WO2010027278A1 - A distributed control system and methods, systems and apparatus for implementing it - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of crediting users of a commodity for forbearance and a system and control apparatus for effecting the method. A user enters commodity forbearance parameters into a commodity forbearance management system and the commodity forbearance management system controls consumption of a commodity based on the commodity forbearance parameters. Forbearance of a user is determined over a period and a user is credited based on their calculated forbearance. The system may also monitor appliance performance and environmental conditions and control strategies may be employed based on this information.

Description

A DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM AND METHODS, SYSTEMS AND APPARATUS FOR IMPLEMENTING IT

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a distributed control method and system for monitoring the use of a commodity and providing incentives based on user forbearance. There are also provided methods and system for monitoring commodity consumption and reporting appliance performance and environmental conditions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

For a range of commodities such as electricity, gas, water, telecommunications etc. it is desirable for a user to ensure efficient use of the commodity and to use the commodity at the most cost effective time. A range of devices are employed in power systems that allow intelligent control of individual appliances. These may be wired in devices or plug in devices including a power supply switch, some intelligence and means to communicate with a remote control system. Utility controlled systems such as "ripple control" allow a utility to control when certain types of loads may be connected to the network. Power band systems allow a user to time the use of appliances to coincide with low cost power bands to minimize power costs.

For a power generator the cost of a marginal increase in required supply can cost far more than additional revenue received. Whilst the pricing of power bands can influence total usage it may not be sufficient to satisfy a utility that it can meet peak demand. If a utility could have confidence that it could eliminate peak demand above its supply capacity it may be able to avoid significant expense in additional generating capacity. Further, other behaviour is desirable for a utility, such as flat loads, and certain behaviour is desirable for third parties, such as reduced consumption resulting in carbon credits etc.

It would be desirable to create a consumer centric market in which consumers receive information about the market and are empowered to participate by cooperating and competing for the best prices and forbearance credits in an open market.

It would be desirable to provide a method, system and apparatus that:

i. Increases the quality of the participation of the consumer in commodity markets;

ii. Decreases overall demand on the electrical grid one user at a time.

iii. Facilitates progress towards a more stable, efficient, and redundancy- free grid;

iv. Flattens demand on the grid overall;

v. Provides useful and marketable data on appliance performance and regional/demographic electrical use;

vi. Promotes the uptake of affordable control devices installed between power outlets and appliances or installed within an appliance;

vii. Creates an open platform allowing a range of participants to be involved in the provision of different aspects of the system and for users to be able to select components of the system that they wish to use;

viii. Creates incentives for user forbearance in the use of a commodity;

ix. Provides detailed information regarding usage of a commodity or performance information;

x. Provides user participation and prioritization;

xi. Flattens demand on the grid; and

xii. A device that is configurable to take advantage of low price periods based on thresholds combined with overriding logic;

xiii. Is simple and inexpensive to install and deploy. The above objects are to be read disjunctively with the object of at least providing the public with a useful choice.

EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

According to one exemplary embodiment there is provided a computer implemented method of crediting users of a commodity for forbearance comprising:

i. a user entering commodity forbearance parameters into a commodity forbearance management system;

ii. the commodity forbearance management system controlling consumption of a commodity based on the commodity forbearance parameters;

iii. determining the forbearance of a user over a period; and

iv. crediting a user based on their calculated forbearance.

According to another exemplary embodiment there is provided a distributed commodity control system comprising:

i. appliance control units for controlling connectability of appliances to a commodity supply network;

ii. a management system for receiving consumption offers from consumers offering to forbear consumption for a credit value and forbearance offers from commodity suppliers to provide a credit for consumer forbearance of consumption of a commodity and matching consumption offers to forbearance offers and generating command signals for controlling consumer appliances in accordance with accepted consumption offers; and iii. a communications network for conveying command signals from the management system to appliance control units to inhibit the connectivity of appliance control units.

According to a further exemplary embodiment there is provided an appliance control apparatus adapted to control the supply of a commodity to the appliance comprising:

i. means responsive to control signals from a remote management system to configure the connectability of an appliance connected to the appliance control apparatus to the commodity supply;

ii. means for storing commodity usage data and communicating this to a remote management system; and

iii. means for sensing the state of supply of the commodity and to control a device depending upon the state of supply of the commodity.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings which are incorporated in and constitute part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the general description of the invention given above, and the detailed description of embodiments given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a distributed energy management and control system.

Figure 2 shows a block diagram of an appliance control unit for use in the system shown in figure 1.

Figure 3 shows a schematic diagram of a distributed energy management and control system utilizing local RF links. Figure 4 shows a schematic diagram of a distributed energy management and control system utilizing remote RF links.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to methods, systems and apparatus for monitoring and controlling the use of a commodity and providing incentives based on user forbearance. The commodity concerned may be electricity, gas, water, telecommunications or any other commodity where there is a need to match supply and demand. The invention is described below in relation to electricity consumption. However, it will be appreciated that with suitable modifications the principals of the inventions may be applied to other commodities and the "appliances" may include any apparatus that consumes a finite resource including for example electric cars, gas ovens, watering systems etc.

Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of a system in which a plurality of appliances 1 to 3 of a first consumer and 4 to 6 of a second consumer are connected via appliance control units 7 to 12 to outlets 13 to 18 connected to electricity supply networks 19 and 20. Interface unit 21 is also connected via outlet 22 to electricity supply network 19 and is capable of communicating with appliance control units 7 to 9 via electrical lines of the electrical supply network 19.

Interface unit 23 is likewise connected to outlet 24 and communicates with appliance control units 10 to 12 via the lines of electricity supply network 20. Interface units 21 and 23 are connected via communication links 25 and 26 to a market platform 27 (in this case the server running appropriate software). Communication links 25 and 26 may be via telephone networks, cellular networks or alternative communications networks. User computers 28 and 29 are likewise ' connected via communication links 30 and 31 to market platform 27. A supplier platform 32 is connected via communications link 33 to market platform 27.

Figure 2 shows an appliance control unit 7 in block diagram form. Appliance control unit 7 has pins 34 to connect to a standard power output socket. Phase and earth lines 35 and 36 may be directly connected to a female outlet socket 37 configured to receive a standard plug of a connected appliance. Phase line 38 may be connected to a switch 39 that may be selectively opened or closed to allow power to be supplied or not via line 40 to outlet socket 37. Switch 39 may be a semi-conductor switch or electromechanical switch etc. Switch 39 is controlled by a microcontroller 41 which may include a microprocessor, memory, a clock and ancillary functionality as required for a given application (analogue to digital conversion, pulse width modulation etc.). A monitoring circuit 42 monitors lines 35 and 40 to monitor the power consumed by an appliance connected to appliance control unit 7 and the condition of the power supply and supplies this information to microcontroller 41. Monitoring circuit 42 may be included within microcontroller 41 depending upon the type of microcontroller employed.

A temperature sensor 43 supplies temperature information to microcontroller 41. Light sensor 44 supplies light intensity information to microcontroller 41. An optical fibre 45 may be connected to optical sensor 44 to enable light signals to be detected remotely from appliance control unit 7. A display interface 45 may be provided to display information from microcontroller 41 and a user interface 46 may allow user input of control signals and information into microcontroller 41. The display interface may be an LCD screen or simply one or more LEDs etc. In the most simple implementation user input interface 46 may be a single button to override operation of the appliance unit or multiple buttons may be provided to allow data input. An RF transmitter/receiver 47 may be optionally provided to allow wireless communication with local or remote components of the system. Alternatively, or additionally, transceiver 48 may be utilized to allow communication between microcontroller 41 and local or remote components of the system via power lines.

The system may be easily deployed by plugging appliance control units 7 to 12 into power outlets 13 to 18 and plugging appliances 1 to 6 into appliance control units 7 to 12. In the embodiment shown in Figure 1 a local interface unit, typically in the home of a consumer, may be plugged into a power outlet 22 and may communicate with platform 27 to supply power consumption information supplied from appliance control units 7 to 12 and receive control information for the control of appliance control units 7 to 12. Figure 3 shows an alternative embodiment in which like components have been given like reference numerals. In this embodiment communication between appliance control units 7 to 12 and interface units 21 and 23 is via wireless links. Communications between interface units 21 and 23 and platform 27 may be via telephone network, wireless connection or other suitable communication link. Figure 4 shows an alternative embodiment in which like components have again been given like reference numerals. In this system appliance control units 7 to 12 communicate directly with platform 27 via wireless communication links 55 to 60. Wireless communication links 55 to 60 may be a cellular network, pager network or other suitable wireless network. It will be appreciated that appliance control modules could also communicate directly with the platform via power lines.

The operation of the system will now be described in relation to the embodiment shown in Figure 1 in conjunction with the appliance control unit shown in Figure 2. It will be appreciated that all of the functionality shown in Figure 2 may not be required for all applications. Accordingly, Figure 2 illustrates the possible functionality with the features included dependant upon the application concerned. Further, the appliance control unit may ultimately be incorporated within an appliance in whole or in part.

At a first level certain functionality may be inherently provided without any configuration ("Plug and Play"). Each appliance control unit 7 to 12 is assigned a unique ID stored in memory in microcontroller 41. Power consumption information for an appliance can be stored in microcontroller 41 and sent via communication transceiver 48 to interface unit 21 and on to platform 27 (or via RF communication unit 47 in the Figure 3 or Figure 4 embodiments).

Unique user IDs may be assigned by a utility company that supplies appliance control units 7 to 12 so that they are associated with a user or these may be configured upon user connection. In this way the unique appliance control unit ID may be associated with a consumer to allow information associated with a consumer to be recorded and control signals to be directed to an appropriate appliance control unit. Simply monitoring power consumption for an appliance and providing this information to platform 27 allows the first level of functionality to be provided. This information may be provided to a utility to enable it to itemize power bills by appliance. Itemized energy usage reports could also be generated by the platform or on consumer equipment. It may also enable the platform to analyze the efficiency of an appliance employed. In one embodiment the appliance type may be determined automatically based on the energy consumption profile of the appliance. Alternatively, the user may specify the appliance type by entering this information via user interface 46 of an appliance module or on-line by entering this information via computer 28 or 29. When integrated into an appliance, information as to the appliance type may be stored in the appliance control unit. Further, appliance control units of different types may be supplied for connection to different types of appliance (e.g. an appliance control unit configured to control a heater may have stored in memory that the appliance type is a heater).

