Control apparatus and control method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9977449-B2
Application number	US-201414783066-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 8, 2014
Priority date	Apr 9, 2013
Publication date	May 22, 2018
Grant date	May 22, 2018

Abstract

This HEMS ( 200 ) is provided with a control unit ( 230 ) that, if an operation directive does not go through a server ( 600 ) provided externally to a customer's home ( 10 ), identifies said operation directive as having come from within the customer's home, and if the operation directive does go through the server ( 600 ) provided externally to the customer's home ( 10 ), identifies the operation directive as having come from outside the customer's home.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A control apparatus controlling an information equipment located in a consumer's facility, comprising:
a transmission unit that transmits an operational instruction for the information equipment to the information equipment; and
a determination unit that determines a route type of the operational instruction, wherein
the determination unit determines the route type according to whether or not the operational instruction passes through a server located outside the consumer's facility, and
the transmission unit transmits the operational instruction in a first format when the route type is inside-consumer's-facility operation, and the transmission unit transmits the operational instruction in a second format different from the first format when the route type is outside-consumer's-facility operation.

2. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the determination unit determines that the route type is inside-consumer's-facility operation when the operational instruction does not pass through the server, and
the determination unit determines that the route type is outside-consumer's-facility operation from the outside of the consumer's facility when the operational instruction passes through the server.

3. The control apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein
the inside-consumer's-facility operation is an operation for the information equipment from an operation terminal connected to a narrow area network installed in the consumer's facility, and
the outside-consumer's-facility operation is an operation for the information equipment from an operation terminal connected to a wide area network different from the narrow area network.

4. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the determination unit determines whether to apply the first format or the second format based on operation-rout specifying information indicating the route type information.

5. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the determination unit determines the route type based on an IP address of the transmission source transmitting the operational instruction.

6. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , comprising:
a reception unit that receives at least one of energy fee information, energy consumption forecasting information and PV power generation amount forecast information, from a server located outside the consumer's facility.

7. The control apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein
the information equipment includes a load, and
the energy consumption forecasting information is generated based on actual records of the previous power consumption of the load.

8. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the control of the information equipment is performed via a router.

9. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the operational instruction is a demand response.

10. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the transmission unit transmits a SET command or a GET command, the SET command including the operational instruction for the information equipment and the GET command requesting to transmit information indicating a state of the information equipment.

11. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , comprising:
a reception unit that receives information from the information equipment, wherein
the reception unit receives at least one of a SET response command, a GET response command, and an INFO command.

12. The control apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the information equipment includes at least one of a distributed power apparatus, a power storage apparatus, a thermal storage apparatus, and a load.

13. A control apparatus controlling information equipment located in a consumer's facility, comprising:
a transmission unit transmitting an operational instruction for the information equipment to the information equipment, wherein
the transmission unit transmits the operational instruction in a format based on a route type of the operational instruction, and
the transmission unit transmits the operational instruction in a first format when the route type is inside-consumer's-facility operation, and the transmission unit transmits the operational instruction in a second format different from the first format when the route type is outside-consumer's-facility operation.

14. The control apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein
the route type of the operational instruction is determined according to whether or not the operational instruction passes through a server located outside the consumer's facility.

15. The control apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein
the route type of the operational instruction is determined according to whether or not the operational instruction is based on an instruction passing through a wide area network.

16. The control apparatus according to claim 13 , wherein
the route type of the operational instruction is determined according to whether the operational instruction is a direct operation or an indirect operation.

17. The control apparatus according to claim 13 , comprising:
a reception unit that receives information from the information equipment, and
the reception unit receives a command including information on the route type from the information equipment receiving the operational instruction.

18. The control apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein,
the command is at least one of a SET response command, a GET response command, and an INFO command.

19. A control method used in a control system including information equipment located in a consumer's facility and a control apparatus controlling the information equipment, comprising:
a step A of transmitting an operational instruction for the information equipment from the control apparatus to the information equipment; and
a step B of allowing the control apparatus to determine a route type of the operational instruction, wherein
the step B includes a step of determining the route type according to whether or not the operational instruction passes through a server located outside the consumer's facility, and
the transmission unit transmits the operational instruction in a first format when the route type is inside-consumer's-facility operation, and the transmission unit transmits the operational instruction in a second format different from the first format when the route type is outside-consumer's-facility operation.

Assignees

• Kyocera Corp

Inventors

• Nakamura Kazutaka
• Inoue Takashi
• Hoshi Daisuke

Classifications

• G06Q50/06

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• G06Q10/06

  Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling · CPC title

• Y04S10/30

  State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• G05B2219/2639

  Energy management, use maximum of cheap power, keep peak load low · CPC title