Virtual Device Manager for Energy Storage Frequency Regulation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electrical energy storage systems face challenges in effectively performing ramp rate control and frequency regulation, as they struggle to balance grid frequency and comply with ramp rate requirements, often resulting in penalties for non-compliance.
Innovation Solution
An energy storage system incorporating a plurality of physical devices, including batteries and power inverters, integrated with a virtual device manager that maps attributes of virtual devices to corresponding data points stored by physical devices, allowing for dynamic control and optimization of energy storage and release to manage grid frequency and ramp rates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the energy storage system participates in frequency regulation programs by adding or removing energy from the grid, then grid frequency stability is improved, but the system may fail to comply with ramp rate requirements and incur penalties
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a virtual device manager as an intermediary layer between the physical energy storage devices and the control system. This virtual device manager coordinates and optimizes the charging and discharging operations, ensuring that frequency regulation activities comply with ramp rate requirements by managing the rate of energy addition or removal from the grid.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the operational parameters of the energy storage devices based on real-time grid conditions, regulation signals, and ramp rate constraints. The virtual device manager continuously monitors and modifies charging/discharging rates to simultaneously achieve frequency regulation objectives and maintain ramp rate compliance.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the system uses multiple physical devices for energy storage and control, then the capability to perform frequency regulation and ramp rate control is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates virtual copies (virtual devices) of the physical energy storage devices. These virtual devices replicate the essential characteristics and operational parameters of the physical devices, allowing the control system to manage multiple physical devices through a simplified virtual interface. This reduces the apparent complexity while maintaining the versatility needed for frequency regulation and ramp rate control.
Solution Approach 2:
The virtual device manager merges the control functions for multiple physical devices into a single coordinated system. By consolidating the management of multiple batteries and power inverters under one virtual device manager, the system achieves complex regulatory compliance through unified control rather than managing each device separately.
3Manufacturing precision
If the virtual device manager continuously monitors and updates device attributes in response to data point changes, then the control precision and compliance accuracy are improved, but the computational load and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The virtual device manager implements selective monitoring and updating, focusing computational resources on the most critical data points and attributes that directly impact frequency regulation and ramp rate compliance. Rather than continuously processing all possible device parameters, the system prioritizes updates to essential operational parameters, reducing computational load while maintaining control precision.
Data Source
AI summary
An energy storage system includes a plurality of physical devices and an integration engine. The physical devices include at least a battery and a power inverter operable to charge and discharge the battery. Each of the physical devices stores one or more data points. The integration engine includes a processing circuit having a processor and memory. The memory stores a virtual device network including a plurality of virtual devices and a virtual device manager. Each of the virtual devices includes one or more attributes. The virtual device manager is configured to map the attributes of the virtual devices to corresponding data points stored by the physical devices and update the attributes of the virtual devices in response to detecting changes in value of the corresponding data points stored by the physical devices.