Patents by Inventor Michael J. Wenzel

Michael J. Wenzel has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20200379423
    Abstract: A control system includes one or more sensors configured to generate sensor data relating to building equipment. The sensor data includes first sensor data collected during a first time period and second sensor data collected during a second time period. The control system also includes a controller configured to use the first sensor data to generate one or more first model coefficients for a model for the building equipment. The controller is also configured to use the second sensor data to generate one or more second model coefficients for the model, generate a test statistic by comparing the one or more first model coefficients and the one or more second model coefficients, compare the test statistic with a value, and automatically identify a change relating to the building equipment in response to the test statistic exceeding the value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 4, 2020
    Publication date: December 3, 2020
    Inventors: Michael J. WENZEL, Mohammad N. ELBSAT, Kirk H. DREES
  • Patent number: 10855081
    Abstract: An electrical energy storage system includes a battery configured to store and discharge electric power to an energy grid, a power inverter configured to use battery power setpoints to control an amount of the electric power stored or discharged from the battery, the battery power setpoints comprising at least one of frequency regulation power setpoints and ramp rate control power setpoints, and a controller. The controller is configured to use a battery life model to generate the battery power setpoints for the power inverter. The battery life model includes one or more variables that depend on the battery power setpoints.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: Con Edison Battery Storage LLC
    Inventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Brett M. Lenhardt, Kirk H. Drees
  • Publication number: 20200371482
    Abstract: An environmental control system for a building including building equipment operable to affect a variable state or condition of the building. The system includes a controller including a processing circuit. The processing circuit can obtain training data relating to operation of the building equipment and can perform a system identification process to identify parameters of a system model using the training data. The processing circuit can augment the system model with a disturbance model and estimate values of a historical heat disturbance in the training data based on the augmented system model. The processing circuit can train one or more heat disturbance models based on the training data and the estimated values. The processing circuit can predict a heat disturbance using the augmented system model along with the one or more heat disturbance models and can control the building equipment based on the predicted heat disturbance.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 21, 2019
    Publication date: November 26, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Anas W. I. Alanqar, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. ElBsat
  • Publication number: 20200370771
    Abstract: An environmental control system for a building including heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) equipment that operates to affect a zone of the building and a controller including a processing circuit. The processing circuit is configured to estimate a thermal resistance between air of the zone and of an external space using values of a temperature of the zone air, a temperature of the external space air, and a heat transfer rate of the HVAC equipment, each value corresponding to a different time step within a time period. The processing circuit is configured to use the thermal resistance, time step specific values of the temperatures, and time step specific values of the heat transfer rate to estimate corresponding values of a heat disturbance. The processing circuit is configured to operate the HVAC equipment using a model-based control technique based on the heat disturbance values.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2019
    Publication date: November 26, 2020
    Inventors: Anas W. I. Alanqar, Fang Du, Michael J. Wenzel, Matthew J. Ellis, Mohammad N. ELBSAT
  • Publication number: 20200363776
    Abstract: Granular assets of a building are identified. Each granular asset represents one or more devices of that operate to produce, consume, or store resources in the building. General assets are defined by grouping the granular assets into groups. A non-granular optimization is performed to determine a non-granular allocation of the resources among the general assets. Non-granular allocation defines an amount of each of the resources consumed, produced, or stored by each of the general assets at each time step in a time period. A granular optimization is performed for each general asset to determine a granular allocation of the resources among the granular assets. The granular allocation defines an amount of each resource consumed, produced, or stored by the granular assets at each time step in the time period. The equipment of the building are operated to consume, produce, or store the amount of each resource defined by granular allocation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 17, 2019
    Publication date: November 19, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: John H. Burroughs, Andrew J. Przybylski, Michael J. Wenzel, Matthew J. Ellis
  • Publication number: 20200356087
    Abstract: A model predictive maintenance (MPM) system for building equipment includes one or more processing circuits including one or more processors and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations. The operations include obtaining one or more performance indicators for the building equipment and determining whether a trigger condition has been satisfied based on the one or more performance indicators. The operations include triggering a model predictive maintenance process to generate a maintenance schedule for the building equipment in response to determining that the trigger condition has been satisfied. The operations include initiating a maintenance activity for the building equipment in accordance with the maintenance schedule.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2020
    Publication date: November 12, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Mohammad N. ELBSAT, Michael J. WENZEL, Farhad BALALI, Robert D. TURNEY
  • Publication number: 20200355391
