METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING DEVICES

• Main Authors: BOHM, MAX, MITCHELL, GUY, BESS, CHARLES EDGAR, PRATT, ROY JAMES, III
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 22.07.2015
• Subjects: CALCULATING; CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTINGELECTRIC POWER; COMPUTING; CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; CONTROLLING; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; COUNTING; DATA PROCESSING SYSTEMS OR METHODS, SPECIALLY ADAPTED FORADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORYOR FORECASTING PURPOSES; ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING; ELECTRICITY; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; GENERATION; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS ORELEMENTS; PHYSICS; REGULATING; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE,COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL, SUPERVISORY OR FORECASTINGPURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR

According to one example of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for managing a group of resource consuming devices. The apparatus comprises a resource monitoring module to obtain resource consumption characteristics of devices in the group of devices, and to obtain a desired consumption characteristic for the group of devices. The apparatus further comprises a device control module to receive a request to modify the operating state of a device in the group of devices, determine the consequence on the desired group characteristic of accepting the request, determine whether the consequence is acceptable and, where it is so determined, modifying the operating state of the device in accordance with the request.