Each appliance control unit may be assigned a specific Appliance Name address, analogous to an IP address, with an Appliance Name server performing the role of a DNS server on the internet. (Manufacturers may be responsible for registering each appliance model in a central Appliance Name Registry, such that when a unit is plugged in it is readily identifiable. When a new unit is sensed at a location, its serial number is recorded against the record, and if there is an existing record with a matching Appliance Registry number and serial number, notifications and confirmation can take place.)

Platform 27 may store energy consumption profiles for different appliances so that the efficiency of a particular appliance may be compared to reference information to determine a particular appliance's efficiency. Appliance energy consumption information may also be used to detect a malfunction of an appliance. This may be due to an anomaly in the energy consumption profile or total energy, or any spike in energy consumed. This information may be provided to subscribers of such a service in the form of a periodic report. Upon the platform detecting a malfunction of an appliance it may send a command signal via communication link 25 to interface circuit 21 which may relay the control command to, for example, appliance control unit 7 so that switch 39 may be switched off to disconnect the appliance. Detection of a malfunction may also cause platform 27 to notify an associated servicing agent or the consumer so that they can remedy the malfunction. The malfunction may be indicated via an indicator on appliance control unit 7 such as a flashing display 45, flashing light or audible sound etc. Alternatively, the malfunction may be communicated via the internet to user device such as computer 28, a cell phone or other suitable communication device.

Appliance control unit 7 also includes a temperature sensor. This may record temperature information which may be sent to platform 27. By monitoring power consumption for heating appliances and ambient temperature, the energy efficiency of a building may be calculated. Alternatively, simply monitoring the temperature profile for a dwelling may provide information as to energy efficiency

(particularly insulation). For example, this may be preformed by monitoring the rate of cooling of a dwelling. Temperature information may also be used by the platform or a utility as a forecasting tool to predict demand and may be used to prioritise appliance usage based on forecast demand.

Appliance control unit 7 also includes a monitoring circuit 42 for monitoring the condition of the power supply. This circuit may monitor the voltage or frequency or other attribute of the power supply to detect an exceptional condition in the power supply, such as excessive demand on the power supply. In one embodiment excessive demand on the power supply may cause microcontroller 41 to disconnect switch 39 so as to disable an associated appliance from receiving power from the power supply system. In some embodiments different appliance types may be prioritised so that different threshold levels are set for the disabling of connected appliances (e.g. heating appliances are disconnected first). In other embodiments (described later) this functionality may be dependent upon a consumer accepting an offer from a power supplier.

Monitoring circuit 42 may also detect oversupply conditions such as over voltage and, for certain loads, may cause switch 39 to be activated so as to place a load on the supply to bring power supply conditions back to an acceptable level. This may be particularly suited to a generator that has variable output based on transient conditions, such as a wind turbine. Monitoring circuit 42 may also sense whether an appliance is connected and/or the specific appliance connected. This may preferably be determined by monitoring the impeadance or load characteristics of the connected appliance to avoid cheating by disconnecting the appliance. Usage data over a period of time may also be analysed to determine whether a user has been complying with the terms of a forbearance offer.

The following functionality will be described in relation to an electricity market which provides some credit to a consumer for energy forbearance. In this system platform 27 may be a distributed system including a number of computers connected via the internet. This may be an open API platform on which developers can write software modules which users can select to use. Parties such as utility companies may wish to reduce power consumption according to certain parameters and offer forbearance offers for a consumer to forebear consumption according to certain parameters for a specified credit value. Alternatively, the forbearance offers may be for a consumer to consume power according to certain parameters when there is an over-supply. Other parties may wish to incentivise other types of behavior. For example, a party selling carbon credits may wish to purchase energy forbearance from consumers to obtain carbon credits. The Government may wish to incentivise a certain type of power consumption in order to meet its strategic goals. The symbol 32 in Figure 1 denotes any such party.

Typically a forbearance offer will set out parameters of an offer with an associated credit offered. The credit may be a financial credit, a reduction in consumer consumption (i.e. a reduction in consumption units for a client) or some other benefit or reduction in detriment. The parameters of a forbearance offer may relate to a time of consumption (e.g. during peak power consumption periods), a consumption profile (a defined flatness of energy consumption, total energy consumption etc.), a priority (i.e. a high priority may enable disconnection of an appliance without override whereas a low priority may allow a consumer to override) or other parameters as required. Such consumption offers may be communicated to market platform 27. Offers may include parameters such as:

• Area ID

• Supplier ID

• Supplier SpotMarket Rating • Offer ID

• Offer Commencement Time

• Offer Duration

• Total offer (credit value)

• Total commodity unit reduction requested • Price per commodity unit (e.g. Dollars per kW-h)

• Current device state (e.g. wattage/flow rate, temperature)

Users may enter consumption offers via input devices such as computer 28 and 29 connected via the internet to market platform 27. Users may enter parameters for energy forbearance and the credit value they require for such forbearance. These offers may be communicated to market platform 27. Alternatively, the parameters of forbearance offers (excluding credit values) may be communicated to users and they may enter a credit value in their consumption offers. Alternatively, offers may be entered directly into appliance control units via user interface 46 by options being displayed on display 45 and selected via buttons of user interface 46.

