Energy Flow Control Device for Dynamic Load Shifting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing energy flow control devices lack the ability to dynamically adjust load shifting based on the relative efficiencies of various electrical consumers, leading to suboptimal energy management and increased costs, as they typically rely on predefined priorities and do not account for the heterogeneous behavior of different consumers.
Innovation Solution
An energy flow control device that compares and normalizes the relative efficiencies of connected loads to control individual load shifts, allowing for flexible prioritization and optimization of energy usage without requiring detailed knowledge of each consumer, and automatically integrates new consumers by categorizing them based on their efficiency profiles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If energy flow control devices use predefined priorities for load shifting, then the control logic is simple, but the energy management becomes suboptimal and does not account for heterogeneous consumer behavior
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces relative efficiency as a dynamic parameter that changes based on consumer state (e.g., thermal storage temperature for heat pumps). This allows the control device to adapt priority assignments in real-time based on actual consumer conditions rather than using fixed predefined priorities, thereby improving energy management efficiency while maintaining manageable control logic through a unified efficiency metric.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses relative efficiency as an intermediary metric that translates heterogeneous consumer characteristics and states into a common comparable format. This mediator enables the control device to handle diverse consumer types (heat pumps, washing machines, electric vehicles) uniformly without requiring complex consumer-specific control logic for each type.
2Productivity
If energy flow control devices account for heterogeneous consumer behavior, then energy management optimizes, but the device requires detailed knowledge of each consumer
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential information needed for optimization - the relative efficiency value - from each consumer system. Rather than requiring the control device to know detailed operational parameters of each consumer type, the system only needs to obtain the relative efficiency metric, which encapsulates the consumer's current state and responsiveness to load shifting. This extraction approach enables optimized energy management while minimizing the information burden.
Solution Approach 2:
The relative efficiency parameter dynamically reflects consumer state changes (e.g., thermal storage temperature, battery charge level) without requiring the control device to understand the underlying physical systems. This parameter transformation allows the system to adapt to heterogeneous consumer behavior using a unified metric that automatically adjusts as consumer conditions change.
3Adaptability or versatility
If energy flow control devices use fixed priority schemes, then the control program is simple, but the system cannot adapt to changing conditions or new consumers
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic priority assignment based on real-time relative efficiency values rather than fixed priorities. The control program continuously evaluates the relative efficiency of each consumer and adjusts load shifting decisions accordingly, enabling automatic adaptation to changing conditions and new consumers without requiring manual reconfiguration or complex decision logic. The system's behavior naturally evolves as consumer efficiencies change.
Solution Approach 2:
The control program automatically incorporates new consumers into the load shifting optimization without requiring manual setup or configuration. When a new consumer is added, the system obtains its relative efficiency value and automatically integrates it into the optimization calculations, enabling the system to self-adapt to system changes while maintaining relatively simple control logic based on the unified efficiency metric.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to an energy flow control device (26) for controlling a load transfer of a plurality of consumers (16, 18, 20, 22, 24) of electrical energy connected at a network connection point (14). The energy flow control device (26) is characterised in that it is configured to compare relative efficiencies of the consumers (16, 18, 20, 22, 24) with one another, and to control the individual load transfers of the consumers (16, 18, 20, 22, 24) according to the relative efficiencies, wherein each relative efficiency is defined as an efficiency of the consumer (16, 18, 20, 22, 24), scaled to a current efficiency of the consumer (16, 18, 20, 22, 24), with which the consumer (16, 18, 20, 22, 24) would currently function with increased electrical load for load transfer.