The late Dr. Stanley Klein was a well-known engineer and innovator in a number of fields, including utilities, smart grid, and power systems design and development.
Dr. Klein is the named inventor on U.S. Patent No. 8,731,732, entitled “Methods and system to manage variability in production of renewable energy” (‘732 Patent).  Unfortunately, Dr. Klein passed away while the ‘732 Patent was pending.
The ‘732 Patent is directed to systems and methods of controlling loads coupled to an electric grid to manage variability in production of renewable energy.
The loads may be controlled in response to an indication of balance between available power and loads, in response to new loads, or grid disconnections, and may be controlled repeatedly over time to adjust a sum load in response to changes in balance between available power and loads, new loads, and grid disconnections.
I recently spoke with Dr. Klein’s daughter and son-in-law, Mitch Billian, who together prosecuted the application after his death and obtained the granted patent on his behalf.
Mr. Billian told me the ‘732 Patent is a significant innovation in controlling loads. Â The patent includes a “detailed consideration of the communications and networking required to achieve the desired control, including the communication protocol exchanges between the control centers and the controlled loads.”
The patent also discusses the role of aggregators in load control, providing an “identification of the role and facilities of aggregators in combining control of such controllable loads to supply ancillary services to the grid,” Billian said.
FIG. 4 of the ‘732 Patent illustrates a load control center (416)Â which aggregates load information from multiple loads:
In environment (400) load control center (416)Â receives load parameters from controllable loads (404)Â through load control network (406)Â to calculate load settings for one or more of the controllable loads (404)Â in view of the aggregated indications of available power and to communicate the load settings to the corresponding controllable loads (404)Â through load control network (406).
The impact of the patented technology on renewable energy use could be substantial as it allows “control of large numbers of existing and future residential, commercial, or industrial loads to help in achieving real power balancing control to compensate for the variability of wind power and other renewable generation,” Billian said.
An excerpt form Dr. Klein’s bio shows some of the diverse areas in which he made an impact during his life:
Dr. Stanley Klein, a Managing Principal of OSECS, represents OSECS in Smart Grid efforts and
in numerous other standards activities. He is active in SGIP activities including the Cyber
Security Working Group (CSWG) and several of its subgroups the Transmission and
Distribution Domain Experts Working Group (T&D DEWG), Priority Action Plans PAP-11 (on
Common Object Models for Electric Transportation), the Vehicle-to-Grid DEWG, PAP-14 (on
T&D Model Mapping), and PAP-16 (on Wind Plant Communications). He is also a member of
IEC TC 57 WG-15 on cybersecurity for the IEC standards, was a member of the IEC task group
that prepared IEC-61400-25-4 Annex A, has participated in a number of IEEE standards efforts
as a member of either a working group or a ballot pool, and is a member of the NERC Control
System Security Working Group (that prepares relevant NERC guidelines).
The world could use more brilliant innovators like Dr. Klein.