Market platform 27 may match forbearance offers and consumption offers and send control information to selected appliance control units communicating the parameters of forbearance offers that have been accepted. Appliance control units 7 to 12 will then function in accordance with these parameters for the duration of an offer or until the total value of the forbearance offer has been reached. For high priority forbearance offers a user may be committed to accept control via the market platform without the ability to override. For lower priority offers a user may be able to override disconnection of an appliance. This override may be effected by actuating a button of user interface 46 or upon receipt of a light signal by light sensor 44. In the case of an appliance such as a television an optical fibre 45 may be positioned so as to convey a signal from a remote control to optical sensor 44 to override deactivation. The parameters of an offer may have different priorities depending upon the type of appliance concerned. Certain types of appliances may be isolated from the power supply by appliance control modules 7 to 12 before other appliances. The priority assigned may be set according to appliance type or may be user defined. The priority accorded to an appliance may be reflected in the credit value received.

The actual power consumption of an appliance will be recorded by appliance control units 7 to 12 and periodically communicated to platform 27. Consumption information over a period for which a forbearance offer applies may be compared to historical consumption information to confirm that forbearance has been made according to the agreed parameters (i.e. verification may be required that there has been forbearance compared to historical consumption).

Forbearance offers may also include a credit offer for appliances to be disconnected from a supply based upon an exceptional commodity supply condition. For example, if the voltage or a frequency of a power supply exceeds a defined threshold a forbearance offer may require an appliance to be disconnected from the power supply. This may enable the utility to avoid excess demand and avoid the need to provide increased generation capacity. A forbearance offer may have different credit values based on the priority ascribed to the forbearance offer. The highest priority forbearance offer may have the greatest credit but enable the utility to disconnect appliances at the lowest threshold level. Conversely the lowest priority value may only require disconnection of a connected appliance in the most extreme conditions.

In other situations excess supply of a commodity may need to be absorbed. For example, where there is a power source such as wind generation there may be supply in excess of what is required to meet demand and the excess supply may adversely affect the grid. In this situation a utility may offer a reverse forbearance offer to enable it to switch on certain devices when certain power supply conditions exits. For example, if the power supply exceeds a certain voltage or frequency then appliances may be switched on according to an assigned priority, as above. Ideally, appliances such as battery chargers, water heaters etc. which can usefully employ the excess supply will be connected. Exemplary system

The following is a description of an exemplary method for handing consumption and forbearance offers. It will be appreciated that the method may be adapted as required in any practical implementation.

As one of the criterion for eligibility is price point, a price per unit is calculated.

First, the total offer is padded ("Efficiency Incentive Boosting") by a portion of the revenue from all the revenue streams in the following way: The Platform Control Center has a setting for percentage of each revenue stream to be included in the Efficiency Incentive Boost (EIB). Then a carbon credit value of forbearance may be added to the EIB. The sum of any generator's offer and the EIB is divided by the total commodity unit of reduction requested. This is the figure that is compared against Price Point for each device, as described below.

Consumption offers will be matched based on the lowest credit value asked meeting the parameters of a forbearance offer (Area and time of offer etc.). Such offers must fall below a credit value prescribed in a forbearance offer or the total of all accepted consumption offers must full within a total specified in a forbearance offer. Consumption offers are initially prioritized based on the lowest credit value matching forbearance offer parameters. Where there are a number of equivalent consumption offers at the margin these may be prioritized. They may be prioritized on a rotational basis based on a number of factors such as:

1. historical acceptance of consumption offers;

2. flatness of load;

3. length of participation;

4. historical commodity usage by a customer; 5. performance record etc.

Prioritisation may be on a user basis rather than a device basis to more fairly reflect a user's total performance. Users may form groups to place combined consumption offers and suppliers may likewise combine to provide combined forbearance offers. For the "Next in line" user for whom Offers are being calculated, the system may take in to account the following settings, which are either set manually or by a module that has been selected. The first checks whether or not the supplier of the commodity making this offer meets the criteria that the user set for minimum SpotMarket Rating, an index of various sustainability factors. If so, the user's settings may be compared against the offer in the following order for each device connected to the user's system: (A "NO" answer to any question below means the device is to be left alone, and the next device considered until there are no more devices for the user, and the next user's devices are considered.)

1. Is the device flagged as being in "Forbearance Escrow Lapse

Penalty"? (See below)

2. Schedule - Is the device in an "Uninterruptable" state according to its schedule?

3. Price point - Is the device going to generate more than the minimum credit set by the user if it is left off for the duration of the offer?

4. Is there a device-specific constraint based on recent activity? (e.g. a refrigerator compressor just came on, so turning it immediately back off is detrimental to the device?

