Sony Corporation

Sony Europe Limited

Christopher Michael Rutherford

Philip Marivoet

Edward Colby

Alexander Charles Knill

Antonio Avitabile

Yoeri Apts

Eiichiro Kubota

Costantino Cristiano Mariella

Nicholas George Bailey

Harshul Deepak Mehta

Tom Hostyn

Chris Minnoy

Alfred Spiessens

Hamish Guthrie

Olivier Elshocht

Jan Spooren

Vanessa Schelkens

Jaqueline Mallett

Andreas Papaspyropoulos

Dimitri Torfs

Francis Van Aeken

A method is provided for managing energy. The method comprises collecting information relating to amounts of energy stored by a plurality of members of a group, and relating to energy requirements of the members. The method further comprises determining a price for distributing energy to a non-member of the group, determining whether to supply energy stored by the members to the non-member at the determined price, and issuing instructions to distribute energy upon determining that energy stored by the plurality of members should be supplied to the non-member.

Method of efficiently managing energy

A method of controlling storage of electrical energy by charging and discharging an energy storage device in response to pricing data indicative of future prices of electrical energy over time and energy losses caused by charging and discharging the energy storage device comprises detecting alternating candidate charging and discharging occasions with respect to the pricing data by selecting a next occurrence of a locally minimum price in the pricing data as a candidate charging occasion or a next occurrence of a locally maximum price in the pricing data as a candidate discharging occasion; validating a candidate charging or discharging occasion if the price difference between that candidate charging or discharging occasion and another later price in the pricing data is at least sufficient to compensate for the energy losses caused by charging and discharging the energy storage device; and charging and discharging the energy storage device at the validated charging and discharging occasions, respectively.

Energy storage

Information to be displayed on a display is generated in such a way that a gateway processes a measured value (with a time stamp) transmitted from a power meter, an appliance monitor, a solar module, and a battery center through a wireless LAN. In the gateway, information relating to the consumed electric energy is synchronized with each other by the time stamp. Further, an integrated value of the consumed electric energy is calculated with respect to time. The information can be secured by obtaining the integrated value of data even if breakdown of devices and the like occurs due to power failure.

Power control device and power control method

Control of supplying power to a storage device is performed based on carbon emission strength or a power rate. A battery centerthat constitutes a storage deviceperforms radio communication with a gatewayand is controlled by the gateway. The gatewaycollects a measured value of power consumed by electric appliances in a home and obtains the carbon emission strength in real time. A solar panelis provided and a battery of the storage deviceis charged with an output of the solar panel. The battery is also charged with direct current power obtained from power from outside. The power is stored in the storage devicebased on the carbon emission strength by charging control.

A method of controlling the connection of a collection of a plurality of electricity providing devices to an electrical power network is described. In this, the plurality of electricity providing devices having a communication line therebetween and the method comprises receiving a message at a first electricity providing device from a controlling device and, in response to the message: connecting the first electricity providing device to the electrical power network; and sending, from the first electricity providing device to a second electricity providing device, a second message containing data in response to which the second electricity providing device is connected to the electrical power network.

Method and apparatus for control

A method of controlling power to a device which consumes energy from an energy network. The network has a renewable energy generator and a mains supply connected thereto to supply energy to the network. The method includes determining energy requirements of the device, and determining a renewable energy component of the supplied energy generated by the renewable energy generator. The method compares the energy requirements of the device with the renewable energy component of the supplied energy, and controls the energy to the device in accordance with the comparison between the energy requirements of the device with the renewable energy component of the supplied energy.

Method, apparatus and graphical user interface for controlling power

To solve problems arising when a power conditioner equivalent to that connected to a solar panel is connected to a power storage device. Direct-current power generated by the solar panelis supplied to a DC-DC converterand output as a predetermined direct-current voltage. The output voltage of the converteris supplied to a DC-AC inverter. Direct-current power generated by the power storage deviceis supplied to a DC-DC converter. Predetermined direct-current power from the converteris supplied to a DC-AC inverter. Alternating-current power output by the inverteris supplied to an alternating-current power system at home. The converteris configured to have two output voltages. The first output voltage is a standby voltage. The second voltage is a voltage at which the inverterstarts power supply to outside.

Power control device

A method of controlling power to a plurality of devices on an energy network, wherein each device has an identifier which uniquely identifies the device on the network, the method comprising: forming a group of devices from said plurality of devices; and controlling the power of other devices in said group in accordance with the state of the power supplied to a first device in said group.

Apparatus and method for controlling power

A distribution system including, for connection over a network a plurality of client upload devices, each client upload device storing one or more chunks of a content file, a client download device configured to download from the client upload devices chunks of the content file stored by the respective client upload devices and an incentive device configured to generate token data packets exchangeable for chunks of the content file. The client download device is configured to acquire a plurality of token data packets from the incentive device and to communicate with individual respective client upload devices and thereby download, in exchange for respective token data packets, stored chunks of the content file. Each client upload device is configured to communicate with the client download device and, thereby, upload to the client download device stored chunks of the content file in exchange for token data packets acquired by the client download device from the incentive device and is configured to transmit to the incentive device token data packets received from the client download device.

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Brussels, Belgium

Christopher Michael Rutherford