This invention relates to a device for controlling at least one of a plurality of electrical loads that are being supplied by at least one renewable energy generator and/or an electrical mains supply. The device comprises an energy sensor for measuring an energy parameter, wherein the energy parameter equates to a value representative of the amount of energy output by the energy sensor, the energy parameter of the energy sensor being directly proportional to the output of the at least one renewable energy generator; a controller means for determining the amount of electrical loads that can be connected or disconnected on the basis of the measured energy parameter; a switching device for connecting and disconnecting the at least one electrical load based on an output of the controller means; and wherein as the energy parameter varies the output of the controller means varies to connect and disconnect electrical loads.

A cordless battery-powered kitchen appliance system is provided. The system is comprised of a rechargeable battery, at least one battery-powered appliance, and a modular battery charging station. The rechargeable battery may comprise a current sensing circuit, voltage regulation circuitry, a pre-charge control mechanism, embedded temperature sensors, a state-of-charge estimator, and a communication interface. The battery further comprises a male connector formed of conductive terminals and digital communication lines. The charging station comprises one or more female charging ports with recessed or spring-loaded contacts configured to interface with the battery connector. The charging station includes physical and electrical interconnection features to support modularity, allowing multiple charging stations to be attached and powered from a single source through a power supply interface. The appliance comprises a receiving area with conductive contacts configured to receive the battery and establish electrical connectivity.

A system for managing a plurality of distributed energy resources associated with a structure is disclosed. The structure is at the edge of an electric utility network and receives electric power from the network and may include, for example, a house or building. The structure has distributed energy resources such as solar panels or an electric vehicle charging devices. The system comprises a monitoring unit configured to be electrically coupled to a panel assembly of the structure and a plurality of communication interfaces coupled to the monitoring unit and configured to serve as an access point for the distributed energy resources. The monitoring unit is configured to partially monitor or control functionality of a given distributed energy resource of the plurality of distributed energy resources that is utilizing the access point. The monitoring unit is configured to pass communications between the given distributed energy resource and a vendor associated with the given distributed energy resource.

A wireless charging device capable of charging compatible devices via multiple power transmission modalities is disclosed. The wireless charging device comprises multiple power transmitters, each capable of transmitting power to a device via one or more power transmission modalities. After detecting the presence of a compatible device or a change it the compatible device's position, the wireless charging device configures the appropriate power transmitter for power transmission to the compatible device. Additionally, the wireless charging device can send playback settings to the compatible device to accommodate changes in the power transmission modality to, for example, reduce power consumption of the compatible device.

In some implementations, a system may include a server equipped with a web application, where the web application is configured to detect a relocation of a network-enabled electric plug of network-enabled electric plugs from a first region to a second region based on changes in data communication patterns; the network-enabled electric plugs, each plug configured to deliver electricity from an electrical source to a powered device and capable of communicating with the server; and an access point intermediary facilitating communication between the network-enabled electric plugs and the server.

An electric device is configured to be powered by direct-current power or alternating-current power supplied from a power converter. The power converter is configured to convert generation power of a photovoltaic cell into direct-current power or alternating-current power. The electric device includes a power detector configured to directly detect the generation power of the photovoltaic cell, or direct-current power or alternating-current power that is converted from the generation power of the photovoltaic cell.

A method for optimising the consumption of an installation includes, carried out before a specified period, implementing a disaggregation method, so as to predict, for each appliance, an expected individual consumption profile, predicting an expected renewable production profile by the renewable energy source, defining first optimised individual consumption profiles for the appliances, making it possible to maximise a use of renewable electrical energy, and the second step of controlling the appliances during the specified period, by using the first optimised individual consumption profiles.

Systems and methods are disclosed for communicating with and controlling load control systems of respective user environments from locations that are remote from the user environments.

This disclosure relates generally to methods and systems for determining the power load disaggregation profile of a building. Most of the conventional techniques are algorithmic centric, specific to certain scenarios and does not employ the low-sampling rate data due to the complexity involved. Present disclosure determines the power load disaggregation profile of the building using the low-sampling rate power consumption data accurately. According to the present disclosure, firstly, the background power loads are detected and removed from the low-sampled data samples. Next, a robust event detection mechanism is employed to detect the events when the change in the power consumption occurred, and such events are paired using the iterative pairing technique. Further, a set of event clusters are formed using the density-based clustering technique and lastly, each of the set of event clusters are classified with each appliance type using a rule-based classification technique.

A method for managing an energy storage device in an air conditioning system includes determining capacity of an AC power grid connected to the air conditioning system; in response to the AC power grid having high capacity, operating the air conditioning system in a first mode; and in response to the AC power grid having low capacity, operating the air conditioning system in a second mode.