5. A "Forbearance Signal" may be sent to any unit that reaches this point in the logic. If the unit was not consuming commodity at the time of the signal, the user may be credited in "Forbearance Escrow." If the unit was using power, the credits may be issued as soon as the Forbearance period expires without user override provided the use does no override the signal.

Where credits are earned in "Forbearance Escrow": a user may be required to use the load later within a period and for a duration pre-defined on a device-by- device basis (e.g. 24 hours for a load of laundry). When this load is completed, the credits may go from "Forbearance Escrow" state to "Earned Credits" state. "Forbearance Escrow" credits which lapse may count against the device's eligibility for future Offers, indicated by a flag called "Forbearance Escrow Lapse

Penalty". Where a controller is installed within an appliance that can start/restart loads the load can be deferred automatically. Scheduled/Unscheduled Maintenance on Infrastructure

In situations where supply might be interrupted because of either a planned or unplanned maintenance event, it may be beneficial to let natural market forces bring the supply and demand into balance. If a generator could make payments directly to consumers in exchange for a reduction in demand, this may be preferable to having redundant equipment, and more accurately reflect the perceived cost of the inconvenience to the consumer. Naturally this would have the effect on promoting a reduction in redundancy, with a net decrease in maintenance costs. These savings could be quantified and reported on.

Consumption Offers

Rather than choosing a single commodity provider as is most often the case now, the SpotMarket market place will enable the consumer to enter offers to consume a commodity from a particular source at a particular price. This can be achieved in one of two ways:

1. Manually chosen from a list of suppliers with the following parameters:

• A fixed dollar amount for a fixed amount of commodity.

• A fixed time period.

2. Generated automatically by matching demand with a supplier based on Price

• SpotMarket Rating

This is done on a user-by-user basis rather than a device-by-device basis and gives the user more freedom and influence than ever before in this marketplace.

In a system which adopts the SpotMarket Marketplace as a channel for the sale of the given commodity, suppliers use their administration tool not only to enter Forbearance and Surplus offers for fine-tuning, but also provide a price point for power in real time or as a finite amount of commodity at a price until completely consumed.

For example a user with a small wind farm which is generating a lot of power has set his grid-tie inverter to begin feeding power into the grid when his production rises to so many watts. His SpotMarket control unit has been programmed to sell that power at 24cents a kW-h. The next consumer in the queue has set a maximum price point of 20 cents, but has indicated that if a supplier has an exceptional SpotMarket rating of 8/10 he is willing to go as high as 26 cents, so when the offer comes online, that consumer begins buying power from the wind farm, and does so until the offer expires.

Location Cap Offers

For a Location Cap offer a user has the ability to cap their maximum load, and by staying under that, can secure additional Forbearance Credits. A supplier can offer bands of pricing based on the caps that users impose on themselves, which can be locked to a certain minimum period. That is, if a supplier so wishes, the user could be constrained to changing this setting only once a month, once a week, or even once an hour.

When an appliance is turned on that would cause the total load to exceed the cap, then other appliances would be turned off according to user-configured (or the user can select from pre-defined configurations^ priorities such that the load stays under the limit. If the user exceed their cap, then the next higher band pricing would be activated for that period. If the cap is maintained, then the discount/forbearance credit/pricing structure is applied.

This need not be specific to one discrete location but can be combined with a number of participating locations (e.g. a car manufacturing plant where when the production line comes on, since 60% of the residences within 5 miles are employees, they can participate in such a way that their loads respond to offset the spike). Peak Alleviation Offers

In those situations where a heavy consumer is being charged high rates for commodity at peak demand times, a comparison between the cost of crediting users for forbearance and the cost of peak power can automatically generate a

Peak Alleviation Offer, which is basically a Forbearance offer from a non-supply source. It is generated exactly the same way with one exception: the price per unit is not input manually but is a function of the difference between peak cost and the cost of paying users to forbear. Any consumer can make this type of offer.

Conversely, if a team of users wants to "Pool their Forbearance," they can make an offer to keep their demand under a limit that they set for themselves so that a particular heavy consumer can enjoy a reduction in the price of power in exchange for

• Services

• Account Credit

• Tax-deductions (Charitable organizations, hospitals, schools, etc)

Incentive Offers

Another type of offer involves rewards distributed based on criteria which customizable by any registered entity that wishes to advertise their involvement in our program. Offers of this type will have many more criteria available to them in addition to the ones considered in the Price-per-unit Offer. These include:

• Flatness of demand for individual users

• Flatness of demand for user teams/groups

• Reduction in demand for individual users ("Biggest Losers" scenario)

• Reduction in demand for user teams/groups ("Biggest Losers" scenario)

• Predictability of demand for individual users • Adherence to outage requests (i.e. percentage of user signal overrides)

• Existence of upgrade/maintenance recommendations

• Adherence to upgrade/maintenance recommendations

This is by no means an exhaustive list, as any trends in the consumption data could be used to single out users for rewards.

