WO2010145856A2

WO2010145856A2 - Method for determining power consumption costs

Info

Publication number: WO2010145856A2
Application number: PCT/EP2010/054066
Authority: WO
Inventors: Steffen Fries; Hans-Joachim Hof
Original assignee: Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
Priority date: 2009-06-15
Filing date: 2010-03-29
Publication date: 2010-12-23
Also published as: WO2010145856A3; DE102009024921A1

Abstract

For optimized energy management in the private or commercial sector, information about the current power costs and information about the power consumption is essential. The invention provides a method with which both the power consumption and the power costs for a related power load can be determined. Indicating the actual power consumption costs for different time frames is made possible according to the invention by combining the current consumption information with the power price information in effect at the time of the power consumption.

Description

description

Method for determining electricity consumption costs

The present invention relates to a method and a system for determining power consumption costs with a switching device connected to at least one power consumer.

The billing of energy providers is usually the total energy consumption per month in kilowatt hours (kWh). Modern household appliances also allow the current energy consumption over a shorter period of time in kilowatts per hour (kW / h) display. However, such a display does not take account of the price at which the electricity consumed was used and therefore the amount of electricity consumed.

Energy supply companies (RUs) already offer contracts in which the electricity consumed at night is offered at a different price than the electricity consumed during the day. For the future, further flexibility in electricity prices due to a dynamic electricity market is to be expected. In this electricity market, customers can buy electricity at prices that depend on the current situation in the electricity grid.

The increasing decentralized generation of energy, for example by means of renewable energy in individual households, is expected to result in greater fluctuations in the supply of electricity depending on the time of day or the weather, which will also be reflected in the electricity price. Furthermore, it is planned, for example, to offer certain incentive tariffs which enable the energy provider to switch off certain devices or device classes depending on the network load and thus avoid voltage surges.

These changes in the energy market mean that consumers can benefit from a targeted organization of their private energy savings can be expected to bring significant savings. For example, well-known initiatives to improve household energy management are supported by Google. Google Going Green (http://www.google.com/coty_corporate/ green / t ool_s-for-users.html) outputs the energy consumed in kilowatt-hours for a desktop computer, allowing it to measure the power consumption of individual computers. Google Powermeter

(http://www.googl e.org/p powermeter) collects information from available electricity meters to measure and chronicle energy consumption per household. This should enable participants to better analyze their energy consumption and optimize it accordingly.

Not taken into account in these known methods, however, the costs resulting from the power consumption remain. Especially against the background of dynamic electricity tariffs, however, electricity price information would be indispensable for optimized energy management in the private household.

Consequently, the object of the present invention is to specify a method with which both the power consumption and the electricity costs for a respective power consumer can be determined.

This object is achieved by a method and a system having the features of claims 1 and 6. Advantageous developments of the invention are specified in the dependent claims.

According to the invention, a method for determining power consumption costs has a switching device connected to at least one power consumer. A power consumer transmits a power request message to the switch, which determines and provides power price information. The power consumer determines and provides power consumption information of the requested power. Based on the electricity price information and the Power consumption information, the power consumption costs are determined.

The invention accordingly provides a method which combines the power consumption per unit together with that at the time of the

Consumption valid electricity price and stored, for example, in one or more tables. The current electricity price can be entered locally or made available automatically by the energy provider or an energy marketplace via a network. The power consumption costs, for example in the form of tables, can be stored in the individual electricity consumers (appliances), on the switching equipment or in separate facilities provided for this purpose. The power consumption costs are used for example by one or more display devices to indicate the power consumption not only in kilowatt-hours (kWh), but also the actual energy costs in euros. For example, the actual energy costs in euros per appliance for a previous month or the actual energy costs in euros per appliance for the current month or the last 15 minutes can be given as information. This not only enables a generally cost-optimized advance planning of the total energy consumption per household, but also a device-specific advance planning, for example for a washing machine or an air conditioning system.

The inventive system for determining power consumption costs has a switching device connected to at least one power consumer. The switching device has means for determining and providing electricity price information. The power consumer has means for identifying and providing power consumption information. The power consumption costs can be determined for a power consumer on the basis of the electricity price information provided and the power consumption information provided. The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to embodiments and the figures.

It shows:

FIG. 1 shows a method sequence for determining power consumption costs between a device and a switching device;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of the communication relationships between three devices, a switching device and the energy market,

FIG. 3 shows an application example of the present invention for a domestic appliance,

FIG. 4 shows another application example of the present invention for a household appliance,

FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of the communication relationships between three devices, a switching device, the energy market and a mobile terminal,

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of a proxy according to the invention for determining the power consumption costs at one or more power consumers.

FIG. 7 shows a schematic representation of the communication relationships between three devices, two proxies, a switching device and the energy market.

By merging power consumption information according to the invention with the current price information valid at the time of the power consumption, it is possible to indicate the actual power consumption costs for different periods of time. This information provides the consumer with additional information that optimized energy management, in particular for dynamic price models of energy providers.

The additional transparency helps the consumer not only to save energy, but also to act cost-consciously. In addition, based on the energy consumption costs, the consumer can control the corresponding appliances in his household not only according to time requirements, but also taking into account the currently valid electricity price.

1 shows a flowchart of a method for determining the power consumption costs between a device 101 and a switching device 102. First, the device 101 transmits a power request message 103 to the switching device 102. The device 101 is for example a washing machine that wants to start a washing program. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the device 101 additionally transmits in the power request message the amount of electricity consumption that is expected to be required. In the example with the washing machine, this would be the expected power required for the selected wash program.

