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 .
Status of Claims
Claims 1-20 are currently pending in this application.
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.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
According to the published guideline on subject matter eligibility of computer readable media (OG Notice 1351 OG 212, Feb. 23, 2010), the broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim drawn to a computer-readable storage medium (also called machine readable/storage medium and other such variations) typically covers forms of non-transitory tangible media and transitory propagating signals per se in view of the ordinary and customary meaning of computer readable media. See MPEP 2111.01, and as such, claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as covering non-statutory subject matter. Applicant’s specification in paragraph [00118] does not have an “explicit definition” set forth to exclude the transitory “signal/carrier wave” embodiment from the scope of the claimed “a computer-readable storage medium”. A claim drawn to such a computer-readable storage medium that covers both transitory and non-transitory embodiments may be amended to narrow the claim to cover only statutory embodiments to avoid a rejection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 by adding the limitation "non-transitory" to the computer-readable storage medium in the claim.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1, 10, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun et al. (CN-109088439-A) in view of Ilic et al. (US 2013/0155735-A1).
With respect to claims 1 and 10, Sun teaches a synchronization control system and method for a microgrid group (fig.1C), wherein the microgrid group comprises a plurality of microgrids (grid 101 and grid 102, figs.1B-C),
the system (fig.1C) comprises
a central controller (controller 119, figs.1A-C), and the central controller is configured to:
receive a voltage measurement value at a grid connection point from each of the plurality of microgrids (obtain continuous measurement data from grid 101 and 102, steps 110-120 of fig.1B and [0041]; measurement includes power flow parameters, step 120 of fig.1B and [0041]; The power flow parameters are from the group consisting of a frequency, a phase angle, a voltage magnitude and a phase sequence, [0022]; synchronizer utilizes a first and a second sensors that both are of phase-locked loop type sensor to receive three phase voltages when connected the first grid and the second grid, so as to determine power flow parameters, wherein the power flow parameters are from the group consisting of a frequency, a phase angle, a voltage magnitude and a phase sequence, [0067]; measured three-phase voltages [0077]);
perform proportional-integral adjustment on the voltage measurement value to obtain a difference between the voltage measurement value, so as to estimate a control instruction for each microgrid (The controller 119 synchronizes the phases and the frequencies of the first and the second power grid 101, 102, by continually adjusting an amount of power supplied from the power source 116, based on continually determining a frequency mismatch and a phase mismatch between the first grid and the second grid, until a first predetermined condition is met, step 130 of figs.1A-D and [0048]; employ the phase detector to estimate the phase difference between the three-phase voltages of a generator or microgrid and the main electrical power system…compare the terminal voltages of generator and electrical power system using X-OR gates or a zero crossing detection circuit…the phase of three-phase voltages can be estimated using fast PLL circuits, figs.2B and [0021]; employ a phase-locked loop (PLL) for detecting phase and frequency difference between two grids, figs.2A-B and [0056-0057]); and
send a control instruction to at least one microgrid of the plurality of microgrids, to adjust closing synchronization between the plurality of microgrids through phase lock control (Step 140, figs.1A-D; an interconnection command is issued by the centralized control system, the synchronizer 100 activates the synchronizing process, and close the circuit breaker at the substation 110 when a predetermined threshold is met for differences of power flow parameters between grid 1 and grid 2, [0053]; frequency-control compensator determines the continually adjusted amount of power supplied from the converter, based on the determined frequency reference from the phase-control compensator and the frequency mismatch between the first and the second grids, [0070]).
With respect to claims 1 and 10, Sun does not appear to teach:
perform proportional-integral adjustment on the voltage measurement value to obtain a difference between the voltage measurement value at a previous moment and a control value at a current moment so as to estimate a control instruction at a next moment for the microgrid.
