Beacon Power's Smart Grid Patent

Posted on November 14, 2010 by Rajiv Sarathy

Beacon Power reported last week that its patent application directed to smart grid technology has been allowed.  The patent will issue on Tuesday as U.S. Patent No. 7,834,479, and is directed to controlling the frequency of power on a mini-grid that is disconnectable from a utility grid.

Claim 1 of the patent will recite:

A method for operating a mini-grid including one or more power generation sources and one or more loads connected to a bus, comprising the steps of:

  • monitoring a condition of a utility grid;

  • disconnecting the mini-grid from the utility grid to operate the mini-grid independently in response to a power disruption over the utility grid;

  • monitoring at least one of a frequency and a voltage of power on the bus; and

  • providing an interconnect device connected to the bus, the interconnect device
    including at least one of: an energy storage device for absorbing or releasing real power to control the frequency of the power on the bus, and a power quality compensator for absorbing or releasing reactive power to control the voltage of the power on the bus.

A first Office Action rejected the claims under 35 U.S.C. 112 because the patent examiner did not understand where the interconnect device is and what it does.  Beacon amended the claims to more particularly claim the interconnect device, and the examiner then allowed the claims.

The application was first filed in 2008.  Although claim 1 does not define what the energy storage device is or how it works, Beacon's "fly-wheel" storage device is described at Beacon's web site.  It will be interesting to watch how broadly Beacon will attempt assert claim 1.
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USPTO Expands "Green Technology Pilot Program"

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Rajiv Sarathy

The USPTO today announced an expansion and extension to the "Green Technology Pilot Program."  Under the program, patent applications pertaining to environmental quality, energy conservation, development of renewable energy resources, and greenhouse gas emission reduction can be accorded special status and prosecuted more quickly than other applications.

This pilot program will run until December 31, 2011, but the USPTO will accept only the first 3,000 grantable petitions to make special under the Green Technology Pilot Program.  

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Two More Smartgrid-Related Patents

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Rajiv Sarathy

EDSA Power Analytics recently received two smartgrid-related patents:

  • 7,729,808  System for comparing real-time data and modeling engine data to predict arc flash events; and
  • 7,693,608  Systems and methods for alarm filtering and management within a real-time data acquisition and monitoring environment 

Claim 1 of the '808 patent recites:

1.  A system for making real-time predictions about an arc flash event on an electrical system, comprising:

  • a data acquisition component communicatively connected to a sensor configured to acquire real-time data output from the electrical system;
  • an analytics server communicatively connected to the data acquisition component, comprising, a virtual system modeling engine configured to generate predicted data output for the electrical system utilizing a virtual system model of the electrical system, an analytics engine configured to monitor the real-time data output and the predicted data output of the electrical system, the analytics engine further configured to initiate a calibration and synchronization operation to update the virtual system model when a difference between the real-time data output and the predicted data output exceeds a threshold, a decision engine configured to compare the real-time data output against the predicted data output to filter out and interpret indicia of electrical system health and performance; and
  • an arc flash simulation engine configured to utilize the virtual system model to forecast an aspect of the arc flash event; and a client terminal communicatively connected to the analytics server and configured to communicate the forecasted aspect.

 Claim 1 of the '608 patent recites:

1. A system for filtering and interpreting real-time sensory data from an electrical system, comprising:

  • a data acquisition component communicatively connected to a sensor configured to acquire real-time data output from the electrical system;
  • a power analytics server communicatively connected to the data acquisition components, comprising, a virtual system modeling engine configured to generate predicted data output for the electrical system utilizing a virtual system model of the electrical system, an analytics engine configured to monitor the real-time data output and the predicted data output of the electrical system, the analytics engine further configured to initiate a calibration and synchronization operation to update the virtual system model when a difference between the real-time data output and the predicted data output exceeds a threshold, and a decision engine configured to compare the real-time data output against the predicted data output to filter out and interpret indicia of electrical system health and performance; and
  • a client terminal communicatively connected to the power analytics server and configured to display the filtered and interpreted indicia.

 
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