DETAILED ACTION
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 § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-12, 14 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Wright et al. U.S. PGPub 2024/0154414 (hereinafter “Wright”).
Regarding claims 1, 14 and 15, Wright discloses an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: configure at least one of: a virtual power plant controller (e.g. control plan from energy provisioning planning system) application for operating one or more batteries of one or more base stations (e.g. sites) as a virtual power plant (e.g. ¶36, 38, 48, 144, 155; Fig. 1A-1B), the one or more base stations for supporting the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. ¶36, 38, 48, 144, 155; Fig. 1A-1B), or one or more power systems of the one or more base stations for supporting the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. ¶36, 38, 48, 144, 155; Fig. 1A-1B).
Regarding claim 2, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: obtain information associated with the one or more power systems, and information associated with the one or more batteries (e.g. ¶94, 144, 155 and 177), wherein the virtual power plant controller application is configured based at least on the information associated with the one or more power systems, and the information associated with the one or more batteries (e.g. ¶94, 144, 155 and 177).
Regarding claim 3, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information associated with the one or more power systems indicates at least one of: a software version of a rectifier, a hardware version of the rectifier, a maximum power supported by the rectifier, whether the rectifier is bi-directional or not, a software version of a power distribution unit, a hardware version of the power distribution unit, a number of input ports and a number of output ports in the power distribution unit, whether the power distribution unit comprises an electronic fuse or not, an output current of the power distribution unit, a voltage of the power distribution unit, a software version of an inverter, a hardware version of the inverter, a current of the inverter, a voltage of the inverter, a synchronization accuracy of the inverter to an alternating current frequency, diagnostic information of the one or more power systems (e.g. ¶176-177, 183, 236 and 270), a location of the one or more power systems, or a type of the one or more power systems (e.g. ¶176-177, 183, 236 and 270); and wherein the information associated with the one or more batteries indicates at least one of: a maximum number of charge and discharge cycles of the one or more batteries, a maximum capacity of the one or more batteries, a charging voltage of the one or more batteries, a location of the one or more batteries, or a health of the one or more batteries (e.g. ¶176-177, 183, 236 and 270).
Regarding claim 4, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the configuration of the virtual power plant controller application indicates at least one of: a use case for the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. ¶36, 38, 48, 144, 155; Fig. 1A-1B), a maximum duration that the one or more base stations can be operated with the one or more batteries, a maximum number of charge and discharge cycles that the one or more base stations can be operated with the one or more batteries, a reserve capacity per power system of the one or more power systems, an estimated lifetime of the one or more batteries, or activating a communication adapter in the virtual power plant controller application for communicating with the one or more power systems, wherein the use case comprises one of: fast frequency reserve, FFR, or frequency containment reserve for disturbances, FCR-D, or frequency containment reserve for normal operation, FCR-N, or automatic frequency restoration reserve, aFRR, or manual frequency restoration reserve, mFRR, or load shifting (e.g. ¶36, 38 and 144), or peak shaving.
Regarding claim 5, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: obtain a set of regulatory parameters associated with the virtual power plant controller application, wherein the virtual power plant controller application is configured based at least on the set of regulatory parameters (e.g. ¶46 and 141), wherein the set of regulatory parameters indicate at least one of: one or more power grid frequency thresholds for triggering the virtual power plant controller application, an activation time of the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. ¶44, activation time via control plan), a maximum activation time of the virtual power plant controller application, a re-activation timer for the virtual power plant controller application, or a maximum delay time between detecting a deviation in a power grid frequency and switching an electrical load of the one or more base stations to the one or more batteries.
Regarding claim 6, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: obtain information indicating an energy consumption amount of the one or more base stations and an amount of carbon dioxide emissions associated with the energy consumption amount (e.g. ¶94, 107, 113 and 250), wherein the virtual power plant controller application is configured based at least on the energy consumption amount and the amount of carbon dioxide emissions (e.g. ¶94, 107, 113 and 250).
