Patent Issued for Systems and methods for adjusting electric power to devices (USPTO 11817711): United Services Automobile Association

2023 NOV 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- United Services Automobile Association (San Antonio, Texas, United States) has been issued patent number 11817711, according to news reporting originating out of Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx editors.

The patent’s inventors are Bitter, Dustin Bowen (Lehi, UT, US), Buentello, Andre Rene (San Antonio, TX, US), Ricks, Brennen Michael (San Antonio, TX, US), Romero, Jr., Jose L. (San Antonio, TX, US).

This patent was filed on March 30, 2022 and was published online on November 14, 2023.

From the background information supplied by the inventors, news correspondents obtained the following quote: “This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be noted that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

“Electricity is commonly used to provide power to devices. For example, electric power may be used for operating a light, charging a battery, providing a heat source, and so forth. Electric power may be generated at and/or distributed via a central electric power source (e.g., a power station, a macrogrid) and/or a distributed electric power source (e.g., a microgrid, a minigrid). Unfortunately, existing systems and methods for controlling electric power distribution to different devices of one or more consumers or customers is somewhat limited. For instance, there may be limited control associated with adjusting distribution of electric power to different consumers and/or adjusting flow of electric power to different devices for a single consumer, such as to control power provided to different devices. As such, usage of electric power to the devices may not be desirable.”

Supplementing the background information on this patent, NewsRx reporters also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers’ specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure.

“When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present disclosure, the articles “a,” “an,” and “the” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. Additionally, it should be understood that references to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” of the present disclosure are not intended to be interpreted as excluding the existence of additional embodiments that also incorporate the recited features.

“Embodiments of the present disclosure are generally directed to systems and methods for controlling electrical energy usage and/or distribution. Various consumers or customers may receive electrical energy from different electric power sources. As an example, a central electric power source may be configured to provide electric power to consumers having associated structures or buildings located at different geographical locations. As another example, a distributed electric power source may be configured to provide electric power to consumers having associated structures that are located within a common geographical location. Indeed, a single consumer may receive electric power from a central electric power source and/or a distributed electric power source. Devices associated with a consumer may receive and operate utilizing the electric power, such as to provide operations for occupants of a structure associated with the consumer and/or to enable functionalities of an organization associated with the consumer. As used herein, a consumer (e.g., an electricity consumer or customer) may refer to a single entity, such as an individual person, a family, a company, a factory, and the like, and its associated structure(s) and/or device(s) for which electricity may be provided at a cost for usage (e.g., generation, transmission, distribution, delivery) to the entity. Additionally, as used herein, electrical energy may refer to a total amount of electricity generated, consumed, distributed, delivered, or otherwise used for a period of time, and electric power may refer to a rate in which electrical energy is used.

“It may be desirable to improve usage and/or distribution of electric power. As an example, improving control of electric power flow to different devices of a consumer may enable greater flexibility or customization to operate the devices. As another example, improving control of electric power distribution from the central electric power source to different consumers may enable more efficient or suitable usage of electric power associated with the consumers. For instance, amounts of electric power may be more suitably allotted to different consumers, such as to increase an amount of electric power available for a consumer that may consume a greater amount of electric power received from the central electric power source (e.g., as opposed to from a distributed electric power source). In such examples, electric power may be more suitably utilized, such as by providing sufficient electric power to and enabling desirable operation of devices associated with different consumers.

“In some embodiments, flow of electric power to certain devices associated with a single consumer may be controlled. For instance, the devices may be associated with different priorities, and flow of electric power may be distributed based on the priority of the devices. As an example, in situations in which there may be limited available electric power (e.g., insufficient electric power to power all devices), electric power may be distributed to devices of a higher or greater priority. The consumer (e.g., a user) may designate the priority of the devices. Thus, the flow of electric power to the devices to enable operation of the devices may be more suitable, desirable, or appropriate to the consumer. In additional or alternative embodiments, flow of electric power to different consumers may be controlled. By way of example, distribution of electric power from the central electric power source (e.g., when there is limited available electric power) may be adjusted based on respective electric power consumptions by the consumers. For instance, first electric power consumption by a first consumer may be less than second electric power consumption by a second consumer. As such, a first amount of electric power allotted to the first consumer may be less than a second amount of electric power allotted to the second consumer. In this manner, adequate electric power may provided to each of the first consumer and the second consumer as compared to allotting the same amount of electric power to each of the first consumer and the second consumer regardless of their differing electric power consumptions. That is, electric power may be more suitably adjusted for distribution between consumers.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system, comprising: an electrical connection system configured to receive local electric power provided by a local electric power source and to transmit the local electric power to a plurality of devices associated with a structure; and a control system associated with the structure, wherein the control system is configured to perform operations comprising: receiving data indicative of a priority associated with a subset of the plurality of devices; and operating the electrical connection system to transmit the local electric power to the subset of the plurality of devices based on the subset of the plurality of devices being associated with the priority.

