Application US20190356164 Energy Financial Settlements

Search All Applications in Energy Financial Settlements

General Electric Company | Website | LinkedIn | Stock Symbol: GE | Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts

Application US20190356164

Published 2019-11-21

Distributed Ledger Based Control Of Large-scale, Power Grid Energy Resources

Some embodiments may provide a distributed optimization technology for the control of aggregation of distributed flexibility resource nodes (e.g., associated with distributed energy resources) that operates iteratively until a commanded power profile is produced by aggregated loads. Some embodiments use a distributed iterative solution in which each node solves a local optimization problem with local constraints and states, while using global qualities (e.g., associated with a Lagrange multiplier) that are based upon information from each other node. The global qualities may be determined via a secure, distributed transaction ledger (e.g., associated with blockchain) using DER-specific information obtained in a condensed form (e.g., a scalar or vector) from each node at each iteration. The global qualities may be broadcast to the nodes for each new iteration. Embodiments may provide an iterative, distributed solution to the network optimization problem of aggregated load power tracking.

Much More than Average Length Specification

View the Patent Matrix® Diagram to Explore the Claim Relationships

USPTO Full Text Publication >

3 Independent Claims

1. A system, comprising: a Distributed Energy Resource (“DER”) controller of distributed DER controllers, the DER controller coupled to manage a power-exchanging DER associated with a power grid, wherein the DER controller manages the DER to satisfy a DER quality of service constraint or constraints, wherein the DER controller is communicatively coupled to a secure, distributed transaction ledger that receives data sent by the DER controller and received from one or more other distributed DER controllers of the distributed DER controllers, the data comprising initial data that comprises a power range, wherein the DER controller is configured to receive an initial ratio value from the secure, distributed transaction ledger, wherein the initial ratio value is based on the power range and other power range data from the one or more other distributed DER controllers of the distributed DER controllers, wherein the DER controller is further configured to use the initial ratio value to set a local control action level to an initial level, and use DER-specific information of the power-exchanging DER to determine condensed information comprising one or more scalar or vector values that represent the DER-specific information in a more compact form than the DER-specific information, and to communicate the condensed information to the secure, distributed transaction ledger, wherein the local control action level is local to the DER controller, wherein the DER controller is further configured to perform iterations based on communication with the secure, distributed transaction ledger to update local optimization variables, including variables defining control actions, until the secure, distributed transaction ledger determines that the iterations have satisfied a defined condition, and wherein the iterations are performed to: receive a step size value and a global value from the secure, distributed transaction ledger, wherein the step size value and the global value are calculated based on the condensed information and other condensed information from the one or more other distributed DER controllers of the distributed DER controllers, determine a step direction, control the power-exchanging DER with an adjustment based on the step size value and the step direction to approach optimal control values satisfying the specified aggregated load power consumption level, re-determine updated condensed information that updates the condensed information and comprises one or more updated scalar or vector values that represent the DER-specific information after the adjustment, and communicate the updated condensed information to the secure, distributed transaction ledger.
17. A method, comprising: receiving, by a system comprising processors associated with plurality of ledgers together forming a secure, distributed transaction ledger, respective condensed datasets representative of respective Distributed Energy Resource (“DRE”)-specific information received from respective load controllers, wherein the respective DRE controllers are coupled to control a power-exchanging DER associated with a power grid, and wherein the respective condensed datasets are smaller in size than respective full datasets associated with the respective DER controllers; determining a global value and a step size based on the respective condensed datasets and a specified aggregated control action level; sending the global value and the step size to the respective DER controllers for use in adjusting respective local power consumptions of the respective DER controllers to satisfy the specified aggregated control action level; receiving respective updated condensed datasets from the respective DER controllers that update the respective condensed datasets, wherein the respective updated condensed datasets are based on the respective DER-specific information associated with the power-exchanging DER of the respective DER controllers after the adjusting of the respective local power consumptions in respective step directions determined by the respective DER controllers; and determining, from the respective updated condensed datasets, whether the respective DER controllers have satisfied the specified aggregated control action level to a defined extent, and in response to determining that the specified aggregated control action level has not been satisfied to the defined extent: determining an updated global value and an updated step size based on the respective updated condensed datasets and the specified aggregated control action level, and sending the updated global value and the updated step size to the respective DER controllers for use in further adjusting the respective local power consumptions to satisfy the specified aggregated control action level.
21. A non-transitory, machine-readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a load controller of a group of Distributed Energy Resource (“DER”) controllers, facilitate performance of operations, comprising: communicating load-related power range data to a secure, distributed transaction ledger, wherein the load-related power range data from the DER controller and other load-related power range data from one or more other DER controllers of the group of distributed DER controllers are usable by the secure, distributed transaction ledger to determine initialization data that is to be received by the DER controller in response to the communicating of the load-related power range data, and is to be sent to the one or more other DER controllers; receiving the initialization data from the secure, distributed transaction ledger; determining condensed DER-specific information of a power-exchanging load managed by the DER controller based at least in part on the initialization data; communicating the condensed DER-specific information to the secure, distributed transaction ledger, wherein the condensed DER-specific information from the DER controller and other condensed DER-specific information from the one or more other DER controllers are usable by the secure, distributed transaction ledger to determine a step size and a global quantity (e.g., multiplier value) that are to be received by the DER controller in response to the communicating of the condensed DER-specific information and are to be sent to the one or more other DER controllers; receiving the step size and the global quantity from the secure, distributed transaction ledger; based on the step size and the global quantity from the secure, distributed transaction ledger, determining a step direction, adjusting the load power consumption in the step direction, determining current condensed DER-specific information after the adjusting of the load power consumption, and communicating the current condensed DER-specific information to the secure, distributed transaction ledger, wherein the current condensed DER-specific information from the DER controller and other current condensed DER-specific information from the one or more other DER controllers are usable by the secure, distributed transaction ledger to evaluate whether aggregated control action levels of the group of distributed DER controllers have converged to a defined convergence level, and in response to the aggregated control action levels being determined not to have converged to the defined convergence level, determining a new step size that replaces the step size and a new global quantity that replaces the global quantity based on the current condensed DER-specific information and the other current DER-specific information, and wherein the new step size and the new global quantity are to be received by the DER controller and sent to the other DER controllers; receiving the new step size and the new global quantity; and in response to the aggregated control action levels being determined to have converged to the defined convergence level, ending the operations until a later time.