission facility 1. When the power supply / demand tightness is expected, under the control of the power charge change notification transmission unit 213, the charge for each time zone in which the electricity charge in the time zone where the tightness is expected is changed from the power charge database 232 The information is read, and the read rate information by time zone is transmitted to the HEMS servers 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn as an electricity rate change notification as shown in (4) of FIG.

  For example, it is assumed that at 6 am on a certain day in summer, the predicted power consumption value of the power transmission / distribution network PNW in the time zone from 14:00 to 15:00 on that day becomes 98 kW, which may exceed the power supply capacity. In this case, the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power company PS determines that it is necessary to reduce the power consumption of the customer homes HM1 to HMn, and for example, as shown in FIG. Information on the electricity charges for each time zone changed to Yen / kWh is read from the electricity charge database 232 and transmitted to the HEMS servers 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn as electricity charge change notifications as shown in (4) of FIG. To do.

  In the HEMS servers 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn, when the above electricity bill change notification is received, the hourly electricity bill after the change is displayed on a television or a personal computer in the home (not shown). The user can know that the electric power supply and demand will be tight in the time zone from 14:00 to 15:00 on the current day, based on the displayed electricity bill after the change.

(2-2) Creation and provision of home appliance control plan Upon receiving the electricity price change notification, the HEMS servers 8 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn are controlled by the home device control plan acquisition control unit 412 in FIG. As shown in (5), a request for creating a home appliance control plan for reducing power consumption by the home appliances 31 to 3k is transmitted to the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 of the service provider.

  On the other hand, when the service provider's home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 receives a request to create a home device control plan from the HEMS servers 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn, under the control of the home device information acquisition control unit 711, A request for acquiring in-home device information is transmitted to the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company. In response to this request, when the aggregation server 6 returns the home device information of the customer homes HM1 to HMn as shown in (6) of FIG. 8, the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 is returned by the control plan creation unit 712. After analyzing the in-house device information, create a home device control plan for reducing the power consumption of the in-home devices 31 to 3k for each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn, and request it as shown in (7) of FIG. Return to the original HEMS server 4.

  For example, for the consumer's home HM1, a control plan for changing the settings of the air conditioner and the lighting is created in order to reduce power consumption in consideration of the comfort and health maintenance of the resident. Specifically, in summer, when the air conditioner cooling temperature setting is less than 28 ° C., the temperature setting is changed to 28 ° C., and when the illumination illuminance setting is higher than 50%, the illuminance setting is changed to 50%. Create a draft.

  For the customer's home HM2, for example, a control plan for prohibiting the use of the washing / drying machine is created in addition to changing the temperature setting of the air conditioner and changing the illumination intensity. Specifically, a control plan is prepared so that the customer's home HM2 does not operate even if it tries to use the washing / drying machine in a time zone subject to power consumption reduction.

  Similarly, for the customer's home HM100, for example, a control plan for changing the refrigerator to the energy saving mode is created in addition to changing the temperature setting of the air conditioner and changing the illumination intensity. Specifically, the refrigerator automatically shifts to the energy saving mode when the time for power consumption reduction is reached, stops the ice making function and suppresses airflow circulation, Create a control plan that displays the message “Suppress the number of opening and closing”.

  Upon receiving the home appliance control plan created as described above, the HEMS server 4 stores the received home device control plan in the storage unit 44 as shown in FIG. 10 and also stores it in the television or a personal computer (not shown). Display. The user can confirm the power consumption reduction operation at 14:00 based on the displayed home appliance control plan.

(2-3) Correction of Home Appliance Control Proposal By the way, the proposed home appliance control proposal proposed in the case where the above proposed home appliance control plan impedes daily life or further reduces power consumption. If it is not desired to apply the control as it is, the control plan can be corrected by a user operation as shown in (8) of FIG.

  The home appliance control plan correction process is performed as follows under the control of the control plan correction control unit 413. That is, the control unit 41 of the HEMS server 4 reads out the home appliance control plan from the storage unit 44 and displays it on a personal computer (not shown). When the user inputs correction information in the personal computer, the displayed home appliance control plan is corrected in accordance with the input correction information, and the corrected home appliance control plan is stored in the storage unit 44. To do.

