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 § 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.
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 1-6, 8-17 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bridges et al. (US Pub 2015/0077056) in view of Sum et al. (US Pub 2015/0256433).
As of claims 1, 13 and 14, Bridges discloses a computer-implemented method of operational metering for a distributed energy system arranged to provide energy to a power grid, the distributed energy system comprising a plurality of energy provision devices (via electrical resources 112; see fig. 2) configured to output stored energy and an operation metering module configured to control operation of the plurality of energy provision devices (via flow control center 102; see fig. 4), the method being performed by the operation metering module and comprising:
receiving raw data from the plurality of energy provision devices, the raw data comprising operational data of each energy provision device and sending the data to the power grid (via flow control center 102 receiving operation data from the electrical resource 112; see paragraphs [0052], [0102] and [0153]).
However, Bridges does not explicitly disclose processing the raw data to remove a portion of the operational data of each energy provision device; selecting representative data from the processed raw data for each energy provision device representative of a state of each energy provision device; and aggregating the representative data of each energy provision device into an aggregated data package and sending the aggregated data to the power grid.
Sum discloses a data processing system, wherien a node process operation metering data (via node 230; see fig. 6). Sum further discloses that the node 230 execute a stream function to perform error correction, thereby repairing ordered pairs subject to recoverable forms of data corruption (see paragraph [0067]). Sum further discloses "In some cases, only a much smaller subset of the computed outputs from data streams can be transmitted" and Node 230 could execute stream function 602 to generate data stream 604 that reflects only the voltage values from time series 600 as a function of time, as well as data stream, hence selecting representative data. Sum discloses, that nodes generate aggregated data stream time series and send the data to the back office 150 (see fig. 5; also see paragraph [0053]).
From the teaching of Sum, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to modify the system of Bridges to include the function of processing the raw data as taught by Sum in order to reduce network traffic (see paragraph [0067]).
As of claims 2 and 16, Bridges discloses receiving a service request from the power grid, the service request being generated to request energy provision service at a level determined based on the aggregated data package; and outputting instructions to one or more of the plurality of energy provision devices in response to the service request to instruct the one or more of the plurality of energy provision devices to output stored energy to meet the requested level of energy provision service (see paragraph [0088], “…power aggregation system 100 enables a grid operator 404 to control the aggregated electric resources 112 connected to the power grid 114. An electric resource 112 can act as a power source, load, or storage, and the resource 112 may exhibit combinations of these properties. Control of a set of electric resources 112 is the ability to actuate power consumption, generation, or energy storage from an aggregate of these electric resources 112”).
As of claim 3, Sum discloses that the removed portion of the raw data comprises operational data not used by the power grid when determining the level of energy provision service (via node removing faulty data; see paragraph [0065]).
As of claims 4 and 20, combination of Bridges and Sum does not explicitly disclose storing the removed portion of the raw data to be analyzed, however it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was filed to store the faulty data depending on the need in order to assess the origin of the faulty data.
As of claims 5 and 17, Sum discloses that monitoring data received at and/or being processed by the operation metering module by applying one or more operational rules to the data (via performing error detection and correction to the data; see paragraph [0065]).
As of claim 6, Sum discloses that the one or more operational rules are applied to the data to identify an anomaly (via performing error detection and correction to the data; see paragraph [0065]).
As of claim 8, Sum discloses that the raw data received from the plurality of energy provision devices comprises a plurality of messages, each message comprising a plurality of readings, and the method further comprises, after processing the raw data to remove a portion of the operational data of each energy provision device, dividing each message in the processed raw data into the plurality of readings (see paragraph [0068] “Node 230 is also configured to separate individual time series into multiple, distinct time series. For example, node 230 could execute stream function 602 to separate time series 600 into data streams 604 and 606. As is shown, each ordered pair of time series 600 includes a voltage value and current value recorded at a particular time. Node 230 could execute stream function 602 to generate data stream 604 that reflects only the voltage values from time series 600 as a function of time, as well as data stream 606 that reflects only the current values from time series 600 as a function of time”).
As of claim 9, Bridges discloses that the plurality of readings comprises one or more temperature measurements, one or more state of charge measurements, one or more available power measurements, historical data, or any combination thereof (via state of charge measurements and available power measurements; see paragraph [0052] and [0077] also see Sum paragraph [0059]).
As of claim 10, Sum discloses the step of generating a data file for each of the plurality of readings, wherein the data file for each of the plurality of readings comprises the reading and metadata, the metadata comprising a timestamp, a unique identification for the reading (see paragraph [0050], “Each data stream 520 includes a time series of data elements, where each data element includes a data value and a corresponding timestamp indicating a time when the data values was recorded or generated”).
As of claim 11, Bridges discloses that the unique identification for the reading comprises a device identification identifying the energy provision device from which the reading is taken and a reading identification identifying the reading from the plurality of readings (via electrical resource identifier; see paragraph [0091]).
As of claim 12, Sum discloses that the representative data of each energy provision device comprises the most recent reading amongst the plurality of readings, a highest reading amongst the plurality of readings, or an average of the plurality of readings (via voltage and current value as a function of time; see paragraph [0068]).
As of claim 15, Sum discloses that a plurality of processing units configured in a distributed processing system, and wherein the operation metering system is scalable based on a number of energy provision devices in the distributed energy system (In the system of Sum the nodes are scalable; see paragraph [0027]).
As of claim 19, Bridges discloses a routing module (110) configured to receive the raw data from the plurality of energy provision devices and to forward the received raw data to the processing unit (via connection manager 702; see fig. 7; also see paragraph [0098]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 7 and 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to NABIL H SYED whose telephone number is (571)270-3028. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00-5:00 M-F.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Davetta W Goins can be reached at (571) 272-2957. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/NABIL H SYED/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2689
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