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Basic Information

Type of Prior Art	Online Publication

URL	http://gigaom.com/

Author/Creator	Katie Fehrenbacher

Title	10 Monitoring Tools Bringing Smart Energy Home

Publication Date	April 14, 2009

Publisher	Gigaom.com

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Additional Information

Excerpt

Excerpt

* Companies are planning to launch wireless energy dashboards that will sit in your home, monitor energy data from your electricity meter and let you know if you’re being an energy hog. * Smart meters installed at homes can unleash data about the fluctuating price of electricity throughout the day, enabling consumers that have energy management tools to shift energy consumption to the time of day when power is cheapest. For utilities, that can mean better management of the power grid and eliminate the need to build out expensive power generating systems. * Several of the already-available options for consumers bypass smart meters and utilities and just help the interested consumer with a standard electricity meter. They’re cheap and available online, but they provide less detailed data. * The utility-focused tools use smart meter info to provide a deeper dive into energy analysis and can even control smart appliances for utilities to implement demand response events. * Tendril sells a combo of energy management services, including a wireless in-home energy display, a smart thermostat, a web-based energy portal, smart outlets and cell phone apps that can help homeowners diagnose and cut energy consumption. While the startup, which raised $12 million in Series B funding earlier this year, is now offering its tools to utilities, it’s also considering a direct-to-consumer approach.

Relevance

Claims

1

A dynamic electrical power pricing communication system, comprising:at least one computer system;

at least one memory;

a data analysis application stored in the at least one memory that, when executed by the at least one computer system, receives status information from a plurality of residential consumers and analyzes the status information, wherein the residential consumers are located in a plurality of districts, each district comprising a plurality of areas, each area comprising a plurality of residential consumers, and wherein at least one residential consumer in each area periodically automatically transmits status information to the data analysis application;

a dynamic electrical power price generation application stored in the at least one memory that, when executed by the at least one computer system, receives wholesale electrical power pricing information and determines a plurality of dynamic electrical power prices for the residential consumers based on the analysis of the status information, based on the area of the residential consumers, wherein the dynamic electrical power prices of each area are determined independently of the electrical power prices of other areas; and

a dynamic electrical power price distribution application stored in the at least one memory that, when executed by the at least one computer system, transmits the dynamic electrical power prices to the residential consumers,

wherein the status information comprises at least one of when the last dynamic electrical price was received, what the last received dynamic electrical power price value was, how much electrical load can be shed by the residential consumer, a control mode of an electrical power controller, and communication network diagnostic information.

Relevance

The description of the system, does not seem novel. It is difficult to distinguish the patent from these systems that already existed in prototype in April 2009.

Claim Chart

All

5

The system of Claim 1, whereinthe data analysis application further receives status information transmitted electronically from a plurality of commercial consumers and analyzes the status information from the commercial consumers,

the dynamic electrical power price generation application further determines a plurality of dynamic electrical power prices for the commercial consumers based on the analysis of the status information and based on the area of the commercial consumers, wherein the dynamic electrical power prices for the commercial consumers of each area are determined independently of the electrical power prices of commercial consumers of other areas, and

the dynamic electrical power price distribution application transmits the dynamic electrical power prices to the commercial consumers.

Relevance

The description of the system, does not seem novel. It is difficult to distinguish the patent from these systems that already existed in prototype in April 2009.

Claim Chart

All

Summary / Description	10 Monitoring Tools Bringing Smart Energy Home - Smart energy meters

Notes	The description of the system, does not seem novel. It is difficult to distinguish the patent from these systems that already existed in prototype in April 2009.