For example a local appliance company may wish to give a discount to users that have current upgrade/maintenance recommendations because of poor performance by their old fridge, so they register as an Incentive Offer provider, making a minimum deposit for security, and then add an Offer. In the offer screen they first select an Offer Total of 10,000 dollars in discounts. Then they select the type of appliance they want the offer associated with (fridge/freezers) and the minimum and maximum ratings for the device (in this case a minimum of 0% performance and a maximum of 70% means that they won't offer the upgrade to users whose fridges are already performing 70% as well as the latest model).

Then they can set an expiration date for the Offer, and an associated logo with links to an external site.

According to another aspect of the invention, to maintain a flat consumption profile, appliance control units may be configured to avoid simultaneous connection of certain types of load. For example, in an office situation using multiple kettles, appliance control units may communicate with one another to ensure that only a limited number of appliances of a prescribed type are supplied with power at a time. Again, this functionality may be effected by market platform 27 sending a control demand to appliance control units upon the acceptance of a corresponding forbearance offer.

In certain environments "soft starting" of loads may be required. The system of the invention may assign priorities to different appliances so that they are started sequentially according to priority so as not to overload a power supply. For example, fridges may be given a high priority and non-essential equipment such as entertainment appliances may be given a low priority. In this way load may be applied in a graduated manner. This can save the supplier from having to coordinate complex starting procedures.

Turning on loads based on price signals

For appliances which need no human intervention to consume power (i.e. charging an electric car or heating water), or in cases where a human is needed to turn on a device or start a cycle (e.g. a washing machine) but with an integrated chip that can turn the device on or start the cycle, the system can accept price thresholds below which the load will be turned on in order to take best advantage of the price. These can be combined with overrides based on budget/time. For example a pool pump could be activated when the price signal drops to 15cents per unit, or if 4 days pass without the occurring, then operate for

1 hour at whatever price, then resume monitoring.

Pattern recognition and Override Schedules

Since the system will record patterns in user behavior, the conditions that are likely to result in a user overriding a forbearance signal can be anticipated and the user can be prompted for a course of action. As an example, if there is a regularly occurring event such as a monthly BBQ which consumes gas for a grill and pool heating and cleaning, and the user always overrides any forbearance signals during these events, the system can recognize the trend and prompt the user to schedule the event as a permanent override. The sum total of all these events critical to users will result in forbearance offer suggestions to the generation/lines users. For example on Superbowl Sunday there may be an extra incentive for users to shed load to account for the inflexible loads that result from permanent override schedules.

Remote Monitoring to facilitate Micro Financing

Since there are regional variations in climate, capital, and subsidies, it often makes more sense to install distributed generation/efficiency measures at a remote location. The proposed system will enable monitoring of a remote carbon offset, charitable donation, and/or micro lending market based on real production/savings, and take advantage of Local subsidies that are underutilized because of lack of capital (micro financing).

Also creating new revenue schemes for DG in the areas where it makes the most impact (e.g. a user can install solar panels on a house in another country rather than their own, and watch the actual production, claim carbon credits, and even process billing such that the user at the install location can become a customer of the investor with any combination of lease-to-own, carbon offset credits, or simply charging per unit).

Appliance Name Server

Data-mining operations will be most effective when the system can correlate categories and model numbers of products in a plug-and-play fashion, and until such users may be required to input that information. Manufacturers may be provided with an interface for inputting their own product catalogues and will be responsible for its maintenance order to participate in warranty programs and the purchasing of appliance model or category specific data.

The platform may operate as such a service, correlated with domain name of the company website, model number, category, and with meta-data standards for describing specifications (dimensions, colors, variations).

Serial numbers may be associated with appliances within user accounts, since it may be impractical to determine an appliance's type using serial numbers.

If a particular appliance appears with a serial number already registered to another user the system, both users may be prompted to ascertain if the transfer was intentional, providing another layer of security, and maintaining performance data that allows a warranty to follow an appliance from user to user.

The methods and systems described enable an open platform based on a large number of micro transactions allowing dynamic balancing of supply, demand, capacity and price.

The methods, systems and apparatus provide the following advantages: i. Increased quality of the participation of the consumer in commodity markets;

ii. Decreased overall demand on the electrical grid one user at a time,

iii. A more stable, efficient, and redundancy-free grid;

iv. Flattened demand on the grid overall;

v. Provision of useful and marketable data on appliance performance and regional/demographic electrical use;

vi. Promotion of the uptake of affordable control devices installed between power outlets and appliances or installed within an appliance;

vii. Creation of an open platform allowing a range of participants to be involved in the provision of different aspects of the system and for users to be able to select components of the system that they wish to use;

viii. Creation of incentives for user forbearance in the use of a commodity;

ix. Provision of detailed information regarding usage of a commodity or performance information;

x. Improved user participation and prioritization;

xi. Flattening of demand on the grid; and

xii. A device that is configurable to take advantage of low price periods based on thresholds combined with overriding logic;

xiii. A simple and inexpensive system to install and deploy.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of crediting users of a commodity for forbearance comprising: i. a user entering commodity forbearance parameters into a commodity forbearance management system; ii. the commodity forbearance management system controlling consumption of a commodity based on the commodity forbearance parameters; iii. determining the forbearance of a user over a period; and iv. crediting a user based on their calculated forbearance.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the commodity forbearance management system coordinates forbearance offers from commodity suppliers and consumption offers from commodity consumers.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein forbearance offers from commodity suppliers include an offer to not consume a commodity for a credit value.

