Patent application number | Description | Published |
20110016200 | SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING DEMAND RESPONSE SERVICES - A system for providing demand response services relative to a resource. Demand response information may be conveyed by a provider of the resource to demand-response logic. The logic may translate the demand response information into one of a pre-defined finite amount or number of demand response levels. These levels may be translated to device states, and in turn the device states may be translated to device commands. The translations may be based on rules designed to effect a resource usage scenario. The rules may be easily changed. The commands may be provided to devices at one or more facilities. The devices may control loads, which consume the resource, in accordance with the device commands. The devices may also provide information, such as conditions and resource consumption, relative to the facilities to the provider of the resource. The commands and information may be conveyed via local and wide communication networks. | 01-20-2011 |
20110125542 | DEMAND RESPONSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A demand response management system which may be implemented with demand response logic. The system may be used by utilities, independent system operators, intermediaries and others to manage operations of demand response programs relative to customers, clients, participants, and users of outputs from the utilities, independent system operators, and the like. Demand response logic of the demand response management system may provide demand signal propagation and generation from demand response events. | 05-26-2011 |
20110301774 | SYSTEM FOR USING ATTRIBUTES TO DEPLOY DEMAND RESPONSE RESOURCES - A system for using attributes to deploy demand response resources. A service provider may provide energy to customers. The provider may via interactions modify consumption of the energy by the customers. Customers that participate in these interactions may be regarded as demand response resources. Interactions may incorporate demand response signals sent to the resources at their respective facilities. Each resource may have a demand response client which has an association with a customer account in a demand response management system of the provider. The association may be regarded as a binding of the demand response client. The binding may involve inputting an attribute of the demand response client, which can be correlated to the customer account. The attribute may be, for example, a location of the demand response client. Such attribute may be used for the association of the demand response client with a proper customer account. | 12-08-2011 |
20120066686 | DEMAND RESPONSE SYSTEM INCORPORATING A GRAPHICAL PROCESSING UNIT - A system and approach for utilizing a graphical processing unit in a demand response program. A demand response server may have numerous demand response resources connected to it. The server may have a main processor and an associated memory, and a graphic processing unit connected to the main processor and memory. The graphic processing unit may have numerous cores which incorporate processing units and associated memories. The cores may concurrently process demand response information and rules of the numerous resources, respectively, and provide signal values to the main processor. The main processor may the provide demand response signals based at least partially on the signal values, to each of the respective demand response resources. | 03-15-2012 |
20120136915 | INSTALLATION SYSTEM FOR DEMAND RESPONSE RESOURCES - An installation system for demand response resources. The system may invoke a use of an installer portal to increase an efficiency of installing resources for demand response systems. Installation of such resources may incorporate registering a client with a particular customer, configuring the client with parameters, installing the client, confirming that the client is communicating properly with a demand response management system, connecting the client to various components at a resource facility, and confirming that the client sends usage or other data correctly to the demand response management system. | 05-31-2012 |
20120271473 | USE OF AGGREGATED GROUPS FOR MANAGING DEMAND RESPONSE RESOURCES - A demand response management system which may be used by utilities, independent system operators, intermediaries and others to manage operations of demand response programs relative to customers, clients, participants, and users of outputs from the utilities, independent system operators, and the like. The demand response management system may provide demand response signal propagation and generation from demand response events. There may be an aggregation of customers, clients, participants, users, and the like. The aggregation may be performed and managed by the utility, independent system operator, or the like, before a DR event is initiated and even before a DR signal is generated. | 10-25-2012 |
20120277920 | ARRANGEMENT FOR COMMUNICATION ABOUT AND MANAGEMENT OF A RESOURCE USING A MOBILE DEVICE - An arrangement for communications about and management of a resource, such as energy, using a mobile device. A utility may provide a resource for a facility. The facility may provide a resource in another sense. The utility may have an information system that sends messages and data relative to the utility and the facility, to the mobile device. The mobile device may provide commands and data based on messages from the utility to an energy management system of the facility. The energy management system may send messages and data to the mobile device. The mobile device may send commands and data to the utility information system. A facility manager may use the mobile device and make decisions relative to communications at the device. The communications may be wireless and the device may be portable and operated at various locations. The communications may involve other energy management systems and facilities. | 11-01-2012 |