Regarding claim 7, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the configuration of the one or more power systems comprises at least: determining one or more configuration parameters for the one or more power systems for supporting the virtual power plant controller application, wherein the determination is based at least on a type of the one or more power systems and one or more corresponding data sheets (e.g. ¶36, 38, 48, 144, 155; Fig. 1A-1B); and transmitting the one or more configuration parameters to the one or more power systems (e.g. ¶38-40, 44, 94, 141 and 144), wherein the one or more configuration parameters for the one or more power systems indicate at least one of: a power level, an energy level, a charge level (e.g. ¶38-40, 44, 94, 141 and 144), a charge current, a load current, a voltage, or an alarm configuration.
Regarding claim 8, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the configuration of the one or more base stations comprises at least: determining one or more configuration parameters for the one or more base stations for supporting the virtual power plant controller application, wherein the determination is based at least on a type of the one or more power systems and one or more corresponding data sheets (e.g. ¶38-40, 44, 94, 141 and 144); and transmitting, to a network management system, a configuration request for configuring the one or more base stations with the one or more configuration parameters (e.g. ¶38-40, 44, 94, 141 and 144), wherein the one or more configuration parameters for the one or more base stations indicate at least one of: a maximum transmission power of a broadcast channel or a traffic channel, a maximum number of connected users, one or more radio resource management timers, an algorithm for admission control, an algorithm for load control (e.g. ¶38-40, 44, 94, 141 and 144), or an algorithm for energy saving management.
Regarding claim 9, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the configuration of the one or more power systems comprises at least: selecting a software for the one or more power systems based on at least one of: a type of the one or more power systems, one or more data sheets corresponding to the one or more power systems, or the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. ¶36, 38, 48, 144, 155; Fig. 1A-1B); and transmitting, to a network management system, a configuration request for configuring the selected software to the one or more power systems (e.g. ¶38-40, 44, 94, 141, 144 and 166-175).
Regarding claim 10, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 9, further being caused to: receive a test report indicating a test result of the software (i.e. control plan) after being configured at the one or more power systems (e.g. ¶226, 230, 235 and 268-269); and perform, based on the test report, one of: activating the one or more power systems, or selecting a new software for the one or more power systems (e.g. ¶226, 230, 235 and 268-269).
Regarding claim 11, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 1, further being caused to: test the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. forecasting a candidate control plan) after the configuration of the at least one of: the virtual power plant controller application, the one or more base stations, or the one or more power systems (e.g. ¶99, 101 and 114).
Regarding claim 12, Wright discloses the apparatus according to claim 11, further being caused to: detect one or more errors or a performance degradation (e.g. high cost) during the testing of the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. ¶99, 101 and 114); and based on detecting the one or more errors or the performance degradation, perform at least one of: indicate the one or more errors or the performance degradation to an operator, or restore a previous configuration for the at least one of: the virtual power plant controller application, the one or more base stations, or the one or more power systems (e.g. ¶99, 101 and 114).
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.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wright as applied to the claims above, and further in view of O’Hora U.S. PGPub 2019/0132145 (hereinafter “O’Hora”).
Regarding claim 13, Wright discloses accessing a virtual power plant controller application (e.g. Fig. 1A-1B), but does not explicitly disclose accessing the application via a software license.
O’Hora discloses accessing a power system application via a validated software license (e.g. ¶46).
At the time the invention was filed, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to use a software license to access the virtual power plant controller application. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this in order to ensure that only an authorized operator has access to the application.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to modify Wright with O’Hora to obtain the invention as specified in claim 13.
Relevant Prior Art
Yerli U.S. PGPub 2023/0350363 discloses an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: configure at least one of: a virtual power plant controller application for operating one or more batteries of one or more base stations as a virtual power plant, the one or more base stations for supporting the virtual power plant controller application, or one or more power systems of the one or more base stations for supporting the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. ¶41-42 and 70).
Sanders et al. U.S. PGPub 2017/0005515 discloses an apparatus comprising at least one processor, and at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the apparatus at least to: configure at least one of: a virtual power plant controller application for operating one or more batteries of one or more base stations as a virtual power plant, the one or more base stations for supporting the virtual power plant controller application, or one or more power systems of the one or more base stations for supporting the virtual power plant controller application (e.g. abstract; ¶101, 103, 122-128, 183, 187, 190, 203 and 276).
Conclusion
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CK
August 7, 2026
/CHARLES R KASENGE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2116
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