According to an embodiment, energy management system includes client and server. Server includes acquisition unit, estimation unit, calculator and controller. Acquisition unit acquires data concerning electrical equipment in a building including a storage battery from client. Estimation unit estimates energy demand and energy generation amount in building based on the data. Calculator calculates, based on the energy demand and the energy generation amount, operation schedule of the electrical equipment to optimize energy balance in building under a constraint that minimizes dump power to be discarded after storage battery is fully charged. Controller creates control information to control electrical equipment based on operation schedule.

A household appliance includes a controller operating on an energy supply network having a data network for exchanging data via the energy supply network, wherein the network may include smart metering. The controller has a first control component embodies as a computer, a second control component for settings data, a third control component for operating data, and a fourth control component connected with the first control component and including a graph algorithm. The first control component determines data for controlling actuators from the settings data and the operating data. Through cooperation of the first control component, the fourth control component and the graph algorithm, the data from the data network for the household appliance are taken into account so as to allow operation of the household appliance always to continue. A corresponding method for operating such household appliance is also described.

A power demand regulation system has a power demand regulation device that regulates the load applied to equipment of an electrical power system by a load apparatus operating by means of power from the electrical power system, which supplies power to consumers. When regulating the load to the equipment, the power demand regulation device selects a load apparatus as the subject of a request for an alteration of operating state on the basis of by-apparatus load information, which is information of each load apparatus, and a regulation target value, which is the amount of load that is to be regulated, and, in the period from the start to the end of regulation, executes a plurality of times the outputting of an alteration request that requests the alteration of the operating state of the selected load apparatus.

A demand side electric power supply management system is disclosed. The system comprises an islanded power system having a point of coupling to a supply grid. The islanded power system supplies a plurality of electric loads, each of which is associated with a load controller to control the maximum power demanded by that load. A measuring means associated with the point of coupling measures the total power transfer between the grid and the islanded system, and a system controller monitors the measured power transfer relative to a set point and provides a control signal to a plurality of load controllers. Each load controller receives substantially the same control signal and determines the maximum power which the or each load associated with the load controller is allowed to draw from the islanded power system based on information contained in the control signal.

The invention relates to a method of operating at least one distributed energy resource comprising a refrigeration system (1) with a number of cooling entities, wherein a power consumption information is communicated to a smart-grid setup (SG). According to the invention the method comprises the steps of: requesting (S0) a power consumption information from the refrigeration system; transmitting (S1) the power consumption information from the refrigeration system (1), wherein a total amount of power consumption (Pmin, Pmax) of the refrigeration system (1) is provided; wherein: a cooling capacity (dQ/dt_i) of at least one cooling entity is determined wherein an entity operation condition (CE) of the cooling entity (E1, E2) is taken into account (D1); a power consumption (W_i) of at least one cooling entity (E1, E2) is determined from the cooling capacity (dQ/dt_i) wherein a performance estimation (COP) of a refrigeration cycle for the cooling entity (E1, E2) is taken into account (D2); providing (D3) the total amount of power consumption (Pmin, Pmax) as a sum of power consumptions (W_i) of at least the one cooling entity of the number of cooling entities (E1, E2), in particular as a sum of relevant power consumptions of the number of cooling entities (E1, E2); receiving (S2) at the refrigeration system (1) a power reference (Wref) from the smart-grid setup (SG). The method presented enables power control of a centralized refrigeration system in a smart-grid setup where an aggregator provides the power reference. In addition, the method also enables the refrigeration system to improve determining flexibility margins beyond absolute max./min values of nominal and zero.

A method for reducing aggregate power cost that includes determining an end device power consumption profile for each of a plurality of end devices, storing the end device power consumption profiles in a switching device configured to determine a desired power flow timing for each of the plurality of end devices, determining an optimal rate period with the switching device, determining, with the switching device, the desired power flow timing for each of the plurality of end devices such that a power consumption of the plurality of end devices is preferably within the optimal rate period, and controlling, via the control device, the plurality of end devices such that the desired power flow timing is substantially obtained, thereby reducing aggregate cost per kWhr of the plurality of end devices.

A system and/or method is provided that manages delivery of power for a device and an additional device. The system can include a device that consumes power to refrigerate an item stored therein, wherein the device includes an eutectic plate and an additional device that consumes power. The system can further include a power source that is configured to deliver power and a power manager component that is configured to monitor a temperature within the device. The power manager component can further be configured to activate the power source to deliver power to the device to reach a set temperature, switch the delivery of power from the device to the additional device based on the set temperature being reached, and maintain the set temperature in the device by switching delivery of power from the additional device to the device based on monitoring the temperature.

An electrical equipment is supplied with electric power from one of an electric power supply system and a secondary battery. The electrical equipment includes a switch circuit and a module. The switching circuit switches a power supply source for supplying electric power to the electrical equipment between the electric power supply system and the secondary battery. The module includes a processor to execute a program to perform a controlling process including a process of controlling the switch circuit to selectively connect the electrical equipment to one of the electric power supply system and the secondary battery according to a control signal supplied from an external device.

An apparatus of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) is provided. The SOFCs generate power and are grid-tied. The apparatus comprises a power-generating side; and a grid-connecting side using an elementary household power management. The apparatus solves problems like low voltage, high current, voltage oscillation, voltage dips, long generator-starting time, etc. The apparatus is not only used as a stable power supply (base load), but also helps adjust the regional peak electricity demands. The features include the following: 1. A grid is tied, where output power does not pass through a direct-current boost converter and, thus, has no loss from it. 2. Injures, including voltage oscillation and sudden unloading after dumping, are reduced for avoiding further damages to cell sheets. 3. With the coordination of elementary power management and the integration of grid, the limitation of long-awaiting generator-starting time is crossed out and convenience of immediate power use is achieved.

Methods and arrangements for load-shifting time deferrable devices. An electrical load scheduling mechanism is provided, and this is placed in communication with an appliance. Electrical grid load conditions are assessed, and delivery of electrical power to the appliance is scheduled via the electrical load scheduling mechanism. The scheduling includes altering a predetermined delivery of electric power to the appliance based on the assessed electrical grid conditions.