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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 4/16/2024 has been considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings are objected to under 37 CFR 1.83(a). The drawings must show every feature of the invention specified in the claims. Therefore, the microinverters must be shown or the feature(s) canceled from the claim(s). No new matter should be entered.
Corrected drawing sheets in compliance with 37 CFR 1.121(d) are required in reply to the Office action to avoid abandonment of the application. Any amended replacement drawing sheet should include all of the figures appearing on the immediate prior version of the sheet, even if only one figure is being amended. The figure or figure number of an amended drawing should not be labeled as “amended.” If a drawing figure is to be canceled, the appropriate figure must be removed from the replacement sheet, and where necessary, the remaining figures must be renumbered and appropriate changes made to the brief description of the several views of the drawings for consistency. Additional replacement sheets may be necessary to show the renumbering of the remaining figures. Each drawing sheet submitted after the filing date of an application must be labeled in the top margin as either “Replacement Sheet” or “New Sheet” pursuant to 37 CFR 1.121(d). If the changes are not accepted by the examiner, the applicant will be notified and informed of any required corrective action in the next Office action. The objection to the drawings will not be held in abeyance.
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.
Claim(s) 1-3 and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bozchalui (US 20210218248 A1) in view of Liu et al. (CN 112886623 A).
Regarding Claim 1, Bozchalui teaches a storage system (108, Fig. 1) configured for use with an energy management system (100), comprising:
a battery (200);
a battery management unit coupled to the battery (¶[48] “Similarly, a battery controller 113 (FIG. 1), a battery management unit (BMU), and/or AC interface boards (all not shown)”); and
a power converter comprising a plurality of microinverters (204, see Fig. 2, ¶[48] “The SP battery 200 is configured to connect to one or a plurality of microinverters. For example, in at least some embodiments, the SP battery 200 is configured to connect up to four microinverters 204”) operably coupled to the battery and the battery management unit (see ¶[48] quoted above),
Bozchalui does not explicitly teach each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters configured to calculate an estimate state-of-charge of the battery and periodically communicate a calculated estimate state-of-charge to other microinverters of the plurality of microinverters, such that the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters calculates an average state-of-charge of the battery and communicates a calculated average state-of-charge to the battery management unit to control charging/discharging of the battery.
Liu teaches that each converter of the plurality of converters configured to calculate an estimate state-of-charge of the battery and periodically communicate a calculated estimate state-of-charge to other converters of the plurality of converters, such that the each microinverter of the plurality of converters calculates an average state-of-charge of the battery and communicates a calculated average state-of-charge to the battery management unit to control charging/discharging of the battery (¶[96] “The total state of charge value is divided by the number of converters with a running command of 1 and a state of charge between 30 and 100 to obtain the average state of charge SOCavg1, that is, SOCavg1＝SOCsum1/Num0_80”)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Bozchalui to incorporate the teachings of Liu to provide each converter of the plurality of converters configured to calculate an estimate state-of-charge of the battery and periodically communicate a calculated estimate state-of-charge to other converters of the plurality of converters, such that the each microinverter of the plurality of converters calculates an average state-of-charge of the battery and communicates a calculated average state-of-charge to the battery management unit to control charging/discharging of the battery, in order to increase the accuracy by calculating the average from each converter.
Regarding Claim 2, Bozchalui in view of Liu teaches the storage system of claim 1.
Liu further teaches wherein the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters is programmed to operate at a same percentage of the battery (¶[97] “the total SOC value SOCsum2 is obtained by adding the SOC values of all converters with a running command of 1 and a state of charge (SOC) between 0 and 80, i.e., the middle state of charge range,”).
Regarding Claim 3, Bozchalui in view of Liu teaches the storage system of claim 1.
Liu further teaches wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (1):
S
o
C
m
i
n
e
=
S
O
C
m
i
n
e
+
S
O
C
o
t
h
e
r
2
where SoCmine is the estimate state-of-charge of the battery calculated by the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters and SoCother is an estimate state-of- charge of the battery calculated by the other microinverters of the plurality of microinverters (see Claim 1 rejection, the claimed equation is a well known average equation).
Regarding Claim 7, Bozchalui in view of Liu teaches the storage system of claim 1.