4. A method as claimed in claim 2 wherein forbearance offers from commodity suppliers include an offer to consume a commodity when required by a commodity supplier for a credit value.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the credit value is a fixed value set by a commodity supplier.

6. A method as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4 wherein the credit value is set dynamically in dependence upon commodity supply and demand characteristics.

7. A method as claimed in any preceding claim wherein forbearance offers include offers to provide a credit for prescribed consumer behaviour.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the behaviour includes reduced total commodity consumption, irrespective of time of consumption.

9. A method as claimed in claim 8 wherein a carbon credit value is attributed to commodity usage reduction.

10. A method as claimed in claim 7 wherein the behaviour includes a desired commodity usage profile.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 wherein the behaviour is flatness of load profile.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 wherein selected appliances are prevented from operating simultaneously.

13. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the forbearance offer is an offer for a credit to agree to disconnect appliances from the commodity supply when the commodity supply is overloaded irrespective of the actual forbearance of a consumer.

14. A method as claimed in any one of claims 2 to 13 wherein the consumption offers include offers from consumers to forbear consumption for a prescribed credit value.

15. A method as claimed in claim 14 wherein the consumption offers include offers from consumers to forbear consumption for prescribed appliances for prescribed credit values at prescribed times.

16. A method as claimed in claim 14 or claim 15 wherein consumption offers are submitted on an individual appliance basis.

17. A method as claimed in claim 14 or claim 15 wherein consumption offers are submitted on a prioritized basis.

18. A method as claimed in any one of claims 14 to 17 wherein consumption offers are entered by a user entering a consumption offer via a control unit for controlling the supply of the commodity to an appliance.

19. A method as claimed in any one of claims 14 to 17 wherein consumption offers are entered by a user entering a consumption offer via the internet.

20. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the commodity forbearance management system includes an automated bidding system.

21. A method as claimed in claim 20 wherein consumer devices are disconnected from the commodity supply until all funds for a forbearance offer have been consumed.

22. A method as claimed in claim 20 wherein consumer devices are disconnected from the commodity supply until an offer expires.

23. A method as claimed in any one of claims 20 to 22 wherein consumption offers are prioritised based on the lowest credit value of consumption offers matching forbearance offer parameters.

24. A method as claimed in claim 23 wherein consumption offers are accepted on a queuing basis.

25. A method as claimed in claim 24 wherein queuing priority for equivalent offers is prioritised on a rotation basis based on historical acceptance of consumption offers.

26. A method as claimed in any one of claims 20 to 25 wherein consumer forbearance is confirmed based on historical commodity usage by a consumer.

27. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the commodity is energy.

28. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the commodity is electricity.

29. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the user receives a financial credit.

30. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the user receives a credit to its use of a commodity.

31. A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein disconnected appliances are reconnected based on the category of appliance.

32. A method of soft starting a load on a grid having units for controlling power supply to loads connected to the grid wherein the loads are accorded priorities and loads are sequentially switched on to the grid according to their accorded priorities.

33. A distributed commodity control system comprising: i. appliance control units for controlling connectability of appliances to a commodity supply network; ii. a management system for receiving consumption offers from consumers offering to forbear consumption for a credit value and forbearance offers from commodity suppliers to provide a credit for consumer forbearance of consumption of a commodity and matching consumption offers to forbearance offers and generating command signals for controlling consumer appliances in accordance with accepted consumption offers; and iii. a communications network for conveying command signals from the management system to appliance control units to inhibit the connectivity of appliance control units.

34. A system as claimed in claim 33 wherein the management system receives consumption information from the appliance control units via the communications network.

35. A system as claimed in claim 34 wherein the management system includes means for calculating the value of credits for a consumer based upon the forbearance of a user according to a forbearance offer based upon consumption information received from appliance control units.

36. A system as claimed in claim 35 wherein the management system confirms forbearance based on historical commodity usage.

37. A method as claimed in claim 35 wherein the management system determines user credits based upon compliance with a prescribed behaviour.

38. A method as claimed in claim 37 wherein the prescribed behaviour is the flatness of energy consumption.

39. A method as claimed in claim 37 wherein the prescribed behaviour is reduction of total energy consumption.

40. A system as claimed in claim 33 wherein the management system includes means to automatically generate forbearance offers based upon measured supply and demand characteristics of the commodity supply.

41. A method as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 40 wherein the management system prevents appliance control units of a consumer that control appliances of the same type from operating simultaneously.

42. A system as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 41 wherein at least some of the appliance control modules include a user interface for entering consumption offers.

43. A system as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 41 wherein the management system includes consumer terminals for entering consumption offers.

44. A system as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 43 wherein the communications network is the internet.

45. A system as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 44 wherein the communications network includes a wireless network.