  For example, with regard to the “change to 28 ° C. setting when the air-conditioner cooling temperature setting is less than 28 ° C.” proposed for the customer's home HM1, changing the setting to the 28 ° C. setting in the relevant time zone will improve comfort. If it is considered that the air conditioner will be damaged, it is corrected to “change to 26 ° C. setting when the temperature setting of the air conditioner is less than 26 ° C.”.

  Further, in the customer's home HM2, when it is considered that the washing / drying machine is scheduled to be used in the time zone targeted for power consumption reduction, a correction for deleting the use prohibition control is performed. Similarly, in the customer's home HM100, when it is considered that the housework will be hindered when the illumination intensity of the illumination 1 is 50%, a modification for deleting the illumination change control is performed. Further, it is possible to reject all the proposed home appliance control plans and modify the control plan so that the operation control of the home appliances is not performed during the power consumption reduction target time zone.

  On the contrary, when the user thinks that the power consumption can be further reduced than the proposed home appliance control plan, the contents can be corrected to reflect the content in the home device control plan. For example, in the customer's home HM1, when the room in which the lighting 2 is installed is not used in the time zone and it is considered that the lighting is unnecessary, the control content is corrected to “power OFF”.

(2-4) Re-determination of power supply / demand tightness and response based on the determination result The modified home appliance control plan is based on the service provider's home power supply / demand adjustment server 7 as shown in (8) of FIG. Accordingly, the corresponding old control plan stored in the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 is also updated. Under the control of the control plan transmission control unit 713, the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 converts the home device control plan stored in the control plan storage unit 732 or the modified control plan into (9) of FIG. ) Is transmitted to the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power company PS as information representing the power consumption reduction effect as shown in FIG.

  The in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power provider PS reduces the power consumption of the customer homes HM1 to HMn transmitted from the in-house power supply and demand adjustment server 7 of the service provider under the control of the power reduction effect notification receiving unit 214. Information representing the effect is received, and the received information representing the power consumption reduction effect of the customer homes HM1 to HMn is stored in the power reduction effect information database 233.

  Based on the power reduction effect information stored in the power reduction effect information database 233 by the power supply and demand monitoring unit 212 and the power supply amount of the power transmission facility 1, the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power provider PS Then, the degree of tightness of power supply and demand is determined again. Then, based on the determination result, for example, it is determined whether it is necessary to start a standby power plant or whether it is necessary to purchase electric power from another electric power company. In addition, it is determined whether to add or cancel a customer's home that is a target for power consumption reduction.

(2-5) Control of home appliances Now, let us assume that the current time is 14:00 at the start time of the time zone subject to the power consumption reduction. Then, the HEMS server 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn operates the home appliances 31 to 3k based on information representing the home appliance control plan stored in the storage unit 44 under the control of the home appliance operation control unit 413. A control signal for individually controlling the signals is generated. Then, the generated control signal is transmitted from the control signal transmission unit 45 to the in-home devices 31 to 3k as shown in (19) of FIGS. As a result, the operations of the home devices 31 to 3k are selectively controlled.

  For example, it is assumed that a customer equipment control plan as shown in FIG. 10 is stored in the customer's home HM1. In this case, * 1 in FIG. 10 indicates that the setting is changed to 28 ° C. when the temperature setting is less than 28 ° C. Therefore, at 14:00, which is the start time of the time zone subject to power consumption reduction, When the cooling temperature setting is less than 28 ° C., the setting is automatically changed to 28 ° C., and the setting change to less than 28 ° C. by the user of the customer's home HM1 is rejected until 15:00 when the time period ends.

Similarly, for lighting, * 2 in FIG. 10 indicates that the illuminance setting is changed to 50% when the illuminance setting is higher than 50%. The setting is changed to 50%, and the setting change to the illuminance higher than 50% by the user of the customer's home HM1 is rejected until 15:00. Therefore, the power consumption can be automatically reduced without the user consciously performing individual device control in the customer's home HM1.
In the above description, the setting change by the user is rejected during the time period subject to the power consumption control. However, it may be necessary to change the setting of the home device depending on the visitor or other circumstances. The setting change by the user may be performed even in the target time zone.

  In addition, in the customer's home HM1, in addition to changing the temperature setting of the air conditioner and changing the illumination intensity, a control plan for prohibiting the use of the washing / drying machine is stored. If you try to use it, it will not work and you will be forced to use it at other times. As a result, a peak shift in power demand can be expected.

