Patent Application
20140330602
Not Applicable.
The invention generally relates to transactions used for operation of electric transmission and distribution systems. Embodiments of the invention can relate to the creation and submission of North American Electric Reliability (NERC) Electronic Tags, or more commonly known as E-Tags, that are used to schedule electricity flow from one point of the power grid to another. Other embodiments of the invention can also relate to the creation and submission of other scheduling objects similar to E-tags such as Transmission Service Requests (TSRs) and pipeline Nominations.
While differing in purpose, both E-Tags and TSRs are both digital objects used to request and record elements needed for efficient and reliable operation of the power grid. TSRs request and record the right to use capacity from one point on the power grid to another and E-Tags request and record the schedule of the flow of the electricity through the power grid. E-Tags schedule the electricity flow through the capacity reserved by the TSRs. Additional objects similar to E-Tags and TSRs may also be used to schedule the transfer of other commodities or the reservation of capacity in other systems. Such objects, including, but not limited to, E-Tags, TSRs, and pipeline Nominations will be referred to as scheduling objects.
As the demand for energy grows over time the electric transmission and scheduling systems use to supply and support that demand must also expand. As these power systems grow the number of neighboring point to point possibilities, known as segments, increase. The end points of these segments vary in distance apart and often many segments must be used to transfer energy over longer distances; the linear chaining of these segments to cover these distances is shortened known as a path.
Due to growing energy usage the need to transfer more electricity over greater distances is also required; these paths continue to require a greater number of segments, which in turn increases their complexity. Further increasing their complexity, different entities may be responsibility for the operation of the individual segments. Often these entities must also be named on the record and receive notice of the scheduling objects.
Use of the disclosed invention helps alleviate the burden of these complexities. Using and embodiment of the invention the author of a scheduling object can allow another entity to view the data associated with a scheduling object. Author, in this context, denotes the entity that has the current authority to modify the scheduling object. The ability for multiple entities to view the same scheduling objects could aid in communication between the two entities regarding the scheduling objects and aids in the non-authoring entity's future response on the scheduling object if their response is required.
Where multiple entities are impacted by the segments and paths comprising a scheduling object, efficient submission of that scheduling object may require expertise and knowledge that is held by different users belonging to different entities. Using an embodiment of the invention disclosed, users with another company may author or modify parts of a scheduling object. This alleviates the burden of taking on the complex task on its own without the aid of the other entity or working remotely with users from another entity remotely.
A method for enabling an entity viewing access to authored, yet un-submitted, scheduling object, or objects, comprising of the selection of an entity code, or the creation and selection of an entity code; selection of pending time; and the updating of the object. Some embodiments of the invention may enable the entity to modify the scheduling object in addition to enabling the ability of an entity to view the scheduling object. An embodiment of the invention is typically with or a part of a larger Transaction Management System (TMS). A TMS is a system used for submitting scheduling objects for the purpose of requesting or reserving capacity or scheduling energy flow, gas, or other kinds of flows.
In the following, the present invention is explained in more detail by means of the attached drawings:
The invention provides a method for enabling non-authoring entities of scheduling objects the ability to view scheduling objects before they are submitted for approval or denial. Typically, the data associated with these scheduling objects is only visible to the entity that authors the scheduling object. Enabling other entities to see such data provides numerous benefits as discussed in the Background of the Invention section.
TSRs, an example scheduling object, are visible to all entities able to view the Open Access Same-Time Information System (OASIS), but only after they are submitted and are in a pending state. Up until submission, only the author of the TSR has the ability to view them.
Another example of the scheduling object, E-Tags, are typically only visible to entities named on specific elements of the tag. These entities usually consist of only the author, typically a Purchasing Selling Entity itself (PSE), the Local Control Area (LCA), the Greater Control Area (GCA), and the Transmission Provider (TP). A TMS with an embodiment of the invention often allows users and entities to store or save un submitted scheduling objects. These can be submitted later or used as templates for other future requests. Scheduling object saved or stored in this manner are often moved or changed into a status for this purpose.