“2. The system of claim 1, wherein the control system is configured to receive the data via a user input.

“3. The system of claim 1, wherein the data is indicative of a first priority associated with a first subset of the plurality of devices and a second priority associated with a second subset of the plurality of devices, the first priority is higher than the second priority, and the control system is configured to operate the electrical connection system to enable the local electric power to flow to the first subset of the plurality of devices and to block flow of the local electric power to the second subset of the plurality of devices based on the data.

“4. The system of claim 1, wherein the electrical connection system comprises a switch configured to enable and block flow of electric power to a device of the plurality of devices, and the control system is configured to operate the switch based on the data.

“5. The system of claim 1, wherein the subset of the plurality of devices is a first subset of the plurality of devices, the priority is a first priority, the electrical connection system is configured to receive central electric power provided by a central electric power source, the data is indicative of a second priority associated with a second subset of the plurality of devices, the second priority is lower than the first priority, and the control system is configured to operate the electrical connection system to transmit the central electric power to the second subset of the plurality of devices based on the second subset of the plurality of devices being associated with the second priority.

“6. The system of claim 1, wherein the local electric power source comprises a solar panel, a battery storage, a portable generator, a wind turbine, or any combination thereof.

“7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions that, when executed by processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising: receiving data associating a plurality of devices with corresponding, respective priorities; determining whether flow of central electric power from a central electric power source is below a threshold level; and in response to determining that the flow of central electric power is below the threshold level, enabling flow of local electric power from a local electric power source to a subset of the plurality of devices based on the corresponding, respective priorities associated with the subset of the plurality of devices.

“8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the subset of the plurality of devices is a first subset of the plurality of devices, and the instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to block the flow of the local electric power to a second subset of the plurality of devices based on the data.

“9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the data associates the first subset of the plurality of devices with a first priority, the data associates the second subset of the plurality of devices with a second priority lower than the first priority, and the instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to enable the flow of the local electric power to the first subset of the plurality of devices and to block the flow of the local electric power to the second subset of the plurality of devices based on the second priority associated with the second subset of the plurality of devices being lower than the first priority associated with the first subset of the plurality of devices.

“10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the data associates a third subset of the plurality of devices with a third priority lower than the second priority, and the instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising enabling flow of central electric power from a central electric power source to the second subset of the plurality of devices and blocking the flow of central electric power to the third subset of the plurality of devices based on the third priority associated with the third subset of the plurality of devices being lower than the second priority associated with the second subset of the plurality of devices.

“11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to block the flow of central electric power to the first subset of the plurality of devices based on the second priority associated with the second subset of the plurality of devices being lower than the first priority associated with the first subset of the plurality of devices.

“12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising: receiving a user input adjusting the data to associate the plurality of devices with updated, corresponding, respective priorities; and adjusting the flow of electric power to the subset of the plurality of devices based on the updated, corresponding, respective priorities associated with the subset of the plurality of devices via the data adjusted by the user input.

“13. A system, comprising: an electrical connection system associated with a structure, wherein the electrical connection system is configured to receive electric power; and a control system associated with the structure, wherein the control system is configured to perform operations comprising: determining a plurality of devices and respective, corresponding priorities associated with the plurality of devices based on a user input; identifying a device of the plurality of devices based on the user input; determining an expected priority of the device; comparing a corresponding priority associated with the device with the expected priority of the device; transmitting a notification in response to determining that the corresponding priority associated with the device does not match the expected priority of the device; and operating the electrical connection system to direct the electric power to the plurality of devices based on the respective, corresponding priorities.

“14. The system of claim 13, wherein the control system is configured to perform operations comprising enabling flow of electric power to a first subset of the plurality of devices and blocking the flow of electric power to a second subset of the plurality of devices based on first respective, corresponding priorities associated with the first subset of the plurality of devices being higher than second respective, corresponding priorities associated with the second subset of the plurality of devices.

“15. The system of claim 13, wherein the control system is configured to perform operations comprising: receiving an additional user input via the notification to adjust the corresponding priority of the device; and adjusting the corresponding priority toward the expected priority in response to receiving the additional user input.

“16. The system of claim 13, wherein the electrical connection system is configured to receive central electric power from a central electric power source, and the control system is configured to perform operations comprising: determining a first device of the plurality of devices is associated with a first corresponding priority and a second device of the plurality of devices is associated with a second corresponding priority, wherein the first corresponding priority is higher than the second corresponding priority; determining that available central electric power received by the electrical connection system is below a threshold level; and operating the electrical connection system to direct the available central electric power to the first device and block flow of the available central electric power to the second device in response to determining that the available central electric power is below the threshold level and based on the first corresponding priority associated with the first device being higher than the second corresponding priority associated with the second device.”

For the URL and additional information on this patent, see: Bitter, Dustin Bowen. Systems and methods for adjusting electric power to devices. U.S. Patent Number 11817711, filed March 30, 2022, and published online on November 14, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11817711)&db=USPAT&type=ids

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