    Abstract: A building control system includes one or more controllers configured to obtain comfort feedback provided by one or more occupants of a building in response to exposing the one or more occupants to a first set of environmental conditions of the building. The one or more controllers are also configured to generate, based on the comfort feedback, one or more thresholds defining a range of values for an environmental condition of the building within which the one or more occupants are predicted to be comfortable, execute a predictive control process subject to one or more constraints based on the one or more thresholds to generate setpoints for building equipment, and operate the building equipment to drive the environmental condition of the building toward the setpoints.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 30, 2020
    Publication date: November 12, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Michael J. WENZEL, Mohammad N. ELBSAT, Fang DU, Nicolaus P. MEYER, Anas W. I. ALANQAR, Robert D. TURNEY
  • Patent number: 10824125
    Abstract: Disclosed herein are related to a system, a method, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for operating an energy plant. In one aspect, the system generates a regression model of a produced thermal energy load produced by a supply device of the plurality of devices. The system predicts the produced thermal energy load produced by the supply device for a first time period based on the regression model. The system determines a heat capacity of gas or liquid in the loop based on the predicted produced thermal energy load. The system generates a model of mass storage based on the heat capacity. The system predicts an induced thermal energy load during a second time period at a consuming device of the plurality of devices based on the model of the mass storage. The system operates the energy plant according to the predicted induced thermal energy load.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: November 3, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Mohammad N. Elbsat, Michael J. Wenzel, Graeme Willmott, Matthew J. Asmus
  • Patent number: 10809676
    Abstract: A heating, ventilation, or air conditioning (HVAC) system for a building includes indoor subsystems, a high-level controller, and low-level controllers. Each indoor subsystem includes one or more indoor units configured to provide heating or cooling to one or more building spaces. The high-level controller generates a plurality of indoor subsystem energy targets, each indoor subsystem energy target corresponding to one of the plurality of indoor subsystems and generated based on a thermal capacitance of one or more building spaces to which heating or cooling is provided by the corresponding indoor subsystem. Each low-level indoor controller corresponds to one of the indoor subsystems and generates indoor setpoints for the one or more indoor units of the corresponding indoor subsystem using the indoor subsystem energy target for the corresponding indoor subsystem and operates the one or more indoor units of the corresponding indoor subsystem using the indoor setpoints.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 20, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Nishith R. Patel, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel, Robert D. Turney, Brett M. Lenhardt
  • Publication number: 20200318843
    Abstract: A frequency response optimization system includes a battery configured to store and discharge electric power, a power inverter configured to control an amount of the electric power stored or discharged from the battery at each of a plurality of time steps during a frequency response period, and a frequency response controller. The frequency response controller is configured to receive a regulation signal from an incentive provider, determine statistics of the regulation signal, use the statistics of the regulation signal to generate an optimal frequency response midpoint that achieves a desired change in a state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery while participating in a frequency response program, and use the midpoints to determine optimal battery power setpoints for the power inverter. The power inverter is configured to use the optimal battery power setpoints to control the amount of the electric power stored or discharged from the battery.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 17, 2020
    Publication date: October 8, 2020
    Inventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Kirk H. Drees, Mohammad N. ElBsat
  • Patent number: 10797511
    Abstract: An energy storage system includes a photovoltaic energy field, a stationary energy storage device, an energy converter, and a controller. The photovoltaic energy field converts solar energy into electrical energy and charges the stationary energy storage device with the electrical energy. The energy converter converts the electrical energy stored in the stationary energy storage device into AC power at a discharge rate and supplies a campus with the AC power at the discharge rate. The controller predicts a required load of the campus and an electrical generation of the photovoltaic energy field across a time horizon and optimizes a cost function subject to a set of constraints to determine a discharge rate of the AC power to achieve a desired power factor. At least one of the set of constraints applied to the cost function ensures that the energy converter can convert the electrical energy stored in the stationary energy storage device into AC power having the determined power factor and discharge rate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 28, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Kirk H. Drees, Camille M. Aucoin
  • Publication number: 20200301408
    Abstract: A model predictive maintenance (MPM) system for building equipment includes one or more processing circuits having one or more processors and memory. The memory store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including estimating a degradation state of the building equipment, using a degradation impact model to predict an amount of one or more input resources consumed by the building equipment to produce one or more output resources based on the degradation state of the building equipment, generating a maintenance schedule for the building equipment based on the amount of the one or more input resources predicted by the degradation impact model, and initiating a maintenance activity for the building equipment in accordance with the maintenance schedule.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2020
    Publication date: September 24, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: MOHAMMAD N. ELBSAT, MICHAEL J. WENZEL, ROBERT D. TURNEY
  • Publication number: 20200293031
    Abstract: Systems and methods for implementing an economic strategy such as a model predictive control (EMPC) strategy. An EMPC tool is configured to present to receive sinks and connections between central plant equipment. The EMPC tool also includes a data model extender configured to extend a data model to define new entities and/or relationships. The EMPC tool also includes a high level EMPC algorithm configured to generate an optimization problem and an asset allocator configured to solve the resource optimization problem in order to determine optimal control decisions used to operate the central plant.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 2, 2020