  Furthermore, in consumer HM100, as shown in FIG. 10, in addition to changing the temperature setting of the air conditioner and changing the illuminance of the illumination, a control plan for changing the refrigerator to the energy saving mode is stored. For this reason, when entering the 14:00 range, the refrigerator automatically shifts to the energy saving mode, the ice making function is stopped and the air flow circulation is suppressed. Please "message appears. Therefore, at 14:00, the amount of power consumption reduced by the refrigerator is added, and further power saving is possible.

[Effect of one embodiment]
As described above in detail, in one embodiment, the home appliance information representing the power attributes of the home appliances 31 to 3k is collected from the HEMS server 4 of the customer homes HM1 to HMn by the aggregation server 6 of the information collection provider, and the service business The customer's home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 creates a home device control plan for the customer homes HM1 to HMn based on the home device information collected by the aggregation server 6 and provides it to the HEMS server 4. Each HEMS server 4 is provided in the time zone specified by the change notification when the electricity rate change notification is received from the power supply / demand adjustment server 2 in the region of the electric power company PS due to the tight forecast of the power supply / demand. The control for restricting the operation of the home devices 31 to 3k is performed according to the home device control plan.

  Therefore, in the customer homes HM1 to HMn, when the electricity rate change notification is received from the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power provider PS, the customer homes HM1 to HMn are based on the home appliance control plan provided from the home power supply and demand adjustment server The operations of the devices 31 to 3k are limited. For this reason, it becomes possible to reduce the power consumption of the customer homes HM1 to HMn in a time zone where power saving is truly required, such as a time zone in which power supply and demand is expected to be tight.

  The home appliance control plan is created based on the home appliance information representing the power attributes of the home appliances 31 to 3k for each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn in the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 of the service provider. For this reason, for each customer home HM1 to HMn, power consumption saving control is performed in consideration of the in-home devices 31 to 3k used in the customer home. Compared with the case where the unified power saving control is performed, the power saving control can be performed in consideration of the situation of the individual customer homes HM1 to HMn. That is, it is possible to achieve efficient power consumption reduction while maintaining user comfort and health for each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn.

  Further, the users of the customer homes HM1 to HMn do not need to create a home appliance control plan for reducing power consumption by themselves. Generally, at the time of a power consumption reduction request, the judgment of which equipment in the house is stopped or how much load control is performed can be efficiently reduced. Therefore, it is determined by the users of the consumer homes HM1 to HMn. It is difficult to judge. However, according to the present embodiment, since a home appliance control plan is created by the service provider's home power supply and demand adjustment server 7, an appropriate control plan can always be created without bothering the user.

  Further, the process of creating and providing the home appliance control plan for reducing power consumption uses the home appliance information collected by the aggregation server 6 operated by the information collection enterpriser, and the supply and demand This is performed by the adjustment server 7. For this reason, it is possible to consolidate the same kind of processing and efficiently realize the restriction of power demand, and the electric power company PS is spared from financial and time investment to create and provide a power consumption reduction control plan. It becomes possible.

  Furthermore, in one embodiment, the user can correct the home appliance control plan under the control of the control plan correction control unit 413. For this reason, the home appliances proposed by users of the customer homes HM1 to HMn, such as when the home appliance control plan proposed by the service provider impedes daily life or when the power consumption can be further reduced. When it is not desired to apply the control plan as it is, it can be changed to an optimal home device control plan according to the purpose of use of the home devices 31 to 3k for each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn.

  Furthermore, the electric power company PS predicts the power consumption reduction effect from the home appliance control plan created or modified for each of the customer homes HM1 to HMn. For this reason, it becomes possible to predict the power consumption reduction effect by the customer homes HM1 to HMn more accurately. As a result, the power company PS can optimize the supply and demand by reflecting the prediction result in the power supply and demand plan. For example, the power company PS can determine whether it is necessary to start up a standby power plant or whether it is necessary to purchase power from another power company. In addition, it is possible to determine whether the service area for which power consumption is to be reduced is expanded or reduced.

[Other Embodiments]
In the above embodiment, the HEMS server 4 acquires the power attribute information of the home devices 3 to 3k from the home devices 3 to 3k. However, the HEMS server 4 accesses the home device manufacturer's website and acquires it from the site. You may make it do. Further, when the aggregation server 6 of the information collection company collects and manages the power attribute information of all in-home devices on the market, the HEMS server 4 accesses the aggregation server 6 and acquires it. Also good.

