CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S) AND CLAIM OF PRIORITY

The present application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) to a Korean patent application filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on May 10, 2017, and assigned Ser. No. 10-2017-0057933, the entire disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates generally to a demand response system and a method thereof, and more particularly, to a demand response system which applies automated energy management technology to achieve a target amount of reduction and to do demand management business for general households, and specifically, receives a demand response signal via a network, and automatically controls devices in a house to correspond to the received demand response signal, and a method thereof.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

An electric power system should keep the equilibrium of demand and supply. This is important in reasonably using limited energy resources. To achieve this, there is a need for managing demand, and currently, there are many researches on demand response (DR), which is a developed form of demand management.

In the middle of the day of July or August or in the cold weather, the use of electric appliances such as air conditioners or heaters abruptly increases, and the electric power reserve rate is frequently reduced to 5% or below. When the electric power reserve rate is reduced, there may be a trouble in supplying electric power even if only one or two power plants are stopped due to a breakdown or regular check. Therefore, there should be a method for increasing the electric power reserve rate to a predetermined level or higher.

In terms of demand, it may be recommended to refrain from overusing air conditioners on summer days, and campaigns for maintaining indoor temperature of houses, offices, or public facilities at an appropriate level or higher may be conducted.

As described above, in terms of demand, campaigns for reducing power consumption may be conducted for electric power consumers for a time of high demand for electric power, and incentives may be given to electric power consumers taking part in campaigns and reducing more than a predetermined amount of power consumption. These actions may be referred to as a demand response.

That is, the demand response may be defined as a change in consuming patterns caused by a change in electric power rates, and in addition, may be defined as an incentive payment to curb electric power usage when an electric power market price is high. In addition, the demand response may include an intentional process of changing electric power consuming behaviors.

Related-art demand management business aims at reducing power consumption in factories or buildings having a predetermined scale or larger, and performs passive power consumption reduction through managers, rather than performing automated demand response power consumption reduction even for utilization equipment or fixture units. Accordingly, power consumption reduction is only determined and performed by managers or users, and applications are limited to factories or buildings having a predetermined scale or larger. Therefore, there is a limit to reducing power consumption by performing demand management business, and power consumption reduction is generally determined based on a contract under a corresponding environment. Therefore, there is a limit to actively reflecting changing systems or conditions or environments of consumers.

Accordingly, there is a need for a method for easily participating in a demand response for electric power demand management.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To address the above-discussed deficiencies of the prior art, it is a primary aspect of the present disclosure to provide a demand response method, which determines priorities of devices to be controlled to participate in a demand response, generates respective participation profiles of the devices based on the determined priorities, and changes the priorities of the devices included in the participation profiles, based on success or failure of participation in the demand response according to the generated participation profiles, a demand response system, and a recording medium.

Another aspect of the present disclosure is to provide a demand response method, which determines priorities of devices to be controlled to participate in a demand response, generates respective participation profiles of the devices based on the determined priorities, identifies whether the devices accept participation in the demand response in sequence according to the priorities until a target amount of energy savings required in the demand response is satisfied, and modifies the priorities of the devices based on whether the devices accept the participation in the demand response.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure to achieve the above-described aspects, a demand response method includes: determining priorities of devices to be controlled to participate in a demand response; generating respective participation profiles for the devices based on the determined priorities; and changing the priorities of the devices included in the participation profiles, based on whether participation in the demand response according to the generated participation profiles succeeds.

In addition, the determining the priorities may include extracting user preference profiles of the devices through machine learning by using past using histories of the plurality of devices in a specific space, and determining the priorities of the devices based on the user preference profiles.

In addition, the generating the participation profiles may include receiving outdoor temperature data, and generating the participation profiles for the devices based on the outdoor temperature data, the user preference profiles, and the determined priorities.

In addition, the changing the priorities may include, when the participation in the demand response according to the generated participation profiles succeeds, increasing the priorities of the devices included in the participation profiles by at least one step.

In addition, the changing the priorities may include, when the participation in the demand response according to the generated participation profiles fails, dropping the priorities of the devices included in the participation profiles by at least one step.

The demand response method may further include identifying whether the participation of the devices in the demand response is accepted in sequence according to the priorities until a target amount of energy savings required in the demand response is satisfied.

In addition, the demand response method may further include modifying the priorities of the devices based on whether the participation of the devices in the demand response is accepted.

In addition, the modifying the priorities may include, when a device gains an acceptance of participation, increasing the priority of the corresponding device by at least one step.

In addition, the modifying the priorities may include, when a device does not gain an acceptance of participation, dropping the priority of the corresponding device by at least one step.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a computer-readable recording medium has a computer program recorded thereon to perform a demand response method, the method including: determining priorities of devices to be controlled to participate in a demand response; generating respective participation profiles for the devices based on the determined priorities; and changing the priorities of the devices included in the participation profiles, based on whether participation in the demand response according to the generated participation profiles succeeds.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a demand response system includes: a controller configured to determine priorities of devices to be controlled to participate in a demand response, to generate respective participation profiles for the devices based on the determined priorities, and to change the priorities of the devices included in the participation profiles, based on whether participation in the demand response according to the generated participation profiles succeeds; and a communication unit configured to transmit control signals of the controller to the devices.

According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a demand response method includes: determining priorities of devices to be controlled to participate in a demand response; generating respective participation profiles for the devices based on the determined priorities; identifying when participation of the devices in the demand response is accepted in sequence according to the priorities until a target amount of energy savings required in the demand response is satisfied; and modifying the priorities of the devices, based on whether the participation of the devices in the demand response is accepted.

According to various embodiments of the present disclosure, there are provided a demand response method, a demand response system, and a recording medium, and the response control method includes: determining priorities of devices to be controlled to participate in a demand response; generating respective participation profiles for the devices based on the determined priorities; and changing the priorities of the devices included in the participation profiles, based on whether participation in the demand response according to the generated participation profiles succeeds. Therefore, the user easily participates in the demand response, and thus energy can be saved.

Other aspects, advantages, and salient features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

Before undertaking the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below, it may be advantageous to set forth definitions of certain words and phrases used throughout this patent document: the terms “include” and “comprise,” as well as derivatives thereof, mean inclusion without limitation; the term “or,” is inclusive, meaning and/or; the phrases “associated with” and “associated therewith,” as well as derivatives thereof, may mean to include, be included within, interconnect with, contain, be contained within, connect to or with, couple to or with, be communicable with, cooperate with, interleave, juxtapose, be proximate to, be bound to or with, have, have a property of, or the like. Definitions for certain words and phrases are provided throughout this patent document, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that in many, if not most instances, such definitions apply to prior, as well as future uses of such defined words and phrases.

