DETAILED ACTION
The present office action is responsive to the applicant’s filling on 11/23/2026.
The application has claims 1-16 present. All present claims have been examined.
The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) and cited references filed 11/23/2023 have
been reviewed by the examiner.
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 Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 4-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter because the claimed invention is directed to a judicial exception (i.e. an abstract idea) without significantly more.
Claim 4 describes an adaptive coordinated control method. The steps merely mention coordinating control of a REC and a SEC and condition to be used for the coordinated control. The additional claims simply provide calculation of equations and determinations which are mental processes without any controlling step taken after calculating and determining steps. The solving of the calculations, as briefly described above, are mathematical concepts and a mental process. See paragraph 9-14 and 20-43 of the specification. Accordingly, claims 4 recites an abstract idea because the particular limitations, as briefly outlined above, fall into at least one of the groupings of abstract ideas (see MPEP 2106.04(a)).
Limitations under Step 2A, prong 1:
The specific limitations of
- “S1 adaptive coordinated control of REC”, (mental and mathematical process) performing calculations – mathematical concepts (see MPEP § 2106.04(a)(2)).
- “S2 adaptive coordinated control of SEC” (mental and mathematical process) performing calculations – mathematical concepts (see MPEP § 2106.04(a)(2)).
- “S3 use conditions of adaptive coordinated control” (mental process)
Limitations under Step 2A, prong 2:
The limitations of
“HVDC receiving-end power grid” generally linking the use of the judicial exception to a particular technological environment or field of use – see MPEP 2106.05(h).
Step 2B – not significant more.
Thus, the recited “Method” is an abstract idea in that it is not tied to a particular machine or apparatus and it does not transform a particular article into a different state or thing. Furthermore, the additional element of using computer as a tool to perform the recited steps amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the abstract idea using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply a judicial exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Accordingly, the recited method is non-statutory subject matter.
Claim 4-15: all claims provide equations and calculation in order to make determinations for conditions. further describes the abstract idea and mathematical process previously identified in the independent claims. Thus, the claims recite an abstract idea and are not patent-eligible.
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) 1 and 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable overYAMASHITA YUKIO et al. (EP2908004A1), in view of CAI XU (CN114928087A).
In regard to claims 1, YAMASHITA teaches a DC voltage adaptive coordinated control system under fault of a VSC-HVDC receiving-end power grid, comprising a main control circuit of VSC-HVDC, an adaptive coordinated control circuit of a sending-end converter (SEC) and an adaptive coordinated control circuit of a receiving-end converter (REC), (see at least para 59: “The HVDC 20 includes a sending end converter (SEC) 22 for converting alternate current from the local grid 2 into direct current, a receiving end converter (REC) 24 for converting the direct current received from the SEC 22 into alternate current and supplying the alternate current to the grid 4, and a direct current transmission channel 26 disposed between the SEC 22 and the REC 24”); wherein the main control circuit of the VSC-HVDC comprises a sending-end power grid, an SEC, a DC transmission line, a REC, and a receiving-end power grid (provides DC channel, SEC and DC transmission line and REC. See FIG. 1 provides schematic of the parts, the abstract and at least para 16-17, 59: In [para 16] ” a direct-current transmission channel disposed between the local grid and a grid; a 30 sending end converter for converting alternate current from the local grid into direct current and supplying the direct current to the direct-current transmission channel; a receiving end converter for converting the direct current from the direct-current transmission channel into alternate current and supplying the alternate current to the grid; an abnormality detection part for detecting an abnormal event of the grid; and a first WF controller for controlling the sending end converter and adjusting a local-grid voltage phase of the local grid so as to reduce a load angle which indicates a 35 difference between a generator voltage phase of the synchronous generator of each wind turbine generator and the local-grid voltage phase, when the abnormal event of the grid is detected by the abnormality detection part.” In [para 17]: “With the above wind power generation facility, when an abnormal event of