Low-level electrical and communication interfaces to enable charging and discharging of electric vehicles with respect to the grid is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,270 to Green et al., entitled, “Battery powered electric vehicle and electrical supply system,” incorporated herein by reference. The Green reference describes a bi-directional charging and communication system for grid-connected electric vehicles.
Communication parameters can be used to infer a remote machine's operating system fingerprint. For example, in an IP over Ethernet based system there are several layers of message framing all with unique or semi unique characteristics. The MAC address of the gateway, the number of network peers and their addresses can all be determined by watching existing network traffic, or by soliciting such information of the network peers themselves. Techniques like port scanning are in wide use for determining network topology. Several techniques exist for determining the host operating systems of network peers using IP stack fingerprinting.
Modern automobiles, including electric vehicles, have many electronic control units for various subsystems. While some subsystems are independent, communications among others are essential. To fill this need, controller-area network (CAN or CAN-bus) was devised as a multi-master broadcast serial bus standard for connecting electronic control units. Using a message based protocol designed specifically for automotive applications, CAN-bus is a vehicle bus standard designed to allow microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other within a vehicle without a host computer. The CAN-bus is used in vehicles to connect the engine control unit, transmission, airbags, antilock braking, cruise control, audio systems, windows, doors, mirror adjustment, climate control, and seat control. CAN is one of five protocols used in the (On-Board Diagnostics) OBD-II vehicle diagnostics standard.
Modern vehicles contain a variety of subsystems that may benefit from communications with various off-vehicle entities. As the smart energy marketplace evolves, multiple application-level protocols may further develop for the control of power flow for electric vehicles and within the home. For example, energy management protocols are being developed for both ZigBee and Homeplug. A vehicle manufacturer may need to support multiple physical communications mediums. For example, ZigBee is used in some installations while PLC is used in others. Considering the very long service life of items such as utility meters and automobiles, the use of multiple incompatible protocols may pose an barrier to deployment. For example, if a homeowner buys a car that utilizes one protocol and receives a utility meter that uses another protocol, it is unlikely that either device will quickly replace other device.
The electric power grid has become increasingly unreliable and antiquated, as evidenced by frequent large-scale power outages. Grid instability wastes energy, both directly and indirectly, e.g. by encouraging power consumers to install inefficient forms of backup generation. While clean forms of energy generation, such as wind and solar, can help to address the above problems, they suffer from intermittency. Hence, grid operators are reluctant to rely heavily on these sources, making it difficult to move away from carbon-intensive forms of electricity.
With respect to the electric power grid, electric power delivered during periods of peak demand costs substantially more than off-peak power. The electric power grid contains limited inherent facility for storing electrical energy. Electricity must be generated constantly to meet uncertain demand, which often results in over-generation (and hence wasted energy) and sometimes results in under-generation (and hence power failures). Distributed electric resources, en masse can, in principle, provide a significant resource for addressing the above problems. However, current power services infrastructure lacks provisioning and flexibility that are required for aggregating a large number of small-scale resources, such as electric vehicle batteries, to meet large-scale needs of power services.
The communications protocol by which an utility controls a power plant in regulation mode is known as Automatic Generation Control, or AGC. AGC signals have been sent to large scale conventional power plants, generally with a capacity of 1 Megawatt or more.
Modern Electric vehicles could benefit in a variety of ways from a centrally controlled smart charging program, wherein a central server coordinates the charging activities of a number of vehicles. Significant opportunities for improvement exist in managing power flow at local level. More economical, reliable electrical power needs to be provided at times of peak demand. Power services, such as regulation and spinning reserves, can be provided to electricity markets to provide a significant economic opportunity. Technologies can be enabled to provide broader use of intermittent power sources, such as wind and solar.
What is needed are power flow management systems and methods that manage power flow at the site-level, that implement various power flow strategies for the optimizing how to dispatch the resources under management, that avoid power spikes, and that minimize the total daily cost of providing energy generation. Novel grid stabilization systems and methods are needed that aggregate the power generation behavior of resources via Automatic Generation Control (AGC), that provide system frequency regulation via AGC, and that smooth and level power generation.
While various other techniques for fingerprinting devices on a network are known in the art, novel methods are needed to determine the network location of mobile devices connected to a power grid in order to provide enhanced techniques for smart charging. Significant opportunities for improvement exist with respect to locating electric vehicles on a network that communications with power grids and various mobile devices. What is needed are systems and methods that determine the location of a device with respect to a known location on the electrical grid. With respect to the statistical nature of the fingerprint, there is also a need for novel statistical modeling that weighs the relevance of various pieces of communication based information collected to construct a network fingerprint. In particular, novel systems and methods are needed that efficiently determine the network location of mobile devices on networks for power management systems.
Significant opportunities for improvement exist with respect to metering and translating measurements for power grids and electric vehicles. What is needed are systems and methods that provide for the efficient transfer of higher levels of information dealing with mobile populations of electric vehicles, the complexities of accurately metering such large populations.
Improvement also exist with respect to communications between power grids and electric vehicles. What is needed are systems and methods that provide for the complexity of translating information among various protocols. In addition to cost of translating messages, there is a cost associated with transmitting messages across networks. As such, there is also a need for novel communication techniques that provide for bandwidth minimization.
It would be beneficial to enhance modern electric vehicles to have a centrally controlled charging program. What is needed are systems and methods that provide for the complexity of charging intelligence of smart vehicles. There is also a need for novel communication techniques effectively use existing communication hardware, that allow for upgrading existing equipment, and that do not require specific hardware. In addition, novel systems and methods are needed that effectively provide communication services to vehicle subsystems.