# US 9,436,948 B2 · Power aggregation system for distributed electric resources > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 9,436,948 B2 - Document ID: US9436948B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 14/462,117 - Filed: 2014-08-18 - Published: 2015-03-19 - Granted: 2016-09-06 - Earliest claimed: 2006-08-10 - Assignees: V2Green, Inc. - Applicants: V2Green, Inc. - Inventors: Seth W. Bridges; Seth B. Pollack; David L. Kaplan - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9436948B2 ## CPC - B60L 53/63: in response to network capacity - B60L 53/00: Methods of charging batteries, specially adapted for electric vehicles; Charging stations or on-board charging equipment therefor; Exchange of energy storage elements in electric vehicles - B60L 53/51: Photovoltaic means - B60L 53/52: Wind-driven generators - B60L 53/64: Optimising energy costs, e.g. responding to electricity rates - B60L 55/00: Arrangements for supplying energy stored within a vehicle to a power network, i.e. vehicle-to-grid [V2G] arrangements - G05B 13/026: {using a predictor} - G06Q 30/0202: Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities - G06Q 50/06: Energy or water supply - H02J 3/008: Circuit arrangements for power supply or distribution technologies responsive to energy trading - H02J 3/322: {the battery being on-board an electric or hybrid vehicle, e.g. vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G], power aggregation, use of the battery for network load balancing, coordinated or cooperative battery charging} - H02J 3/38: Arrangements for feeding a single network from two or more generators or sources in parallel; Arrangements for feeding already energised networks from additional generators or sources in parallel - H02J 7/04: Regulation of charging current or voltage - H02J 7/34: Parallel operation in networks using both storage and other DC sources, e.g. providing buffering (H02J7/14 takes precedence) - H02J 7/90: Regulation of charging or discharging current or voltage - H02J 13/12: Monitoring network conditions, e.g. electrical magnitudes or operational status - H02J 13/1311: {using the power network as support for the transmission} - H02J 13/1337: {involving the use of Internet protocols} - B60L 2240/80: Time limits - Y02E 60/00: Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation - Y02T 10/70: Energy storage systems for electromobility, e.g. batteries - Y02T 10/7072: Electromobility specific charging systems or methods for batteries, ultracapacitors, supercapacitors or double-layer capacitors - Y02T 90/12: Electric charging stations - Y02T 90/14: Plug-in electric vehicles - Y02T 90/16: Information or communication technologies improving the operation of electric vehicles - Y02T 90/167: Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for supporting the interoperability of electric or hybrid vehicles, i.e. smartgrids as interface for battery charging of electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV] - Y04S 10/126: the energy generation units being or involving electric vehicles [EV] or hybrid vehicles [HEV], i.e. power aggregation of EV or HEV, vehicle to grid arrangements [V2G] - Y04S 10/14: Energy storage units - Y04S 10/50: Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications - Y04S 30/14: Details associated with the interoperability, e.g. vehicle recognition, authentication, identification or billing - Y04S 40/121: using the power network as support for the transmission - Y04S 50/10: Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid - Y04S 50/14: Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards - Y04S 50/16: Energy services, e.g. dispersed generation or demand or load or energy savings aggregation - B60L: PROPULSION OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (arrangements or mounting of electrical propulsion units or of plural diverse prime-movers for mutual or common propulsion in vehicles B60K1/00, B60K6/20; arrangements or mounting of electrical gearing in vehicles B60K17/12, B60K17/14; preventing wheel slip by reducing power in rail vehicles B61C15/08; dynamo-electric machines H02K; control or regulation of electric motors H02P); SUPPLYING ELECTRIC POWER FOR AUXILIARY EQUIPMENT OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES (electric coupling devices combined with mechanical couplings of vehicles B60D1/64; electric heating for vehicles B60H1/00); ELECTRODYNAMIC BRAKE SYSTEMS FOR VEHICLES IN GENERAL (control or regulation of electric motors H02P); MAGNETIC SUSPENSION OR LEVITATION FOR VEHICLES; MONITORING OPERATING VARIABLES OF ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES; ELECTRIC SAFETY DEVICES FOR ELECTRICALLY-PROPELLED VEHICLES - G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G) - G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR - H02J: ELECTRIC POWER NETWORKS; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY - Y02E: REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION - Y02T: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO TRANSPORTATION - Y04S: SYSTEMS INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO POWER NETWORK OPERATION, COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT OR USAGE, i.e. SMART GRIDS ## Abstract Systems and methods are described for a power aggregation system. In one implementation, a method includes establishing a communication connection with each of multiple electric resources connected to a power grid, receiving an energy generation signal from a power grid operator, and controlling a number of the electric resources being charged by the power grid as a function of the energy generation signal. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A power aggregation system, comprising: a flow controller, operable to communicate with one or more electric vehicles intermittently connected to a power grid, each vehicle having its own vehicle constraints, the flow controller comprising: a connection manager, operable to communicate with the one or more electric vehicles; a database, operable to store historical data for the one or more electric vehicles, including historical time of connection to the power grid, historical duration of connection to the power grid, historical location of connection to the power grid, and historical state of charge, wherein the historical vehicle data is updated in the database when the one or more electric vehicles connects to the power grid; a prediction engine, operable to make predictions about the behavior of the one or more electric vehicles using, at least in part, the historical data, wherein the predictions include when the one or more electric vehicles will connect to the power grid, the duration of the connection, the location of the connection, and the state of charge at connect time; a grid interaction manager operable to receive signals from a power grid operator, associated with the power grid, requesting service to the power grid by the one or more electric vehicles; and a constraint optimizer, operable to determine the availability of the one or more electric vehicles to participate in the requested service to the power grid based on constraints of the one or more electric vehicles, the constraints including when the one or more electric vehicles will connect to the power grid, the duration of the connection, the location of the connection, and the state of charge at connect time, the constraint optimizer further operable to send control signals, via the connection manager, to the one or more electric vehicles when the constraints of the one or more electric vehicles are satisfied, wherein the control signals provide information indicating to the electric vehicle when to cause power to flow from the electric vehicle to the power grid or when to cause power to flow from the power grid to the electric vehicle. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the flow controller further comprises: a contract manager, operable to communicate with the energy markets and the grid operator to determine the availability, pricing levels and available services for the one or more electric vehicles, wherein the pricing levels and services are constrains of the one or more electric vehicles, and wherein the constrain optimizer is operable to determine the availability of the one or more electric vehicles to provide the requested service to the power grid based on the pricing levels and available services. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The power aggregation system of claim 2, wherein the constraints include the price sensitivity of the owner of the one or more electrical vehicles, and wherein the constraint optimizer uses the price of energy to determine whether owner accepts participation in the requested service based on the price sensitivity of the owner and the price of energy. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the prediction engine is operable to predict the behavior of the power grid. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, further comprising: a charging component communicatively coupled to the flow controller, the charging component receiving signals from the flow controller to control the charging or discharging of the one or more electric vehicles connected to the charging component, wherein the charging component is further operable to send information indicating connection time, connection duration, and state of charge to the flow controller when the one or more electric vehicles are connected to the charging component. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, further comprising: a plurality of the flow controllers, each flow controller associated with a control area and a power grid operator associated with the control area; and a directory server, operable to communicate with and inform the one or more electric vehicles which flow controller to communicate with. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The power aggregation system of claim 6, wherein the directory server is integrated with one of the plurality of flow controllers, and wherein the directory server is operable to interact with the one or more electric vehicles or forward communication of the one or more electric vehicles to another flow controller based on the location of the one or more electric vehicles. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The power aggregation system of claim 6, where in the directory server includes a publically accessible database that maps control areas to one or more of the plurality of flow control centers and is used to signal the one or more electric vehicles which flow control server to communicate with. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the grid interaction manager is operable to send a signal to the power grid operator that the one or more electric vehicle are available to service the power grid associated with the power grid operator within the constraints of the one or more electric vehicles. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the grid interaction manager is operable to send a signal to the power grid operator indicating availability of the one or more electric vehicle at various points of time in the future. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the constraints of the one or more electric vehicles include one or more of: price sensitivity of the owner; owner sensitivity to revenue relative to state of charge; manual charging overrides; and owner preferences. ### Claim 12 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the connection manager notifies the owner of the one or more electric vehicles if the electric vehicle associated with the owner remains disconnected for a predetermined amount of time. ### Claim 13 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the prediction engine is operable to build at least one parameterized model used to predict the behavior of the one or more electric vehicles. ### Claim 14 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the prediction engine is operable to build a plurality of parameterized models used to predict the behavior of associated sets of a plurality of the one or more electric vehicles. ### Claim 15 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, wherein the prediction engine is operable to build a separate parameterized model corresponding to each of the one or more electric vehicles, wherein each separate parameterized model predicts the behavior of the corresponding one electric vehicle. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The power aggregation system of claim 15, wherein the charging component charges the one or more electric vehicles according to a standard charging mode when there is no communication with the flow controller. ### Claim 17 (depends on 16) The power aggregation system of claim 16, wherein the standard charging mode includes preprogrammed instructions. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The power aggregation system of claim 17, wherein the standard charging mode includes instructions to charge the one or more electric vehicle when the time of use rates are low. ### Claim 19 (depends on 16) The power aggregation system of claim 16, wherein the standard charging mode includes learned behavior of the one or more electric vehicles. ### Claim 20 (depends on 16) The power aggregation system of claim 16, wherein transaction information of an instance where an electric vehicle is connected to a charging component is cached and transmitted to the flow controller when communication is reestablished. ### Claim 21 (depends on 1) The power aggregation system of claim 1, the constraint optimizer selects the time and rate of charge and the time and rate of discharge of the one or more electric vehicles based on the historical connect and disconnect times of the one or more electric vehicles and the needs of the power grid.