the grid is detected by the abnormality detection part, the sending end converter adjusts the local grid voltage phase under control of the first WF controller, so that the load angle of the synchronous generator of each wind turbine generator is reduced. In this way, the power 40 generation output (active power) of each wind turbine generator of the wind farm is reduced collectively and quickly by the control of the sending end converter, which makes it possible to recover the excess of active power generated from the wind farm with respect to the active power that can be supplied to the grid from the sending end converter. Further, it is unnecessary to provide a component for dissipating excessive energy, such as an electric resistor.” In [Para 59] “The HVDC 20 includes a sending end converter (SEC) 22 for converting alternate current from the local grid 2 into direct current, a receiving end converter (REC) 24 for converting the direct current received from the SEC 22 into alternate current and supplying the alternate current to the grid 4, and a direct current transmission channel 26 disposed between the SEC 22 and the REC 24”); the sending-end power grid sends AC to the SEC through the sending-end AC line under the action of an adaptive coordinated control circuit of the SEC, the SEC converts AC into DC; DC is transmitted to the DC side of the REC through the DC transmission line (see at least [para 16] ” a direct-current transmission channel disposed between the local grid and a grid; a 30 sending end converter for converting alternate current from the local grid into direct current and supplying the direct current to the direct-current transmission channel; a receiving end converter for converting the direct current from the direct-current transmission channel into alternate current and supplying the alternate current to the grid; an abnormality detection part for detecting an abnormal event of the grid; and a first WF controller for controlling the sending end converter and adjusting a local-grid voltage phase of the local grid so as to reduce a load angle which indicates a 35 difference between a generator voltage phase of the synchronous generator of each wind turbine generator and the local-grid voltage phase, when the abnormal event of the grid is detected by the abnormality detection part.” On [Para 59] “The HVDC 20 includes a sending end converter (SEC) 22 for converting alternate current from the local grid 2 into direct current, a receiving end converter (REC) 24 for converting the direct current received from the SEC 22 into alternate current and supplying the alternate current to the grid 4, and a direct current transmission channel 26 disposed between the SEC 22 and the REC 24”);
Although YAMASHITA doesn’t specifically teach a sending-end AC line equivalent resistor; sends AC to the SEC through the sending-end AC line equivalent resistor. However, YAMASHITA does provide and teach means for power flow control and damping at the sending end. On para 17, teaches “the sending end converter adjusts the local grid voltage phase under control of the first WF controller, so that the load angle of the synchronous generator of each wind turbine generator is reduced. In this way, the power generation output (active power) of each wind turbine generator of the wind farm is reduced collectively and quickly by the control of the sending end converter, which makes it possible to recover the excess of active power generated from the wind farm with respect to the active power that can be supplied to the grid from the sending end converter”.
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 YAMASHITA to provide means for power flow control at the sending end within the system, since by doing so it enhances the system for power efficiency, control and improve system stability.
YAMASHITA doesn’t specifically teach a receiving-end AC line equivalent resistor; and under the action of the adaptive coordinated control circuit of the REC, the REC converts DC into AC and sends AC to the receiving-end power grid through the receiving-end AC line equivalent resistor.
XU teaches a receiving-end AC line equivalent resistor; and under the action of the adaptive coordinated control circuit of the REC, the REC converts DC into AC and sends AC to the receiving-end power grid through the receiving-end AC line equivalent resistor (see at least para 26-28, 39-47: receiving end resistor and controlling the receiving end to convert DC to AC to supply the AC and control any excess/surplus. [para 28]: “to reduce unloading costs, this invention proposes a scheme for coordinated unloading of wind turbine units and the dispersed placement of energy-consuming resistors into the receiving-end MMC converter: at the moment of AC grid fault, the energy-consuming resistors of the receiving-end converter buffer the surplus power, while the sending-end converter rapidly reduces the wind farm voltage, triggering the low-voltage ride-through protection action of the wind turbine unit and activating the unit's unloading capability”).
