Demand Response Intermediary Message Translation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current demand response systems face challenges in efficiently and cost-effectively communicating DR signals and telemetries between utilities and smaller demand side resources, due to high complexity and cost of existing interface protocols, which are not feasible for smaller resources to implement.
Innovation Solution
A DR communications intermediary mechanism that translates a single dispatch from the utility into multiple dispatches for respective demand response resources and aggregates telemetries from resources into a single telemetry, using a public network to reduce the burden on the utility side and enable cost-effective interfacing with smaller resources.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single interface protocol is used between utility and demand response resources, then communication reliability is improved, but implementation cost and complexity increase for smaller resources
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a communications intermediary that acts as a mediator between the utility and multiple demand response resources. The intermediary receives a single dispatch message from the utility and translates/distributes it to multiple resources, and conversely aggregates telemetry messages from multiple resources into a single message for the utility. This intermediary absorbs the complexity of multiple interfaces while maintaining simple single-point communication for both utility and resources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the communication function into separate components: the utility interface, the resource interfaces, and the intermediary translation layer. By dividing the complex many-to-many communication task into separate one-to-many and many-to-one translation functions, the system reduces the interface complexity burden on individual resources while maintaining reliable communication through structured message segmentation and aggregation.
2Ease of operation
If multiple individual interfaces are provided for each demand response resource, then ease of operation is improved, but system complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple resource interfaces into a single intermediary interface that the utility communicates with. The intermediary consolidates the functionality of multiple individual resource interfaces, providing ease of operation for resources (which only need to connect to the intermediary) while reducing overall system complexity by eliminating the need for the utility to manage multiple separate interface protocols and connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The communications intermediary serves multiple functions: it acts as a interface translator, message distributor, telemetry aggregator, and protocol converter. This multi-functional device eliminates the need for separate specialized interfaces for each resource type, simplifying the overall system while maintaining ease of operation for diverse demand response resources through a universal communication gateway.
Data Source
AI summary
A system having a utility, a communications intermediary and demand response resources. The utility may be connected to the communications intermediary via a network. The demand response resources may be connected to the communications intermediary via another network. A single dispatch destined for the demand response resources may be sent to the communications intermediary. The dispatch may be disaggregated at the communications intermediary into a multitude of dispatches which may be dispersed to their respective destined demand response resources. The demand response resources may send telemetries to the communications intermediary that aggregates the telemetries into a single telemetry. The single telemetry may be sent to the utility.