However, it is known by Ilic to teach of a control system for a microgrid (Ilic: figs.1-2), the control system comprises a central controller (Ilic: controller 540 communicates with proportional integral controller 556, fig.2B), and the central controller is configured to: receive a voltage measurement value at a grid connection point (Ilic: monitors…grid voltages, [0042]; MPPT 551 monitors power and the proportional integral controller 556 receives the power output, [0049]; the system senses voltage at time k V(k), [0050]); perform proportional-integral adjustment on the voltage measurement value to obtain a difference between the voltage measurement value at a previous moment and a control value at a current moment (Ilic: the system senses voltage at time k V(k)…the voltage difference…between the current period and the prior period is determined, [0050]) so as to estimate a control instruction at a next moment for the microgrid (Ilic: increase or decrease the voltage based on the voltage difference between the current period and the prior period when is determined, fig.3 and [0050-0051]).
Because Ilic’s teaching is also directed to a control system for a microgrid (Ilic: figs.1-2; Sun: fig.1C), it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine the teaching of “perform proportional-integral adjustment on the voltage measurement value to obtain a difference between the voltage measurement value at a previous moment and a control value at a current moment so as to estimate a control instruction at a next moment for the microgrid” as taught by Ilic with the synchronization control system for a microgrid group as taught by Sun for the purpose of adjust dc bus voltage for optimal performance (Ilic: [0071]).
With respect to claim 19, Sun and Ilic combined teaches further a computer-readable storage medium having stored thereon computer programs that, when executed by a processor, implement the synchronization control method for a microgrid group according to claim 10 (Sun: 0032).
With respect to claim 20, Sun and Ilic combined teaches further a computing device, comprising: a processor; a memory storing computer programs that, when executed by the processor, implement the synchronization control method for a microgrid group according to claim 10 (Sun: fig.11).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-9 and 11-18 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art of record, taken alone or in combination, fails to disclose or render obvious, which makes the following claims allowable over the prior art:
With respect to claims 2 and 11, wherein the voltage measurement value is sent in a time-driven manner per sampling period; and wherein a sending time interval of the control instruction is increased from a minimum time interval to a heartbeat time interval.
With respect to claims 3 and 12, wherein the central controller is further configured to: receive the voltage measurement value from each microgrid through a SV protocol in an IEC 61850 standard; and send the control instruction to the at least one microgrid through a GOOSE protocol in the IEC 61850 standard, and perform individual verification for each frame of data transmitted via the SV/GOOSE protocol.
With respect to claims 4 and 13, wherein the central controller is further configured to: perform optimal state estimation on the voltage measurement value on both sides of the grid connection point, so as to minimize an error of the control instruction.
With respect to claims 5/4 and 14/13, wherein the central controller is further configured to: determine that a measurement error accumulation obtained by accumulating and summing the differences follows a Gaussian distribution.
With respect to claims 6/5 and 15/14, wherein the central controller is further configured to: perform real-time verification of each voltage measurement value using a covariance of the voltage measurement value of a previous voltage cycle.
With respect to claims 7 and 16, wherein the central controller is further configured to: obtain a direct-axis component and a quadrature-axis component of a discrete voltage value by performing a Park transformation on the voltage measurement value into a rotating Cartesian coordinate system and performing an orthogonal transformation, to serve as an input value for proportional-integral adjustment.
With respect to claims 8 and 17, wherein the central controller is further configured to: determine an adjustment sequence of the plurality of microgrids based on a capacity of each of the plurality of microgrids, and determine, based on a margin in a current operating voltage parameter state, a synchronization regulation boundary of a microgrid that needs to be regulated.
With respect to claims 9/8 and 18/17, wherein the central controller is further configured to: select a microgrid with a small capacity as a target to be regulated first in a synchronization, and change the target to be regulated under a condition that a voltage adjustment parameter exceeds the synchronization regulation boundary of the microgrid.
Conclusion
The additional prior arts made of record and have not been relied upon are considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure as follows: Ramsay et al. (US 2016/0268916-A1) teaches at least perform proportional-integral adjustment on the voltage measurement value to obtain a difference between the voltage measurement value at a previous moment and a control value at a current moment so as to estimate a control instruction at a next moment for the microgrid ([0045]); US-20170179722-A1, US-20170179720-A1, US-20170214248-A1, US-20170288561-A1, KR_20120059868_A, WO_2018168028_A1, and Danzi et al. "Distributed_proportional-fairness_control_in_microgrids_via_blockchain_smart_contracts", IEEE, 2017, p.45-51.
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/HIEN D KHUU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2116 January 23, 2026