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 XU and combine it with the teachings and environment setup taught by YAMASHITA, since by doing so it further enhances the system to dissipate excess or surplus power in the system.
In regard to claim 4, YAMASHITA teaches A DC voltage adaptive coordinated control method under fault of a VSC-HVDC receiving-end power grid (see para 1: [para 61]: “The wind power generation facility 1 connected to the grid 4 needs to satisfy the requirements specified in a grid code. For instance, a Fault Ride Through (FRT) regulation requires that interconnection of the power generation facility 1 to the grid 4 be maintained as long as a decrease in voltage or duration of the voltage decrease is within a predetermined range even in the event of, for instance, a system fault such as a short circuit and a grounding fault. [para 62] At this time, the wind power generation facility 1 is affected as follows. First, occurrence of an abnormal event to the grid 4 decreases active power that can be transmitted to the grid 4 from the HVDC 20. As a result, active power supplied to the HVDC 20 from the wind farm 10 becomes excessive immediately after occurrence of the abnormal event to the grid 4, and the imbalanced demand and supply of power in the direct current transmission channel 26 causes the voltage of the direct current transmission channel 26 to rise, which may damage the SEC 22 and the REC 24. Thus, it is desirable to quickly reduce the active power supplied to the HVDC 20 from the wind farm 10 to restrict the voltage rise in the direct current transmission channel 26. [0063] In this regard, in some embodiments, the SEC 22 is controlled to restrict the output of the active power from the wind farm 10 upon occurrence of an abnormal event to the grid 4”), comprising the following steps: S2: adaptive coordinated control of the SEC; S3: the use conditions of adaptive coordinated control (See [para 62] ’At this time, the wind power generation facility 1 is affected as follows. First, occurrence of an abnormal event to the grid 4 decreases active power that can be transmitted to the grid 4 from the HVDC 20. As a result, active power supplied to the HVDC 20 from the wind farm 10 becomes excessive immediately after occurrence of the abnormal event to the grid 4, and the imbalanced demand and supply of power in the direct current transmission channel 26 causes the voltage of the direct current transmission channel 26 to rise, which may damage the SEC 22 and the REC 24. Thus, it is desirable to quickly reduce the active power supplied to the HVDC 20 from the wind farm 10 to restrict the voltage rise in the direct current transmission channel 26. [para 63] In this regard, in some embodiments, the SEC 22 is controlled to restrict the output of the active power from the wind farm 10 upon occurrence of an abnormal event to the grid 4. [Para 64] In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the wind power generation facility 1 includes a wind farm central control unit (WF central control unit) 6, and the first WF controller 30 included in the WF central control unit 6 controls the SEC 22 to restrict output of the active power from the wind farm 1. [Para 65] FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a control logic of the first WF controller 30 according to one embodiment. [Para 66] As illustrated in the drawing, the first WF controller 30 includes a load-angle calculation part 32 for calculating a load angle of the synchronous generator 15 of each wind turbine generator 12, a target phase determination part 34 for determining a target local-grid voltage phase of the local grid 2, and a command-value output part 36 for outputting a command value to the SEC 22 based on the target local-grid voltage phase”).
YAMASHITA doesn’t specifically teach S1: adaptive coordinated control of the REC.
XU teaches S1: adaptive coordinated control of the REC (see at least para 26-28, 39-47: receiving end resistor and controlling the receiving end to convert DC to AC to supply the AC and control any excess/surplus. At least [Para 28]: “to reduce unloading costs, this invention proposes a scheme for coordinated unloading of wind turbine units and the dispersed placement of energy-consuming resistors into the receiving-end MMC converter: at the moment of AC grid fault, the energy-consuming resistors of the receiving-end converter buffer the surplus power, while the sending-end converter rapidly reduces the wind farm voltage, triggering the low-voltage ride-through protection action of the wind turbine unit and activating the unit's unloading capability”).
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 XU and combine it with the teachings and environment setup taught by YAMASHITA, since by doing so it further enhances the system to dissipate excess or surplus power in the system.