A typical embodiment of the invention, as show in
Typically, use of the invention begins when a user is viewing a scheduling object that the user or the user's entity is the author of. The user is typically viewing the scheduling object within a TMS 101. The invention allows a user to select entities the user would like to enable scheduling object visibility 103. This can be done from a pick list of possible entities. Some embodiments of the invention provide a list of the entities registered in the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) registry. To create and populate such a pick list other embodiments allow a user to manually input an entity code in such a pick list to identify the entity.
In some embodiments (
Other embodiments may allow a user to define the characteristics of authored tags that will always be visible to the non-authoring entity. This may involve the setting of criteria to which multiple scheduling objects or future scheduling objects not yet created will fulfill. The invention may then apply the visibility selection to all current and future fulfilling the set criteria.
Other embodiments may allow a user to enable multiple specific scheduling objects as visible to non-authoring entities at one time. In some embodiments the user may be able to select a scheduling object or multiple scheduling objects from a summary consisting of numerous scheduling objects.
Once the non-authoring entities have been selected by the user 103, the user must elect to update the scheduling object 104. This action saves the selection of non-authoring entities on the schedule object. Some embodiments of the invention also save any other changes the user has inputted that the TMS to be made on the scheduling object. These selected scheduling objects may then be made visible to a non-authoring entity at once through any means known in the art.
In one embodiment, immediately after the scheduling object is updated by the user 103, the invention alters the scheduling object to conform to the updated information 105. Some embodiments may append additional information to the scheduling object. Some embodiments may use specialized fields known to the TMS. In most embodiments these alterations indicate to the TMS that the non-authoring entity has the right to view the scheduling embodiment. In other embodiments the TMS will send a copy of the scheduling object to the non-authoring entity and upon any modification send an update copy of the scheduling object also to another TMS.
Another embodiment of the invention (
The invention's ability to assign the scheduling object is an extension of the inventions ability to enable a non-authoring entity to view a scheduling object. The scheduling object assignment selection 303 can occur just as scheduling object visibility selection 101 as state above occurs. Upon the update of the user the invention will alter the scheduling object to indicate to the TMS that the non-authoring entity is the new authoring entity 104. Some embodiments of the invention modify a preexisting field the TMS uses to indicate the author during scheduling object modification 105. Some embodiments of the invention will send an updated copy of the scheduling object to the new author's TMS as a scheduling object modification 105.
Similar to the embodiment in FIG. 2., some embodiments (
The above disclosure is intended to be illustrative and not exhaustive. This description will suggest many variations and alternatives to one of ordinary skill in this art. All these alternatives and variations are intended to be included within the scope of the claims where the term “comprising” means “including, but not limited to”. Those familiar with the art may recognize other equivalents to the specific embodiments described herein which equivalents are also intended to be encompassed by the claims.
Further, the particular features presented in the dependent claims can be combined with each other in other manners within the scope of the invention such that the invention should be recognized as also specifically directed to other embodiments having any other possible combination of the features of the dependent claims. For instance, for purposes of claim publication, any dependent claim which follows should be taken as alternatively written in a multiple dependent form from all prior claims which possess all antecedents referenced in such dependent claim if such multiple dependent format is an accepted format within the jurisdiction (e.g. each claim depending directly from claim 1 should be alternatively taken as depending from all previous claims). In jurisdictions where multiple dependent claim formats are restricted, the following dependent claims should each be also taken as alternatively written in each singly dependent claim format which creates a dependency from a prior antecedent-possessing claim other than the specific claim listed in such dependent claim below.
This completes the description of the preferred and alternate embodiments of the invention. Those skilled in the art may recognize other equivalents to the specific embodiment described herein which equivalents are intended to be encompassed by the claims attached hereto.
This application claims priority to provisional patent application No. 61/818012 filed May 1, 2013, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61818012 | May 2013 | US |