20140047013 | SYSTEM FOR USING ATTRIBUTES TO DEPLOY DEMAND RESPONSE RESOURCES - A system for using attributes to deploy demand response resources. A service provider may provide energy to customers. The provider may via interactions modify consumption of the energy by the customers. Customers that participate in these interactions may be regarded as demand response resources. Interactions may incorporate demand response signals sent to the resources at their respective facilities. Each resource may have a demand response client which has an association with a customer account in a demand response management system of the provider. The association may be regarded as a binding of the demand response client. The binding may involve inputting an attribute of the demand response client, which can be correlated to the customer account. The attribute may be, for example, a location of the demand response client. Such attribute may be used for the association of the demand response client with a proper customer account. | 02-13-2014 |
20140324507 | DEMAND RESPONSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A demand response management system which may be implemented with demand response logic. The system may be used by utilities, independent system operators, intermediaries and others to manage operations of demand response programs relative to customers, clients, participants, and users of outputs from the utilities, independent system operators, and the like. Demand response logic of the demand response management system may provide demand signal propagation and generation from demand response events. | 10-30-2014 |
20150018985 | PREDICTING RESPONSES OF RESOURCES TO DEMAND RESPONSE SIGNALS AND HAVING COMFORTABLE DEMAND RESPONSES - An approach where a utility/ISO may dispatch demand response (DR) resources in real time without notification of a DR event. DR dispatches may involve sending specific load level commands to power generators that can respond to such commands in a predictable fashion. DR resources do not necessarily have the same level of control or predictability in their load responses. Accuracy of predicting a DR resource's response to a DR signal may be improved by restricting the DR signal to predefined finite values and, for each predefined finite value, have the DR resource continuously report back what its load response will be if one of those signal values is sent as a DR signal. A DR performed against a home may result in discomfort. But there may be a sufficient recovery rate for regaining the setpoint of a thermostat to attain comfort of the home within a reasonable period of time. | 01-15-2015 |
20150019032 | ARRANGEMENT FOR COMMUNICATING DEMAND RESPONSE RESOURCE INCENTIVES - An approach for influencing demand response event performance through a variable incentive signal. Automated demand response programs may achieve an energy demand reduction by signaling participating consumers to curtail energy usage for a certain period of time, referred to as an “event”. Customers may be free to “opt-out” and withdraw their participation from DR events, on a per-event basis. When a participant opts out, the quantity of energy savings of the event may be reduced. Participating customers may be sent a message offering an incentive to tolerate an ongoing DR event. As the event progresses, the DR operator may dynamically monitor and modulate the rate of opt-outs. The present approach may be different in that instead of modulating the number of participants that are included in the event, it may modulate an incentive signal to keep already-included participants from opting out. | 01-15-2015 |
20150019037 | SYSTEM HAVING CUSTOMER DEFINED DEMAND RESPONSE SIGNALS - An approach that allows a demand response (DR) resource owner to specify the DR signals that are sent from the utility/ISO as opposed to the utility/ISO dictating what the signals are. DR resource owners may be allowed to create custom signals that are most appropriate for their systems and operations. Thus, the present approach may alleviate a need for automated load control systems used by a DR resource having to interpret different DR signals from the utility/ISO for different DR programs. | 01-15-2015 |
20150019275 | OPTIMIZING A SELECTION OF DEMAND RESPONSE RESOURCES - A system that fulfills a requirement for optimizing and automating a process of demand response (DR) resource selection for DR events by utilizing a scoring function that can be easily applied against each individual resource to create a ranking of each resource. The scoring function may take into account both the capabilities and the costs associated with using the resource. In other words, the DR resource may have a set of attributes that are used as factors in the scoring function. Furthermore, the scoring function may have a form that supports operations by the utility operator. The selection process may then be easily automated by simply selecting enough of the highest ranked resources that satisfy the load objectives of the DR events. | 01-15-2015 |
20150019283 | SYSTEM FOR DEMAND LIMITING - A demand management system incorporating a demand response interface connectable to a utility/ISO, a demand dispatch subsystem connected to the demand response interface and connected to a facility that is an energy customer of the utility/ISO, and a demand level optimization subsystem connected to the demand dispatch subsystem. The demand dispatch subsystem may monitor the energy demand of the facility. The demand dispatch subsystem and the demand level optimization subsystem may predict how many demand limiting events are needed over a billing period of the energy customer and a cost of issuing the demand limiting events to set an energy demand limit to optimize a balance between a number of events and the costs of issuing the events needed to maintain the energy demand limit versus a benefit of keeping the energy demand of the facility within the energy demand limit. | 01-15-2015 |