46. A system as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 45 including an appliance control unit that may be configured to disable the connection of a connected appliance to the commodity supply in an exceptional condition.

47. A method as claimed in claim 46 wherein the appliance control unit may be configured to disable the connection of a connected appliance to the commodity supply in an exceptional condition when the management system matches a supply offer with a forbearance offer for this type of forbearance.

48. A system as claimed in claim 46 or claim 47 wherein the exceptional condition is overloading of a power supply.

49. A system as claimed in claim 48 wherein the appliance control unit monitors line voltage and disables connection of a connected appliance to the power supply when line voltage falls below a prescribed threshold.

50. A system as claimed in claim 48 wherein the appliance control unit monitors line frequency and disables connection of a connected appliance to the power supply when line frequency falls below a prescribed threshold.

51. A method as claimed in any one of claims 46 to 50 wherein the configuration of the appliance control unit includes setting the threshold at which the appliance control unit disables connection to the commodity supply.

52. A system as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 45 including an appliance control unit that may be configured to connect a connected appliance to the commodity supply in an exceptional condition.

53. A system as claimed in claim 52 wherein the appliance control unit may be configured to connect a connected appliance to the commodity supply in an exceptional condition when the management system matches a supply offer with a forbearance offer for this type of forbearance.

54. A system as claimed in claim 52 or 53 wherein the exceptional condition is surplus commodity supply.

55. A system as claimed in any one of claims 33 to 54 wherein each appliance control unit has a unique identification code.

56. An appliance control apparatus adapted to control the supply of a commodity to the appliance comprising: i. means responsive to control signals from a remote management system to configure the connectability of an appliance connected to the appliance control apparatus to the commodity supply; ii. means for storing commodity usage data and communicating this to a remote management system; and iii. means for sensing the state of supply of the commodity and to control a device depending upon the state of supply of the commodity.

57. An apparatus as claimed in claim 56 that may be configured to disable the connection of a connected appliance to a commodity supply in an exceptional condition.

58. An apparatus as claimed in claim 57 that may be configured to disable the connection of a connected appliance to a commodity supply in an exceptional condition in response to a control signal from a management system.

59. An apparatus as claimed in claim 57 or claim 58 wherein the exceptional condition is overloading of a power supply.

60. An apparatus as claimed in claim 59 wherein the apparatus monitors line voltage and disables connection of a connected appliance to the power supply when line voltage falls below a prescribed threshold.

61. An apparatus as claimed in claim 59 wherein the appliance control unit monitors line frequency and disables connection of a connected appliance to the power supply when line frequency falls below a prescribed threshold.

62. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 60 to 61 wherein the threshold may be configured in response to a control signal from a management system.

63. An apparatus as claimed in claim 56 that may be configured to connect a connected appliance to the commodity supply in an exceptional condition.

64. An apparatus as claimed in claim 63 wherein the apparatus may be configured to connect a connected appliance to the commodity supply in an exceptional condition in response to a control signal.

65. A system as claimed in claim 63 or 64 wherein the exceptional condition is surplus commodity supply.

66. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 56 to 65 including a temperature sensor.

67. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 56 to 66 including a light sensor.

68. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 56 to 67 including a user interface for entering supply offer information and a communications interface for sending the offer information to a management system.

69. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 56 to 68 including a wireless Communications interface.

70. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 56 to 69 including means to communicate with like devices and coordinate connection of appliances to the commodity supply so that only a prescribed number of appliances of the same type may be simultaneously connected to the commodity supply.

71. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 56 to 70 including an override switch for overriding remote control of the apparatus.

72. An apparatus as claimed in claim 71 wherein the switch is optically actuated.

73. An apparatus as claimed in claim 72 including a light guide to receive light control signals to actuate the optical switch.

74. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 56 to 73 including a temperature sensor.

75. Software for effecting the method of any one of claims 1 to 32.

76. A method of assessing thermal efficiency of a structure having apparatus for monitoring energy consumption for heating the structure and temperature sensors within the structure comprising monitoring power consumption and temperature information and supplying power consumption and temperature information to a remote computer and calculating thermal efficiency at the remote computer.

77. A method as claimed in claim 76 wherein thermal efficiency of a structure is calculated based on the rate of cooling of the structure when not being heated.

78. A method of monitoring appliance efficiency by monitoring commodity consumption of an appliance via a local apparatus monitoring commodity consumption and supplying the consumption information to a remote computer.

79. A method as claimed in claim 78 wherein the remote computer determines cycles of an appliance and calculates consumption per cycle.

80. A method as claimed in claim 79 wherein the remote computer calculate the type of cycle based on commodity usage profile and calculates consumption for each cycle type.

81. A method as claimed in any one of claims 78 to 80 wherein consumption profiles for a range of appliances are determined and a selected appliance is rated with respect to the range of appliances.

82. A method as claimed in any one of claims 78 to 81 wherein the consumption information is used to identify appliance malfunction.

83. A method as claimed in claim 82 wherein a customer is notified if appliance malfunction is detected.

84. A method as claimed in claim 82 or 83 wherein the local apparatus disconnects the commodity supply when malfunctioning of an appliance is detected.