Bozchalui in view of Liu further teaches wherein the power converter is one of an AC- DC power converter or a DC-DC power converter (Liu teaches a converter, which can be assumed to be either AC-DC or DC-DC since one end is connected to a battery)
Claim(s) 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bozchalui (US 20210218248 A1) in view of Liu et al. (CN 112886623 A) further in view of Baba et al. (US 20130297243 A1).
Regarding Claim 4, Bozchalui in view of Liu teaches the storage system of claim 1,
Bozchalui in view of Liu does not explicitly teach wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge.
Baba teaches wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge.
(¶[18] “when the current-integration-method State-of-Charge estimation means and the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge estimation means respectively estimate the current-integration-method State-of-Charge and the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge, they are statistically computed, using the mean value and the variance”)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Bozchalui in view of Liu to incorporate the teachings of Baba to provide wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge
in order to reduce the number of calculations.
Regarding Claim 5, the combination of Bozchalui, Liu, and Baba teaches the storage system of claim 4.
Baba further teaches wherein the internal parameter is an open- circuit voltage (see ¶[18] quoted above).
Regarding Claim 6, Bozchalui in view of Liu teaches the storage system of claim 1.
Bozchalui in view of Liu does not explicitly teach wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering.
Baba teaches wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering (¶[19] “the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge estimation means and the error estimation means use Kalman filters”).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Bozchalui in view of Liu to incorporate the teachings of Baba to provide wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering, in order to avoid needing to separately calculate the mean estimate and estimate variance as suggested by Baba (¶[19]).
Claim(s) 8-10, 14-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (CN 112886623 A) in view of Bozchalui (US 20210218248 A1).
Regarding Claim 8, Liu teaches the method for managing a storage system configured for use with an energy management system, comprising:
calculating at each microinverter of a plurality of microinverters an estimate state-of-charge of a battery;
broadcasting from the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters a calculated estimate state-of-charge of the battery; and
when the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters receives the calculated estimate state-of-charge from other microinverters of the plurality of microinverters,
calculating at the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters an average state-of-charge based on the calculated estimate state-of-charge for controlling charging/discharging of the battery (¶[96] “The total state of charge value is divided by the number of converters with a running command of 1 and a state of charge between 30 and 100 to obtain the average state of charge SOCavg1, that is, SOCavg1＝SOCsum1/Num0_80”).
Liu does not explicitly teach that the converters are microinverters.
Bozchalui teaches that the converters are microinverters (204, see Fig. 2, ¶[48] “The SP battery 200 is configured to connect to one or a plurality of microinverters. For example, in at least some embodiments, the SP battery 200 is configured to connect up to four microinverters 204”).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Liu to incorporate the teachings of Bozchalui to provide the converters are microinverters in order to provide a plurality of measurements to increase the accuracy.
Regarding Claim 9, Liu in view of Bozchalui teaches the method of claim 8.
Liu further teaches wherein the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters is programmed to operate at a same percentage of the battery (¶[97] “the total SOC value SOCsum2 is obtained by adding the SOC values of all converters with a running command of 1 and a state of charge (SOC) between 0 and 80, i.e., the middle state of charge range,”).
Regarding Claim 10, Liu in view of Bozchalui teaches the method of claim 8.
Liu further teaches wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (1):
S
o
C
m
i
n
e
=
S
O
C
m
i
n
e
+
S
O
C
o
t
h
e
r
2
where SoCmine is the estimate state-of-charge of the battery calculated by the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters and SoCother is an estimate state-of- charge of the battery calculated by the other microinverters of the plurality of microinverters (see Claim 8 rejection, the claimed equation is a well known average equation).
Regarding Claim 14, Liu teaches a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processer performs a method (¶[141] “Furthermore, this application may take the form of a computer program product implemented on one or more computer-usable storage media (including but not limited to disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, etc.) containing computer-usable program code”) for managing a storage system configured for use with an energy management system, comprising:
calculating at each microinverter of a plurality of microinverters an estimate a state-of-charge of a battery;
broadcasting from each of the plurality of microinverters a calculated estimate state-of-charge of the battery; and
when the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters receives the calculated estimate state-of-charge from other microinverters of the plurality of microinverters,
calculating at the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters an average state-of-charge based on the calculated estimate state-of-charge for controlling charging/discharging of the battery (¶[96] “The total state of charge value is divided by the number of converters with a running command of 1 and a state of charge between 30 and 100 to obtain the average state of charge SOCavg1, that is, SOCavg1＝SOCsum1/Num0_80”).
