Data processing: measuring – calibrating – or testing – Measurement system in a specific environment – Electrical signal parameter measurement system
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-13
2003-10-14
Hoff, Marc S. (Department: 2857)
Data processing: measuring, calibrating, or testing
Measurement system in a specific environment
Electrical signal parameter measurement system
C702S062000, C702S188000, C700S295000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06633823
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention is directed towards monitoring and control of electrical systems, and more particularly towards energy monitoring and control.
BACKGROUND
The Electric Utility Industry is deregulating through the divestiture of generation assets from the vertically integrated local utility companies. Historically, the local electric utility company owned and operated all components of generating and delivering electricity to its end use consumers through a regulated franchise agreement. These franchise agreements were regulated by individual state public utility commissions which oversee the operations, costs, and revenues of the local utility in order to ensure fair pricing among various ratepayers and the reliable delivery of electric service to all ratepayers.
Deregulation of the industry has dramatically changed the role that the local utility plays in providing energy to its end use consumers. In addition, new entrants to the marketplace have the ability to provide specific energy services that were not available or allowed in a regulated electric utility environment.
Deregulation has required that the Local Electric Utility Company or Local Distribution Company (“LDC”) divest and sell its generation assets (“Power Plants”) in a competitive auction. New entrants are allowed to competitively bid and purchase power plants in service territories where they traditionally had no market presence. With new entrants owning & operating power plants, they possess the ability to sell power at the wholesale and retail market level. Both options create opportunities for the power plant owners to provide electricity to end-users. The primary market barrier for new power plant owners to enter into and provide retail energy to end users is the inability to acquire detailed load profile information on a real-time basis.
The metering architecture that exists in the field today is geared toward providing only enough information to accurately bill consumers on a monthly basis for energy consumed. Because the industry was regulated, and service provided by a monopoly, energy use was billed based on “average” rates and prices. In the deregulated environment, the price of competitive electricity, generated by individual power plant owners, changes on an hourly basis based upon changes in supply and demand.
While technology continues to advance, the focus of various metering technologies and manufacturers continue to be more so on the efficiency by which data is collected (for billing purposes) and not necessarily for end-use energy management purposes.
For individual end users, the price of energy (generation component) in a regulated environment remained relatively consistent over the course of a day or month. This was due to the fact that the local utility had 100% of the market through a franchise agreement with the state regulatory body. Individual user's energy profiles were grouped together into an aggregated portfolio of all users resulting in the averaging of electricity generation prices. Capacity charges were used to penalize those who used energy during costly peak periods of the day. These capacity or demand charges remain with the regulated utility and continue to be charged as part of the LDC's transmission and distribution cost recoveries. For the competitive generation supplier, usage patterns by end users are no longer being charged on an “average” rate per kilo-watt hour. Pricing is derived on an hourly basis depending upon supply and demand requirements.
The lack of a real-time “centralized” energy communications, monitoring, and data collection system provides a significant barrier to the maturation of the competitive electricity generation industry. Competitive generation suppliers lack the ability to receive real-time load profile information of its customer “portfolio” or the aggregated real-time hourly use patterns.
SUMMARY
The present invention relates to the field of energy use/control and cost reductions through the management of individual or multi-customers energy use profiles on a portfolio basis via a communication network with two-way monitoring and control capability and sophisticated software and analytical tools. Embodiments of the invention include an ability to collect data from and manage individual user facilities, homes, buildings, or equipment from a centralized location and on a portfolio/aggregated basis. Substantial cost savings are achieved by managing individual users on a portfolio/aggregated basis by taking advantage of certain opportunities resulting from deregulation.
An illustrative embodiment of the present invention includes a centralized energy monitoring, equipment control, and energy procurement system that utilizes a wireless fixed communication network as the basis to deliver real-time energy use information from end users to a centralized data center for monitoring and control. One feature of this system is to manage and optimize energy costs of end users on a portfolio basis. In order to optimize both energy conservation and energy purchasing benefits in a deregulated environment, energy use profiles of individuals will need to be managed on a portfolio basis with other end users with complimentary and offsetting load profile characteristics. The system of the illustrative embodiment uses a wireless narrow-band frequency to packetize and transmit data from an end user's point source to the centralized data center. Current monitoring modules measure energy use for main facility loads or submetered equipment or end use loads. This information is transmitted via a wireless fixed communication network to the centralized data center. Systems and software within the centralized data center gathers real-time energy use data from end users within a fixed range and analyzes end load profiles on a portfolio basis. The software intelligence initiates and sends packetized commands to field devices located at the end users facility via the wireless fixed communication network. These commands are received by device controllers, such as Equipment Interface Modules (“EI Modules”) and Demand-Side Management (“DSM”) RF Modules. The EI Modules and DSM RF Modules receive the commands and start/stop equipment to control end use energy load profiles. By performing this automated activity, the portfolio managed by the centralized data center is optimized to reduce energy consumption during costly peak times and reduces the price of competitive energy from competitive generation suppliers that possess fixed capacity levels. The result and benefits of this system is to optimize the total cost of energy in a deregulated market.
Embodiments of the present invention manage and optimize energy costs of end users on a portfolio basis. In order to optimize both energy conservation and energy purchasing benefits in a deregulated environment, energy use profiles of individual end-users are managed on a portfolio basis with other end users having complimentary and offsetting load profile characteristics. At least one embodiment of the invention uses a 2-way wireless system in combination with Internet communications to packetize and transmit data from an end user's point source to and from a Centralized Data Center where sophisticated analysis can be performed utilizing complimentary data to initiate more effective control.
Proprietary software within the Centralized Data Center gathers real-time energy use data from end users and analyzes end load profiles on a portfolio basis. The software according to an illustrative embodiment of the invention initiates and sends packetized commands to field devices located at the end users facility via the wireless fixed communication network. These commands are received by Equipment Interface Modules (“EI Modules”). The EI Modules receive the commands and executes control of end-use devices. By performing this automated activity, the portfolio managed by the Centralized Data Center is optimized to reduce energy consumption during strategically advantageous times.
Embodiments of the invent
Bartone Erik J.
McClutchy, Jr. John H.
Mendenhall, Jr. Ernest L.
Patel Devang N.
Barbee Manuel L.
Brown Rudnick Berlack & Israels LLP
Hoff Marc S.
Lowry David D.
Nxegen, Inc.
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