Claim(s) 5 and 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable overYAMASHITA and XU as applied to claims above, and further in view of Che (CN114844087).
In regards to claim 5, YAMASHITA doesn’t specifically teach wherein the adaptive coordinated control method for the REC comprises the following steps: S1.1: calculating equivalent fault transitional resistance; S1.2: calculating the active and reactive power reference values of the REC through the calculated equivalent fault transitional resistance, and immediately changing the external loop control reference value of the REC to determine the minimum reactive power provided by the REC according to the safety and stability requirements of the receiving-end power; S1.3: calculating the reference value of the SEC active power regulation coefficient by the determined minimum reactive power provided by the REC.
Che teaches wherein the adaptive coordinated control method for the REC comprises the following steps: S1.1: calculating equivalent fault transitional resistance (see para 33:”Where k<sub>p2</sub> and k<sub>i2</sub> are the parameters of the inner current loop PI regulator, and R<sub>eq</sub> and L<sub>eq</sub> are the total equivalent resistance and reactance of the bridge arm; in order to obtain a faster current response speed, the proportion of the inner current loop is generally increased by k<sub>p2</sub>”); S1.2: calculating the active and reactive power reference values of the REC through the calculated equivalent fault transitional resistance, and immediately changing the external loop control reference value of the REC to determine the minimum reactive power provided by the REC according to the safety and stability requirements of the receiving-end power grid (se para 2, 21-29, 61, 72: calculation of active and reactive power); S1.3: calculating the reference value of the SEC active power regulation coefficient by the determined minimum reactive power provided by the REC (see para 39:”Where k<sub>p1</sub>, k<sub>i1</sub>, k<sub>p2</sub> and k<sub>i2</sub> are the parameters of the outer loop and the current inner loop PI regulator; C is the total capacitor voltage of the submodule with a certain bridge arm in the on state on the modular multilevel converter; R<sub>eq</sub> and L<sub>eq</sub> are the total equivalent resistance and reactance of the bridge arm; E is the AC side output voltage; and U<sub>dcN</sub> is the DC voltage reference value.”).
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 Che and combine it with the teachings and environment setup taught by YAMASHITA, since by doing it enhances adaptive coordinated control method for multi-terminal DC transmission systems and address the uneven distribution of energy resources.
In regards to claim 9, YAMASHITA doesn’t specifically teach discloses wherein a method for adaptive coordinated control of the SEC comprises the following steps: S2.1: determining the active power of the SEC during the fault; S2.2: calculating the value range of the coefficient K₁ according to the determined active power of the SEC during the fault.
Che teaches wherein a method for adaptive coordinated control of the SEC comprises the following steps: S2.1: determining the active power of the SEC during the fault (see para 21:”When the disturbance in the multi-terminal DC transmission system is a small disturbance, under the condition of small voltage fluctuation, i.e.: U<sub>dcrefi</sub> dU<sub>ni</sub><U<sub>dci</sub><U<sub>dcrefi</sub>+dU<sub>pi</sub>, the converter based on voltage droop control can ensure that the output active power is always the given active power value P<sub>refi</sub>, and the corresponding droop coefficient is ∞, thereby ensuring that the system output voltage and power remain stable under small disturbance environment”); S2.2: calculating the value range of the coefficient K₁ according to the determined active power of the SEC during the fault(see para 22-27: calculating the coefficient value. “Based on equations (3)-(6), we can obtain the selection method of droop control coefficients for the power-based droop control method and the voltage-based droop control method described by equations (1) and (2)”).
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 Che and combine it with the teachings and environment setup taught by YAMASHITA, since by doing it enhances adaptive coordinated control method for multi-terminal DC transmission systems and address the uneven distribution of energy resources.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-3, 6-8, 10-16 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable over the prior art if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims. However, claims 4-15 are still rejected under 101 rejection as provided above.
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
Prosecution Insights