  In the embodiment, the aggregation server 6 collects and stores in-home device information from the HEMS server 4, and the in-home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 acquires the stored in-home device information from the aggregation server 6 to control the in-home device. Made a draft. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 may collect and store home device information from the HEMS server 4 and create a home device control plan in response to a request from the HEMS server 4. Also, the power supply PS regional power supply / demand adjustment server 2 collectively collects the home appliance information and creates the home appliance control plan based on the information without relying on the aggregation server 6 and the home power supply / demand adjustment server 7. You may make it perform.

  In other words, in the above-described embodiment, three types of servers, namely, the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2, the aggregation server 6, and the in-house power supply and demand adjustment server 7 are held by different business entities to provide services. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible for the same business entity to hold multiple types of servers and provide services. For example, the same business operator has the aggregation server 6 and the home power supply / demand adjustment server 7, and can perform both information collection and home appliance control services.

  In the above embodiment, the change of the electricity rate is notified from the in-region power supply and demand adjustment server 2 of the power provider PS before a predetermined time (for example, 8 hours before) when the control of the home device is executed. The change of the electricity charge may be notified at an arbitrary time before the execution of.

  Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, when a change notification of the electricity bill is transmitted from the in-region power supply / demand adjustment server 2 of the electric power company PS, the in-house electric power supply / demand adjustment server 7 of the service company responds to the request of the HEMS server 4 The process to create a device control plan was executed. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and the service provider's home power supply and demand adjustment server 7 executes a process of creating a home appliance control plan in response to a request from the HEMS server 4 in advance before the notification of the change of the electricity bill is received. It may be. In this way, when a power consumption reduction request or supply / demand tightness notification is transmitted from the power company PS at the start time of the time zone subject to power consumption reduction, data to be processed (in-home equipment data) Even if the operation characteristics are analyzed in detail and the optimal operation is calculated, etc., and it takes a long time to create a home appliance control plan, control of the home equipment starts from the start time of the time zone subject to power consumption reduction. can do.

  Furthermore, in the said embodiment, although the temperature setting change of the air conditioner, the illumination intensity change, the prohibition of the use of the washer / dryer, the transition to the energy saving mode of the refrigerator and the power OFF were mentioned as the control example of the home appliance, It is possible to control various power saving functions and load control functions of recent electric devices.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, the in-home device information collected by the aggregation server 6 is used for power demand adjustment, but this information can also be used for providing other uses and services. For example, it can be used to provide a so-called “watching” service that grasps the living conditions of residents based on the power consumption information of the home devices 31 to 3k. Further, by accumulating information on the usage frequency and the load level during operation of the in-home devices 31 to 3k, it is possible to provide failure prediction information to the user and to provide a service that prompts maintenance and replacement.

  In addition, the number of customer houses in the area, the number of customer houses or areas to be set for power consumption reduction, the type and number of household devices used in the customer's house, and the customer home control device (HEMS server) The configuration of the information processing apparatus used by the power company, the information provider, and the service provider, the control function thereof, and the like can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  In short, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment as it is, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. Further, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the embodiment. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, you may combine suitably the component covering different embodiment.

  PS: Electricity provider, HM1 to HMn: Consumer home, PNW ... Transmission / distribution network, CNW ... Communication network, 1 ... Power transmission facility, 2 ... Regional power supply / demand adjustment server, 31-3k ... Home equipment, 4 ... HEMS server, 5 ... Distribution board, 6 ... Aggregation server, 7 ... In-house power supply / demand adjustment server, 21, 41, 61, 71 ... Control unit, 22, 42, 62, 72 ... Communication interface, 23, 73 ... Storage unit, 43 ... HEMS server input unit, 44 ... HEMS server storage unit, 45 ... control signal transmission unit, 46 ... home appliance information reception unit, 63 ... home appliance information storage unit, 211 ... power demand information reception control unit, 212 ... power supply / demand Monitoring unit, 213 ... Power rate change notification transmission unit, 214 ... Power reduction effect notification reception unit, 231 ... Power demand information database, 232 ... Power rate database, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Home equipment information collection transmission control part, 412 ... Home equipment control plan acquisition control part, 413 ... Home equipment operation control part, 611 ... Home equipment information reception transfer control part, 612 ... Home equipment information transmission control part, 711 ... Home Device information acquisition control unit, 712... Control plan creation unit, 713... Control plan transmission control unit, 731.

