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 .
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.
Claims 1, 3-8, 10-14, and 16-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over BOTA et al. US 2020/0176984 A1 in view of Dannecker et al. US 2015/0120223 A1.
BOTA teaches:
1. A non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions recorded thereon, wherein the instructions, when executed by at least one data processor of a system, cause the system to:
obtain an indication of a load required by a power grid operating at a site; [para. 0044, energy requirements and capabilities of sites obtained and stored in database cluster 43]
obtain multiple specifications of multiple power sources providing power to the power grid, wherein a specification among the multiple specifications is associated with a power source among the multiple power sources, wherein the specification indicates an amount of power that the power source is configured to provide to the power grid; [para. 0044; “(ii) its power needs or delivery capability”]
obtain a set of rules configured to indicate a first power source among the multiple power sources to operate to provide power to the power grid based on the indication of the load required by the power grid, wherein the set of rules indicates a first power level associated with the first power source, and wherein the set of rules is independent of an attribute associated with the site; [para. 0063, and para. 0095, “One way in which this may be done is through the application of heuristics, i.e. predetermined rules that may be stored and updated from time to time.”]
based on the set of rules and the multiple specifications of the multiple power sources, determine the first power source and the first power level; [para. 0084-0085 and 0095-0097; heuristic rules based solution “based on the time response profile of the asset and the time response profile of the service model or based on accumulated past experience.”]
provide the first power source and the first power level to an optimizer configured to determine a second power source and a second power level associated with the second power source by optimizing the attribute associated with the site, wherein the attribute associated with the site indicates a desired operation associated with the power source; [para. 0098; optimizer determines best combination to maximize benefit parameter using “best guess” or previous solution as a seed to the optimizer]
BOTA does not teach the following limitation, however, Dannecker teaches:
obtain a time threshold; [para. 0041, “Runtime limits provided by applications can be handled as hard constraints, meaning that the optimization is canceled with the best results found as soon as the runtime limit is reached.”]
based on the time threshold, obtain the second power source and the second power level from the optimizer; [para. 0041, “As soon as the defined runtime is passed, the forecast is calculated using the best-forecast model instance found so far.”]
determine whether the first power source and the first power level or the second power source and the second power level are closer to the desired operation associated with the power source; [para. 0041, if nothing better than initial seed heuristic is found and times out, use that]
Bota further teaches:
upon determining that the first power source and the first power level are closer to the desired operation associated with the power source,
operate the first power source at the first power level suggested by the set of rules; [para. 0162, “Upon each re-run, the optimizer may use the previous result to guide the path search or it may begin its search from a heuristically determined start point.” If optimizer finds nothing better, uses heuristic mappings] and
upon determining that the second power source and the second power level are closer to the desired operation associated with the power source,
operate the second power source at the second power level suggested by the optimizer. [para. 0162, “Upon each re-run, the optimizer may use the previous result to guide the path search or it may begin its search from a heuristically determined start point.” If optimizer finds better parameters, uses those for next iteration mappings]
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to combine the teachings of Dannecker with those of Bota. A person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings because Dannecker teaches that optimizers can use runtime limits so that only results obtained within a certain time constraint are considered because the “result is time critical, but the best possible accuracy is not required.” (See para. 0041).
BOTA teaches:
3. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions to: provide the first power source and the first power level to the optimizer configured to determine the second power source and the second power level associated with the second power source by optimizing reliability associated with the power grid [optimize to extend lifetime of grid assets], carbon emission associated with the power grid, or reducing a consumption of a resource associated with the power grid [para. 0008 reduce heat generation as secondary function].
BOTA teaches:
4. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions to: provide a user interface indicating the desired operation associated with the power source; [user interface 41]
obtain through the user interface a user input indicating the desired operation associated with the power source, wherein the user input includes reliability associated with the power grid, carbon emission associated with power grid, and reducing a consumption of a resource associated with the power grid. [para. 0127-0128]
BOTA teaches:
5. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions to: obtain the set of rules including a first multiplicity of rules to satisfy prior to satisfying a second multiplicity of rules, wherein the first multiplicity of rules includes a rule to satisfy the load required by the power grid and a rule to utilize a renewable power source prior to utilizing a power source associated with carbon emissions, wherein the second multiplicity of rules includes an indication of the power source associated with carbon emissions. [para. 0095-0096; heuristic rules and para. 0140; example of renewable asset] and
BOTA teaches:
6. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions to: obtain the set of rules including: a rule to satisfy the load required by the power grid; a rule to utilize a renewable power source prior to utilizing a power source associated with carbon emissions; and a rule indicating the power source associated with carbon emissions. [para. 0095-0098]
7. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions to: provide a user interface indicating the desired operation associated with the power source; [user interface 41]
and obtain through the user interface a user input indicating the desired operation associated with the power source, wherein the user input includes reliability associated with the power grid, carbon emission associated with the power grid, and reducing a consumption of a resource associated with the power grid [para. 0127-0128], wherein the resource includes carbon-emitting fuel, battery life, and cost to operate the power grid. [para. 0117; para. 0059; ]
Regarding claims 8, 10-14, and 16-20 these method and apparatus claims recite the steps for executing the stored instructions recited above and the apparatus functions for implementing the features above and are rejected on the same grounds and rationale as above
Claims 2, 9 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over BOTA et al. US 2020/0176984 A1 in view of Dannecker et al. US 2015/0120223 A1 and further in view of Pan et al. US 2019/0286993 A1.
The combination of BOTA and Dannecker does not teach the following limitations, however, Pan teaches:
2. The non-transitory, computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, comprising instructions to:
provide the first power source and the first power level to multiple optimizers including the optimizer, wherein the multiple optimizers differ in speed and accuracy, wherein the multiple optimizers are configured to determine a second multiplicity of power sources and a second multiplicity of power levels associated with the second multiplicity of power sources by reducing a consumption of a resource; [Fig. 2 concurrent optimizer 202; Solver1 and Solver2]
based on the time threshold, obtain the second multiplicity of power sources and the second multiplicity of power levels from the multiple optimizers; [para. 0089, global timeout]
determine the power source based on the second multiplicity of power sources and the first power source; [Fig. 6 620 optimal solution]
determine a power level based on the second multiplicity of power levels and the first power level, wherein the power source and the power level are within a predetermined threshold of the desired operation associated with the power source; [Fig. 15 1514 and “constraints” in para. 0188] and
operate the power source at the power level. [Fig. 15 1516]
It would have been obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art before the time of filing to combine the teachings of Pan with those of BOTA and Dannecker. A person having ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to combine the teachings because Pan teaches that concurrent optimizers or solvers in order to reduce solving time. (See para. 0168).
Regarding claims 9 and 15, these method and system claims recite the steps for executing the stored instructions above and the functions corresponding to claim 2 above and are rejected on the same grounds and rationale as above.
Conclusion
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/GARY COLLINS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2115
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