The switching device 102 determines the current electricity tariff, for example, based on a locally stored contract with the energy provider. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the switching device 102 is connected to the energy provider via a network connection, so that the current electricity tariff is interrogated by the switching device 102 via this network connection. Subsequently, the switching device 102 sends to the device the determined electricity tariff 104, for example in combination with a switch-on command. Here, for example, provided that the electricity tariff for a kilowatt hour or the total price for the expected amount of electricity consumption is specified. After the device 101 has completed the action or the program which was the cause of the power request, the device 101 notifies the switching device 102 of the actual consumption in kilowatt-hours or euros with 105. Alternatively, it is provided that the device at regular intervals of the switching device In this way, the consumer has the opportunity to query the consumption data (power consumption, electricity price, electricity consumption costs) via the single device 101 or via the switching device 102.

FIG. 2 shows the basic communication relationships of a system according to the invention. In this exemplary embodiment, three devices 201, 202, 203 are shown, which are connected to a switching device 204. The communication connection here is wired and / or wireless. For a wired communication connection, for example, LAN connections or PLC (Powerline Communication) connections can be used. The switch 204, in turn, is connected to an energy market via a network connection. The network connection can be, for example, an Internet connection, via which information of an energy market can be queried. The energy market 205 is usually a commercial energy provider through which the electricity is sourced at a tariff offered.

FIG. 3 shows an application example of the present invention for a domestic appliance, in this case a coffee machine. The coffee maker 301 is equipped with a display means 302 which presents information to a user. For example, via a communication link to the switch, a communication module of the coffee machine 301 sends a power request message along with a presumed power consumption and, in response to the switch, receives the power cost based on the current power tariff and the expected amount of electricity required. Thus, on the display means 302 of the coffee machine 301, for example, the price in euros can be given, which arises for the brewing of a pot of coffee. This price is based on current energy costs and estimated future consumption.

Another application example for a domestic appliance is shown in FIG. 4, in which a display means 402 is applied to a control panel 401. The control panel is used for example for controlling an air conditioner or central control of individual household appliances. On the display means 402 then a profile of the power consumption or consumption costs per device or per device class can be displayed.

FIG. 5 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the present invention based on the system illustrated in FIG. 2, in which the energy consumption costs are provided by the switching device 204 to other mobile terminals 501. Mobile terminals are, for example, mobile phones, PDAs or laptops, which have at least one communication interface and a display means. The information can be transmitted by the switching device 204, for example via wireless (Bluetooth, WLAN, ZigBee, ...) or via wired communication paths to the mobile terminal. The transmission takes place in this case, for example, at regular intervals or after a request by the mobile terminal.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, the power consumption costs are determined and provided by a proxy, which is arranged between the switching device and at least one power consumer. Such a proxy 601 is shown in FIG. 6, comprising a communication unit 602, an energy metering unit 603, a processing unit 604 and a storage unit 605. The communication unit 602 and the energy metering unit 603 are so connected in the power grid. arranged, that the consumed power of a connected device or a connected device group can be measured by the energy metering unit 603 and the communication unit 602 can communicate for example via a power line communication connection with the switching device. Thus, the proxy 601 provides the option, on the one hand, of knowing the current electricity tariff from the switching device via the communication unit 602 and, on the other hand, of measuring the current power consumption via the energy metering unit 603. The power consumption costs can then be determined via the processing and storage unit 604, 605 on the basis of the electricity price information provided and the power consumption information provided. Such a proxy has the advantage that household appliances need not be retrofitted for the method according to the invention, but that the method according to the invention can be used by connecting a proxy upstream.

For this purpose, the proxy is switched to the energy supply of the corresponding household appliance. The communication unit 602 communicates in this example via powerline communication with the switching device. The proxies deployed measure the power consumption at regular intervals and communicate with the switching center to find the current price per kilowatt-hour. On the switch, the prices are either pre-set by a user, are entered interactively, or the switch receives the prices over a network connection from an energy market. The storage unit 605 of the proxy stores tables of power consumption and current power price at that time. Alternatively, the measured power consumption values are transmitted to the switching device, which leads the table with power consumption and electricity price.

Finally, FIG. 7 shows an exemplary embodiment of a circuit arrangement in which a proxy precedes a single one Device 701 and a proxy in front of a device group 702 is switched. In the first case 701, the proxy provides power consumption costs for the single device 703, while in the second case, the proxy 702 provides power consumption costs for the device group consisting of the devices 704 and 705.

Claims

claims

A method for determining power consumption costs with a switching device connected to at least one power consumer, wherein

the power consumer transmits a power request message to the switch,

the switching device determines and provides electricity price information, the current consumer determines and provides current consumption information of the requested current,

- the electricity consumption costs are determined on the basis of the electricity price information and the electricity consumption information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the power consumption information indicates an expected consumption.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the power consumption information indicates an actual consumption.

4. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the electricity price information is input on the switching device.

5. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the electricity price information is retrieved by the switching device via a network connection.

6. A system for determining electricity consumption costs, comprising a switching device connected to at least one power consumer, wherein - the switching device has means for determining and providing electricity price information,

- the electricity consumers have means for the identification and provision of electricity consumption information, so that the Power consumption costs for a power consumer based on the provided electricity price information and the provided power consumption information can be determined.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the power consumption costs are determined and provided by the switch.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the power consumption costs are determined and provided by the power consumer.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the power consumption costs are determined and provided by a proxy located between the switch and at least one power consumer