Liu does not explicitly teach that the converters are microinverters.
Bozchalui teaches that the converters are microinverters (204, see Fig. 2, ¶[48] “The SP battery 200 is configured to connect to one or a plurality of microinverters. For example, in at least some embodiments, the SP battery 200 is configured to connect up to four microinverters 204”).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Liu to incorporate the teachings of Bozchalui to provide the converters are microinverters in order to provide a plurality of measurements to increase the accuracy.
Regarding Claim 15, Liu in view of Bozchalui teaches the non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14.
Liu further teaches wherein the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters is programmed to operate at a same percentage of the battery (¶[97] “the total SOC value SOCsum2 is obtained by adding the SOC values of all converters with a running command of 1 and a state of charge (SOC) between 0 and 80, i.e., the middle state of charge range,”).
Regarding Claim 16, Liu in view of Bozchalui teaches the non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14.
Liu further teaches wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (1):
S
o
C
m
i
n
e
=
S
O
C
m
i
n
e
+
S
O
C
o
t
h
e
r
2
where SoCmine is the estimate state-of-charge of the battery calculated by the each microinverter of the plurality of microinverters and SoCother is an estimate state-of- charge of the battery calculated by the other microinverters of the plurality of microinverters (see Claim 14 rejection, the claimed equation is a well known average equation).
Claim(s) 11-13 and 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (CN 112886623 A) in view of Bozchalui (US 20210218248 A1) further in view of Baba et al. (US 20130297243 A1).
Regarding Claim 11, Liu in view of Bozchalui teaches the method of claim 8.
Liu in view Bozchalui does not explicitly teach wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge.
Baba teaches wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge.
(¶[18] “when the current-integration-method State-of-Charge estimation means and the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge estimation means respectively estimate the current-integration-method State-of-Charge and the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge, they are statistically computed, using the mean value and the variance”)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Liu in view Bozchalui to incorporate the teachings of Baba to provide wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge
in order to reduce the number of calculations.
Regarding Claim 12, the combination of Liu, Bozchalui, and Baba teaches the teaches the method of claim 11.
Baba further teaches wherein the internal parameter is an open- circuit voltage (see ¶[18] quoted above).
Regarding Claim 13, the combination of Liu, Bozchalui, and Baba teaches the method of claim 12.
Liu as modified does not explicitly teach wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering.
Baba teaches wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering (¶[19] “the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge estimation means and the error estimation means use Kalman filters”).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the combination of Liu, Bozchalui, and Baba to incorporate the teachings of Baba to provide wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering, in order to avoid needing to separately calculate the mean estimate and estimate variance as suggested by Baba (¶[19]).
Regarding Claim 17, Liu in view Bozchalui teaches the non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 14,
Liu in view Bozchalui does not explicitly teach wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge.
Baba teaches wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge.
(¶[18] “when the current-integration-method State-of-Charge estimation means and the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge estimation means respectively estimate the current-integration-method State-of-Charge and the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge, they are statistically computed, using the mean value and the variance”)
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Liu in view Bozchalui to incorporate the teachings of Baba to provide wherein the average state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using Equation (2):
P
m
i
n
e
=
P
m
i
n
e
+
P
o
t
h
e
r
2
where P is an internal parameter calculated as part of the estimate state-of-charge
in order to reduce the number of calculations.
Regarding Claim 18, the combination of Liu, Bozchalui, and Baba teaches the non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17.
Baba further teaches wherein the internal parameter is an open- circuit voltage (see ¶[18] quoted above).
Regarding Claim 19, the combination of Liu, Bozchalui, and Baba teaches the non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18.
Liu as modified does not explicitly teach wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering.
Baba teaches wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering (¶[19] “the open-circuit-voltage-method State-of-Charge estimation means and the error estimation means use Kalman filters”).
It would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Liu in view Bozchalui to incorporate the teachings of Baba to provide wherein the estimate of state-of-charge of the battery is calculated using at least one of coulomb counting or Kalman Filtering, in order to avoid needing to separately calculate the mean estimate and estimate variance as suggested by Baba (¶[19]).
Conclusion
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/A.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2859
/JULIAN D HUFFMAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2859
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