Power management system, power management method, and upper power management apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9735575-B2
Application number	US-201214346957-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 4, 2012
Priority date	Sep 26, 2011
Publication date	Aug 15, 2017
Grant date	Aug 15, 2017

Abstract

A power management system comprises a plurality of HEMSs 10 and a CEMS 40 . The CEMS 40 transmits, to each HEMS 10 , a notification request for requesting a notification of an amount of power that can be reduced from power currently consumed by a load connected to each HEMS 10 , in response to a power curtailment signal. Each HEMS 10 transmits, to the CEMS 40 , reducible power information including the amount of power that can be reduced from the power currently consumed, in response to the notification request. The CEMS 40 transmits, to each HEMS 10 , power reduction information including an amount of power that should be reduced in each consumer 70 , in response to the power curtailment signal and the reducible power information.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A power management system comprising;
a plurality of lower power management apparatuses, wherein each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses is associated with one of a plurality of consumers; and
an upper power management apparatus that manages the plurality of lower power management apparatuses,
wherein the upper power management apparatus, in response to a power curtailment signal transmitted from a power company that manages a power grid, transmits, to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, a notification request for an amount of power that can be reduced from current power consumed by loads connected to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses,
wherein each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, in response to the notification request, transmits, to the upper power management apparatus, reducible power information including the amount of power that can be reduced from the current power related to at least one category out of a plurality of categories of loads, and
wherein the upper power management apparatus, in response to the power curtailment signal and the reducible power information, transmits, to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses power reduction information including an amount of power that should be reduced in each consumer.

2. The power management system according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, in response to the power reduction information received from the upper power management apparatus, reduces power consumed by at least one load connected to the lower power management apparatus.

3. The power management system according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of categories of loads has a priority.

4. The power management system according to claim 1 , wherein the power reduction information comprises, for one or more of the plurality of categories of loads, the amount of power that should be reduced for that category.

5. The power management system according to claim 3 , wherein the upper power management apparatus calculates the amount of power that should be reduced in each consumer so as to reduce all power in one of the plurality of categories of loads having a lower priority before reducing power in one of the plurality of categories of loads having a higher priority.

6. The power management system according to claim 1 , wherein the upper power management apparatus, for each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, calculates the power reduction information for the lower power management apparatus based on a maximum current value which is determined based on a contract with the consumer and which is a maximum value of current that can be allowed for the consumer to use.

7. A power management method applied to a power management system comprising a plurality of lower power management apparatuses, each of which is associated with one of a plurality of consumers, and an upper power management apparatus that manages the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, the power management method comprising:
in response to a power curtailment signal transmitted from a power company that manages a power grid, transmitting, from the upper power management apparatus to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, a notification request for requesting a notification of an amount of power that can be reduced from current power consumed by loads connected to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses;
in response to the notification request, transmitting, from each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses to the upper power management apparatus, reducible power information including the amount of power that can be reduced from the current power related to at least one category out of a plurality of categories of loads; and
in response to the power curtailment signal and the reducible power information, transmitting, from the upper power management apparatus to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, power reduction information including an amount of power that should be reduced in each consumer.

8. The power management method according to claim 7 , further comprising, in response to power reduction information received from the upper power management apparatus, reducing in each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, power consumed by loads connected to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses.

9. The power management method according to claim 7 , wherein each of the plurality of categories of loads has a priority.

10. The power management method according to claim 7 , wherein the power reduction information comprises, for one or more of the plurality of categories of loads, the amount of power that should be reduced for that category.

11. An upper power management apparatus that manages a plurality of lower power management apparatuses each of which is associated with one of a plurality of consumers, comprising:
a transmitter configured to, in response to a power curtailment signal transmitted from a power company that manages a power grid, transmit, to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, a notification request for an amount of power that can be reduced from current power consumed by loads connected to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses; and
a receiver configured to, in response to the notification request, receive, from each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, reducible power information including an amount of power that can be reduced from the current power related to at least one category out of a plurality of categories of loads,
wherein the transmitter is configured to, in response to the power curtailment signal and the reducible power information, transmit, to each of the plurality of lower power management apparatuses, power reduction information including an amount of power that should be reduced in each consumer.

12. The upper power management apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein each of the plurality of categories of loads has a priority.

13. The upper power management apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the power reduction information comprises, for one or more of the plurality of categories of loads, the amount of power that should be reduced for that category.

Assignees

• Joko Shingo
• Kyocera Corp

Inventors

• Joko Shingo

Classifications

• H02J2105/42

  Home appliances · CPC title

• H02J13/1335

  involving a local wireless network, e.g. Wi-Fi®, ZigBee® or Bluetooth® · CPC title

• H02J13/14

  the power network being locally controlled, e.g. home energy management systems [HEMS] · CPC title

• Y04S20/242

  Home appliances · CPC title

• Y02B70/3225

  Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving · CPC title