DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claims 1-15 are pending.
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55 for Application No. EP21175319 filed on 05/21/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The references cited in the information disclosure statements (IDS) submitted on 11/20/2023 and 03/29/2024 have been considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites elements “the feed” in line 8, “the output” in line 9, the time steps” in line 18, and “at these points in time” in line 21. There is insufficient antecedent basis for each of the elements in the claim. Appropriate clarification through claim amendment is respectfully requested. For purposes of examination, the elements will be interpreted as “the amount of thermal power fed in”, “the amount of thermal power put out”, “time steps”, and “at each of the time steps”, respectively.
Further, claim 1 recites “
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” in line 19. It is unclear if Applicant means by gd , gi and ge , that they are constants, not dependent on the time steps, or if Applicant means gd,t , gi,t and ge,t . Appropriate clarification through claim amendment is respectfully requested. For purposes of examination, gd , gi and ge will be interpreted as gd,t , gi,t and ge,t .
Claims 2-10 are dependent claims of claim 1. The claim 1 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), and therefore, claims 2-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b).
Claim 11 recites “an excess thermal power” in line 12, and “any excess thermal power” for the same element “
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”. Appropriate clarification through claim amendment is respectfully requested. For purposes of examination, “any excess thermal power” will be interpreted as “the excess thermal power”.
Further, claim 11 recites “
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” in line 18. It is unclear if Applicant means by gd , gi and ge , that they are constants, not dependent on the time steps, or if Applicant means gd,t , gi,t and ge,t . Appropriate clarification through claim amendment is respectfully requested. For purposes of examination, gd , gi and ge will be interpreted as gd,t , gi,t and ge,t .
Claims 12-15 are dependent claims of claim 11. The claim 11 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), and therefore, claims 12-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b).
Claims 2, 3, 10 and 15 recite “gd , gi and ge”. For the reasons as discussed above regarding claim 1 and claim 11, the gd , gi and ge will be interpreted as gd,t , gi,t and ge,t .
Conclusion
The prior art made of record that teaches some aspects of the current claimed invention.
Cotton et al. (US 2021/0325069 A1) teaches an internal thermal distribution network configured to control transfer of thermal energy to and from a plurality of district energy resource units as part of an energy management system, based on thermal energy demand of the districts, thermal energy generation capacity of the districts and in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as described in at least paragraph [0036] (“In any embodiments, the energy management controller may be configured to: determine that the district operational energy state is an excess harvested thermal energy state; and control the operation of the at least one energy provisioning unit and/or the thermal coupling between the district thermal distribution network and the at least one energy provisioning unit to prioritize use of the excess harvested thermal energy as a thermal source for the district thermal distribution network over non-harvested energy resources.”), paragraph [0106] (“If a fossil fuel-based generator is acting as the marginal generator, a decrease in load or increase in generation caused by a lower carbon emission or emission free generation source, storage or demand response will reduce GHG emissions by decreasing the energy generation from the fossil fuel-based generator acting as the marginal generator. However, if an emission-free generation source is acting as the marginal generator, displacing the marginal generator by an emission free generation source, storage element or demand response technique will not provide any reduction in GHG emissions. Because the marginal generator in an electrical system can change during operation from hour to hour, an hour-by-hour analysis of the electrical system is required to determine GHG emissions reduction.”), paragraph [0185] (“The energy management controller can be configured to determine a district thermal energy demand and a district electrical energy demand for the plurality of buildings 104. The energy management controller can be configured to determine a district electricity supply state of the central energy management unit 110. The district electricity supply state can be determined at least partially based on a grid electricity supply state of the electrical transmission grid 105. The energy management controller can be configured to determine a district operational energy state based on the district thermal energy demand, district electrical energy demand, and the district energy supply state.”), paragraph [0472] (“In some examples, the energy generation capacity of the district energy system 100 (i.e. the energy provisioning units within the system 100) can be configured to provide more energy than required by the loads within the district 102. This can ensure that system 100 can provide local energy service resiliency and avoid deficits in the provision of energy services. Accordingly, the configuration of a given district energy system 100 may be designed using modelling tools to ensure that the desired capacity of energy service resiliency can be met. In some cases, an iterative modelling process may be used to ensure that system 100 can satisfy a number of operational criteria, such as meeting island mode demand, providing the lowest GHG emissions, and so forth.”), and paragraph [0517] (“To design a district energy system for a given district, a design model of the energy demand characteristics and profiles of multiple high intensified energy building architypes can be defined. The model can define the energy demand characteristics and profiles of each architype on a high time resolution basis (e.g. a time resolution between 1 minute and 1 hour).”).
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MICHAEL W CHOI whose telephone number is (571)270-5069. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8am-5pm.
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/MICHAEL W CHOI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2116
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