DETAILED ACTION
The present office action is responsive to the applicant’s filling on 08/25/2023.
The application has claims 1-15 present. All present claims have been examined.
This action is made Non-Final.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Examiner Notes
Examiner cites particular columns, paragraphs, figures and line numbers in the references as applied to the claims below for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings in the art and are applied to the specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested that, in preparing responses, the applicant fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the examiner. The entire reference is considered to provide disclosure relating to the claimed invention. The claims & only the claims form the metes & bounds of the invention. Office personnel are to give the claims their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the supporting disclosure. Unclaimed limitations appearing in the specification are not read into the claim. Prior art was referenced using terminology familiar to one of ordinary skill in the art. Such an approach is broad in concept and can be either explicit or implicit in meaning. Examiner's Notes are provided with the cited references to assist the applicant to better understand how the examiner interprets the applied prior art. Such comments are entirely consistent with the intent & spirit of compact prosecution.
Claim Objections
Claim 5 is objected to because of the following informalities: A typographical error line 2 which says statistically processe. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 6 is objected to because of the following informalities: A typographical error line 2 which says statistically processe. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim 8 is objected to because of the following informalities: A typographical error line 2 which says statistically processe. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-2, 5-9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by ITAYA NOBUHIKO (WO2022180787A1)
In regards to claim 1, ITAYA discloses a voltage control device comprising: a data collector configured for collecting voltage data from a plurality of equipment loads (see para 17-18: collecting voltage data from loads); a statistics processor configured for statistically processing the voltage data collected by the data collector according to a prediction period; a voltage predictor configured for predicting a future voltage distribution using statistical values from the statistics processor; a voltage calculator configured for calculating a voltage to be controlled using the future voltage distribution predicted by the voltage predictor; and a controller configured for generating an instruction to perform control at the voltage calculated by the voltage calculator (see para 41-44, 94-97: obtaining voltage values and calculating and voltage management control predicts power distribution for a future period for multiple loads: para 94: “the voltage management control device 50 of the present embodiment includes the communication unit 11, the 5 estimation information calculation unit 12, the voltage estimation unit 13, the proper voltage range update unit 14, the monitoring unit 15, the storage unit 16, and the display unit 17, which are similar to the respective ones in the first embodiment, and further includes a load power 10 generation quantity prediction unit 51 and an amount-of-control determination unit 52.” On Para 95 “The load power generation quantity prediction unit 51 predicts a distribution of a load power generation quantity of the power distribution system for a future fixed time period, such as a next day”).
In regards to claim 2, ITAYA discloses wherein the plurality of equipment loads are branched from a bus line of a power system, the statistics processor, the voltage predictor, and the voltage calculator are based on the voltage data actually measured by the data collector disposed in each of the plurality of equipment loads instead of being based on a voltage of the bus line (see para 15-18: measuring voltage at each equipment load (customer)).
In regards to claim 5, ITAYA discloses, wherein the statistics processor is configured to statistically process the voltage data measured by the data collector according to the prediction period, the statistical processing of the voltage data obtains a statistical value for the voltage data of each of the plurality of equipment loads over time, and the statistical value comprises at least one of a maximum value, a minimum value, a median value, and an average value (see at least para 24, 28, 39: calculation and predictions for the voltage include data measured and average values).
In regards to claim 6, ITAYA discloses, wherein the statistics processor is configured to statistically process the voltage data measured by the data collector according to the prediction period, the statistical processing of the voltage data obtains a statistical value for the voltage data of each of the plurality of equipment loads over time, and the controller performs voltage scaling and time scaling on the statistical value (see at least para 24, 28:”The measurement value of the voltage may be an instantaneous value of a root mean square (RMS) value or an average value such as a one-minute
average value, of the RMS value.”).
In regards to claim 7, ITAYA discloses, wherein the future voltage distribution calculated by the voltage predictor is obtained from an average and a distribution of statistical values related to voltages of the plurality of equipment loads (see abstract and at least para 41-44, 94-97: obtaining voltage values and calculating and voltage management control predicts power distribution for a future period for multiple loads: para 94: “the voltage management control device 50 of the present embodiment includes the communication unit 11, the 5 estimation information calculation unit 12, the voltage estimation unit 13, the proper voltage range update unit 14, the monitoring unit 15, the storage unit 16, and the display unit 17, which are similar to the respective ones in the first embodiment, and further includes a load power 10 generation quantity prediction unit 51 and an amount-of-control determination unit 52.” On Para 95 “The load power generation quantity prediction unit 51 predicts a distribution of a load power generation quantity of the power distribution system for a future fixed time period, such as a next day”)
In regards to claim 8, ITAYA discloses wherein the statistics processor is configured to statistically process the voltage data measured by the data collector according to the prediction period, and voltage data input and processed at a previous prediction period is not accumulated in the voltage data processed by the voltage predictor (see para 54, 101-109: “the estimation information is information representing estimation equations for estimating the maximum rise quantity AVmax and the maximum 10 drop quantity AVmin using the measurement information from the sensor-integrated switchgears 5 for each time range. However, the estimation information is not limited thereto, and may be the maximum rise quantity AVmax and the maximum drop quantity AVmin themselves for each time range. The 15 operation in this case is equivalent to calculating only the coefficient F of Equation (1) above and the coefficient L of Equation (4) above, and previous actual values of the maximum rise quantity AVmax and of the maximum drop quantity AVmin themselves are used as estimated values of 20 the maximum rise quantity AVmax and of the maximum drop quantity AVmin for each section irrespective of the measurement information from the sensor-integrated switchgears 5”).
In regards to claim 9, ITAYA discloses, wherein the voltage predictor is configured to calculate a predicted voltage band as a band-type future voltage distribution having an upper limit and a lower limit, the width of the predicted voltage band corresponds to a distribution of the voltage data (see para 70-71, 100-104: teaches having an upper limit and a lower limit, the width of the predicted voltage band corresponds to a distribution of the voltage data “priority evaluation item is, for example, the voltage margin, i.e., the margin value to an upper or lower voltage limit value of the proper voltage range, at each point of the power distribution system.”)
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ITAYA NOBUHIKO (WO2022180787A1) as applied to claims above and further in view of Kanou et al. (US 20200083711).
In regards to claim 3. ITAYA doesn’t specifically teach wherein the plurality of equipment loads form a control group subjected to voltage control, and the voltage is calculated by regarding all of the plurality of equipment loads of the control group as a single unit instead of calculating a voltage to be controlled of each of the plurality of equipment loads.
Kanou teaches wherein the plurality of equipment loads form a control group subjected to voltage control, and the voltage is calculated by regarding all of the plurality of equipment loads of the control group as a single unit instead of calculating a voltage to be controlled of each of the plurality of equipment loads (see abstract and at least para 17, 69, 94: “the power controller apparatus 4 calculates total demand power, total generated power, and total stored energy of the customer facilities 1 of each group”).
As such, it would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to use these teachings of Kanou and combine them with ITAYA, since it would have enhanced the system to control and management of in a heterogeneous way in order to meet total demand.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4, 10-15 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARIO M VELEZ-LOPEZ whose telephone number is (571)270-7971. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F 10:30am-5:30pm.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Scott Baderman, can be reached at telephone number 571-272-3644. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARIO M VELEZ-LOPEZ/
Examiner, Art Unit 2118
/SCOTT T BADERMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2118
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