Claims (6)

Information processing devices operated by an electric power provider or other service providers and connected to a plurality of in-home devices that are installed in a plurality of customer homes in the power supply area and operate by receiving power supply from the power providers A power demand control system that controls the power demand of the customer's home by communicating with the customer's home control device via a communication network,
The information processing apparatus includes:
Means for creating a power consumption reduction control plan for a plurality of in-home devices of the customer's home;
The means for transmitting the created power consumption reduction control plan to the consumer premises control device via the communication network and the power supply / demand situation by the power provider are monitored, and power supply / demand tightness is expected Notification information transmitting means for transmitting notification information to that effect to the consumer premises control device via the communication network ,
The maximum power consumption, which is the power attribute of the customer premises equipment, is acquired as the power demand information of the customer premises, and the maximum power consumption is provided from the regional power demand amount and the power transmission facility obtained by summing up the plurality of consumer premises. Power supply and demand tightness prediction means for predicting the tightness of power supply and demand in the region from the power supply amount
The consumer premises control device is:
Means for receiving and storing the information representing the power consumption reduction control plan transmitted from the information processing apparatus via the communication network;
When the notification information indicating that the power supply and demand is expected to be tight is received from the information processing apparatus, the operations of the plurality of in-home devices are limited based on the stored information indicating the power consumption reduction control plan. Means for performing control,
Receiving an input of information for correcting the information representing the stored power consumption reduction control plan, and updating the stored power consumption reduction control plan based on the input correction information. Power demand control system featuring The consumer premises control device includes means for generating power attribute information of the plurality of home devices, and transmitting the generated power attribute information to the information processing device via the communication network,
The means for creating the power consumption reduction control plan of the information processing apparatus receives the power attribute information transmitted from the consumer premises control apparatus, and based on the received power attribute information, for the plurality of premises equipment The power demand control system according to claim 1, wherein a power consumption reduction control plan is created. The information processing apparatus includes:
Means for performing power demand prediction based on a power consumption reduction control plan created based on power attribute information transmitted from the consumer premises control device or a power consumption reduction control plan updated based on the correction information; The power demand control system according to claim 1, further comprising: Information processing devices operated by an electric power provider or other service providers and connected to a plurality of in-home devices that are installed in a plurality of customer homes in the power supply area and operate by receiving power supply from the power providers A power demand control method for controlling the power demand of the customer's home by communicating with the customer's home control device via a communication network,
The information processing apparatus, a process of creating a power consumption reduction control plan for a plurality of in-home equipment of the consumer house,
A process in which the information processing device transmits information representing the created power consumption reduction control plan to the consumer premises control device via the communication network; and Monitoring the situation, and transmitting a notification information to that effect to the consumer premises control device via the communication network when power supply and demand are expected to be tight,
The information processing apparatus acquires the maximum power consumption, which is a power attribute of the customer premises equipment, as power demand information of the customer premises, and the regional power demand amount obtained by summing the maximum power consumption for the plurality of consumer premises Predicting the tightness of power supply and demand in the region from the power supply amount provided from the power transmission facility, and
The consumer premises control device receives and stores information representing the power consumption reduction control plan transmitted from the information processing device via the communication network;
When the consumer premises control device receives notification information indicating that the power supply and demand is expected to be tight from the information processing device, the plurality of the plurality of the customer premises control devices based on the information indicating the stored power consumption reduction control plan The process of performing control to limit the operation of home appliances,
The consumer premises control device accepts input of information for correcting the information representing the stored power consumption reduction control plan, and the stored power consumption reduction control plan is received based on the input correction information. A power demand control method comprising: an updating process. The consumer premises control device further includes generating power attribute information of the plurality of home devices, and transmitting the generated power attribute information to the information processing device via the communication network,
The process of creating the power consumption reduction control plan of the information processing apparatus receives power attribute information transmitted from the consumer premises control apparatus, and based on the received power attribute information, the plurality of premises equipment 5. The power demand control method according to claim 4, wherein a power consumption reduction control plan is created.   The information processing apparatus uses the power consumption reduction control plan created based on the power attribute information transmitted from the consumer premises control apparatus or the power consumption reduction control plan updated based on the correction information. The power demand control method according to claim 4 or 5, further comprising a process of performing demand prediction.

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