An energy saving support system according to an embodiment is configured to provide a consumer, who has an electric load to which electric energy is supplied from an electric power supply system within a house, with energy consumption-related information through a photo frame or the like. The information providing apparatus is configured to acquire an acceptability level, which stepwise indicates a degree of interest of the consumer in the energy consumption-related information, and to determine the energy consumption-related information to be newly provided to the consumer based on the acceptability level.

This energy management device is provided at a customer and is capable of controlling an electric appliance of the customer by communicating with a server. The server is configured to send a request for demand response. The energy management device includes: a receiver configured to receive the request for the demand response from the server; a transmitter configured to transmit a response indicating participation or nonparticipation with respect to the request; an electric appliance control unit configured to control the electric appliance; and an information acquisition unit configured to acquire information of the electric appliance. When determination that the request for the demand response is not achievable has been made after the response indicating participation has been transmitted, a response indicating nonparticipation is transmitted.

A building manager includes a communications interface configured to receive information from a smart energy grid. The building manager further includes an integrated control layer configured to receive inputs from and to provide outputs to a plurality of building subsystems. The integrated control layer includes a plurality of control algorithm modules configured to process the inputs and to determine the outputs. The building manager further includes a fault detection and diagnostics layer configured to use statistical analysis on the inputs received from the integrated control layer to detect and diagnose faults. The building manager yet further includes a demand response layer configured to process the information received from the smart energy grid to determine adjustments to the plurality of control algorithms of the integrated control layer.

A method of controlling a microgrid includes receiving, by a power management system, PMS, of the microgrid, operating point values for a plurality of controllable assets. The method includes determining, by the PMS, an asset headroom. The method includes determining, by the PMS, a modified operating point value that is dependent on the received operating point value of the controllable asset, the determined asset headroom of the controllable asset, and a total power offset of the microgrid. The method includes controlling, by the PMS, the controllable assets for which the modified operating point values have been determined in accordance with the modified operating point values.

The distributed power supply system includes: a communicator configured to receive a first message from a power management server configured to control the distributed power supply and receive a second message from an equipment management server configured to monitor the distributed power supply; and a controller configured to control the distributed power supply based on the first message and the second message. If the first message and the second message conflict with each other, the controller controls the distributed power supply based on the second message preferentially over the first message.

According to an aspect, an information processing device includes: a receiver configured to receive information related to a plurality of smart meters; a controller configured to determine presence or absence of an anomaly in each of the smart meters based on a reception status of the information from each of the smart meters; and an output unit configured to output information indicating presence or absence of an anomaly in each of the smart meters. The receiver receives the information from the smart meters in a cycle of a first predetermined time. The controller determines that an anomaly is occurring in a smart meter from which information has not been obtained for a second predetermined time that is longer than the first predetermined time. The second predetermined time is n times as long as the first predetermined time, and n is equal to or greater than 2.

This application disclose example electric energy control methods. When power of a main device is lower than baseline power, an energy storage device is in a charging state and stores remaining electric energy. When power of a main device is greater than the baseline power, the main device receives electric energy output by a power supply device and the energy storage device. To be specific, the energy storage device is in a discharging state and supplies power together with the power supply device to ensure operation of the main device. However, an amount of electric energy stored in the energy storage device is limited. When an amount of the electric energy of the energy storage device is insufficient, the main device is notified to decrease radio frequency power of a preset frequency band of the main device, to reduce a breakdown caused by excessively high power of the main device.

The invention relates to a method and apparatus for monitoring the condition of subsystems within a renewable generation plant or microgrid which are using Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for allowing plant operators to monitor and interact with a plant via human machine interfaces.

A control and monitoring device integrated in an intermediary coupling unit, said intermediary coupling unit being configured to couple an electrical appliance to a power supply, said control and monitoring device comprising a control module configured to change a status of the electrical appliance; a sensor configured to monitor a condition of said electrical appliance and/or an environment thereof; and a processor configured to instruct the control module to change a status of the electrical appliance based on an output of the sensor. Complementary devices and methods of operating such devices are also presented herein.

A communication-based permissive protection method for protecting an electrical power distribution network from a fault. The network includes a power source, an electrical line and a plurality of fault interrupters, where the fault interrupters are operable to prevent current flow in response to the fault. The method includes detecting the fault by each fault interrupter that is between the fault and the power source, and sending a drop of voltage message from each fault interrupter that doesn't detect the fault, but does detect a drop of voltage as a result of the fault to its immediate upstream fault interrupter. The method opens the fault interrupter that both detects the fault and receives a drop of voltage message from all of the fault interrupters immediately downstream of that fault interrupter.