Universal Demand Response Gateway for Multi-Site Load Control
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Large enterprises face challenges in managing electrical load reductions across multiple regional electricity markets due to fragmented national markets and a lack of centralized demand control capabilities in building automation technologies, making it difficult to quickly respond to price fluctuations and participate in demand response programs effectively.
Innovation Solution
The system incorporates an Enterprise Demand Manager (EDM) and a Universal Demand Response Gateway (UDG) that provides a cloud-based, unified web interface for operators to create and send load reduction requests to groups of buildings, integrates with various demand response automation servers, and acts as a gateway between these servers and building automation systems, enabling efficient participation in energy reduction programs across different aggregators.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a single demand response gateway is implemented to integrate multiple DRAS systems, then the ease of operation and centralized control improve, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a demand response gateway that serves as an intermediary component between multiple DRAS systems and building automation systems. This gateway consolidates communication protocols and integration logic in a single intermediary device, simplifying the interface for operators while managing the underlying complexity of integrating diverse DRAS systems across multiple buildings.
Solution Approach 2:
The demand response gateway is designed with multi-functional capabilities to handle communications with various DRAS systems, multiple buildings, and different aggregation levels. This universal gateway can perform demand response orchestration, data aggregation, and system integration functions across diverse environments, reducing the need for multiple specialized systems.
2Speed
If building automation technologies are enhanced with centralized demand control capabilities, then the response speed to price fluctuations improves, but the device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the complex centralized demand control functionality from individual building automation systems and places it in a separate, dedicated demand response gateway. This allows buildings to maintain simpler automation systems while still achieving fast response times through the external gateway that handles demand response orchestration and communicates with DRAS systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The system architecture segments demand response functionality into separate modular components: the demand response gateway handles high-level orchestration and communication with DRAS systems, while individual building automation systems handle local execution. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently, with the gateway providing fast response coordination without complicating building-level systems.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple demand response gateways are deployed to support different protocols, then the adaptability to various aggregators improves, but the loss of time for integration and configuration increases
Solution Approach 1:
The demand response gateway is designed as a universal platform that supports multiple communication protocols and can interface with different DRAS systems and aggregators. This multi-functional gateway eliminates the need to deploy separate gateways for each protocol, reducing integration time while maintaining broad adaptability to various electricity markets and aggregation services.
Data Source
AI summary
A demand response system incorporating an enterprise demand manager (EDM), and a universal demand response gateway (UDG). The EDM may provide a single unified web interface. It may provide a cloud application that allows an operator of an enterprise to create and send load/energy reduction requests to buildings of one or more groups of buildings in the enterprise. The cloud application may provide controls to the buildings based on market conditions, dispatch demand response (DR) events to the buildings, and provide feedback to confirm that requested reductions are occurring in the buildings. The DR events may include the buildings in an energy market, a load/energy reduction intensity level, and a target load/energy reduction amount for each building. The UDG may perform as a gateway between various DR automation servers (DRAS's) and multiple supervisor controllers at the buildings.