US 10,320,576 B1Granted

Energy management system

AssigneeAmazon Technologies, Inc.

InventorsDavid George Butler, Richard William Mincher, Arvind Thiagarajan

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Abstract

Described are systems to manage energy distribution and operation of computing devices (“devices”). The devices may connect to a shared data and power distribution system, such as receiving electrical energy in conjunction with data signals using Power over Ethernet (POE). During activation of the facility, such as after an energy outage, the demand for energy from many devices attempting to startup may exceed the energy capacity available. Described are devices and techniques for distributing energy to devices, coordinating operating mode of the devices, and so forth, to mitigate demand spikes for electrical energy that exceed the capacity of the energy distribution system.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A first device comprising:

a clock to generate time data;
a first communication interface to couple to a first network to receive data and electrical energy from the first network;
a second communication interface to couple to a second network;
a distribution control device to control flow of the electrical energy between the first communication interface and the second communication interface;
at least one memory, storing computer-executable instructions;
and
at least one processor to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
access timeslot designation data indicative of a periodically recurring interval of time;
determining a time window based on the periodically recurring interval of time;
at a first time, determine that a current time indicated by the time data from the clock is within the time window;
and
initiate a first change in an operating mode of the first device from a first operating mode to a second operating mode, wherein the first operating mode consumes a different amount of energy than the second operating mode.

9 more elements

A first computing device comprising:

a real-time clock to generate current time data;
a first communication interface to couple to a first network;
a power supply to receive electrical energy from the first network and provide the electrical energy to the first computing device;
a second communication interface to couple to a second network;
a distribution control device to control flow of the electrical energy between the first communication interface and the second communication interface;
at least one memory, storing computer-executable instructions;
and
at least one processor to execute the computer-executable instructions to:
access timeslot designation data indicative of a scheduled periodically recurring interval of time;
determine the current time data is within the scheduled periodically recurring interval of time specified by the timeslot designation data;
during the scheduled periodically recurring interval of time, initiate a change in mode of the first computing device from a first mode to a second mode;
and
during the scheduled periodically recurring interval of time, direct the distribution control device to pass at least a portion of the electrical energy from the first network to the second network using the second communication interface.

10 more elements

A method comprising:

accessing first timeslot designation data indicative of a periodically recurring interval of time for a first device configured to receive electrical energy from a first network;
determining a time window based on the periodically recurring interval of time;
determining that a current time indicated by time data of a clock of the first device is within the time window;
initiating a change in mode of the first device from a first mode to a second mode;
and
directing a distribution control device to pass at least a portion of the electrical energy from the first network to a second network during the periodically recurring interval of time or at a different interval of time.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.