    Publication date: September 17, 2020
    Applicant: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Andrew J. Przybylski, Michael J. Wenzel, Matthew J. Ellis, Jon T. Mueller
  • Patent number: 10778012
    Abstract: An optimization controller for a battery includes a high level controller configured to receive a regulation signal from an incentive provider at a data fusion module, determine statistics of the regulation signal, and use the statistics of the regulation signal to generate a frequency response midpoint. The optimization controller further includes a low level controller configured to use the frequency response midpoint to determine optimal battery power setpoints and use the optimal battery power setpoints to control an amount of electric power stored or discharged from the battery during a frequency response period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 28, 2017
    Date of Patent: September 15, 2020
    Assignee: Con Edison Battery Storage, LLC
    Inventors: Radu Dorneanu, Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. Elbsat, Kirk H. Drees, Andrew J. Przybylski
  • Publication number: 20200284458
    Abstract: An air conditioner controller for an air conditioner is configured to obtain a first value of a performance value from a predetermined component of the air conditioner, and estimate a total cost. The controller is configured to estimate the total cost including an operation cost and a renewal cost of the air conditioner based on the first value of the performance variable obtained from the predetermined component of the air conditioner and a second value of the performance variable estimated by an operational model of the air conditioner. The total cost is a total cost of operating and renewing the air conditioner for a time period after a time at which the first value of the performance variable is obtained. The controller is configured to output the total cost via a user interface.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 6, 2019
    Publication date: September 10, 2020
    Applicant: Hitachi-Johnson Controls Air Conditioning, Inc
    Inventors: Yasutaka Yoshida, Koji Naito, Hayato Mori, Robert D. Turney, Mohammad N. ELBsat, Michael J. Wenzel
  • Patent number: 10767886
    Abstract: A building management system includes building equipment, a sensor, and a saturation detector. The building equipment is configured to operate at an operating capacity to drive a variable state or condition of a building zone toward a setpoint. The operating capacity and the setpoint vary over time. The sensor is in the building zone and is configured to provide a zone measurement of the variable state or condition of the building zone. The saturation detector is configured to determine whether the operating capacity is in a non-transient region for a threshold amount of a time period upon determining that an error for the building zone exists for the time period, and, in response to a determination that the operating capacity is in the non-transient region for at least the threshold amount of the time period, indicate the time period as a saturation period.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Anas W. I. Alanqar, Matthew J. Ellis, Michael J. Wenzel
  • Patent number: 10767885
    Abstract: A building management system for generating a building model for a building and operating building equipment of the building based on the building model. The system includes a processing circuit configured to receive a context, wherein the context includes metadata defining the building model for the building and generate a building model editor interface for viewing and editing the received context, wherein the building model interface includes building elements for the building model, wherein the building elements are based on the received context and represent the building equipment. The processing circuit is configured to receive user edits of the context via the building model interface, wherein the user edits include edits to the building elements, generate an updated context based on the user edits of the context, and deploy the updated context to control environmental conditions of the building with the building equipment based on the updated context.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 14, 2018
    Date of Patent: September 8, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Andrew J. Przybylski, Todd Schluechtermann, John H. Burroughs, Jon T. Mueller, Michael J. Wenzel, Matthew J. Ellis
  • Patent number: 10739741
    Abstract: A method for operating HVAC equipment includes obtaining building data for each of a plurality of time steps. The building data relates to resource usage of HVAC equipment. The method also includes calculating a recursive residual for each of a plurality of overlapping time periods using the building data. Each overlapping time period includes a subset of the plurality of time steps. The method also includes, for each of the plurality of time steps, calculating a metric based on the recursive residuals for overlapping time periods that end on or before the time step and automatically detecting a change in static factors for one or more buildings served by the HVAC equipment by comparing the metrics for the plurality of time steps based on a statistical property of the metrics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Michael J. Wenzel, Mohammad N. EIBsat, Kirk H. Drees
  • Patent number: 10739742
    Abstract: A building energy system includes equipment and an asset allocator configured to determine an optimal allocation of energy loads across the equipment over a prediction horizon. The asset allocator generates several potential scenarios and generates an individual cost function for each potential scenario. Each potential scenario includes a predicted load required by the building and predicted prices for input resources. Each individual cost function includes a cost of purchasing the input resources from utility suppliers. The asset allocator generates a resource balance constraint and solves an optimization problem to determine the optimal allocation of the energy loads across the equipment. Solving the optimization problem includes optimizing an overall cost function that includes a weighted sum of individual cost functions for each potential scenario subject to the resource balance constraint for each potential scenario.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 26, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2020
    Assignee: Johnson Controls Technology Company
    Inventors: Ranjeet Kumar, Michael J. Wenzel, Matthew J. Ellis, Mohammad N. Elbsat, Kirk H. Drees, Victor Manuel Zavala Tejeda
  • Patent number: 10742055
    Abstract: A frequency regulation and ramp rate control system includes a battery configured to store and discharge electric power, a battery power inverter configured to control an amount of the electric power in the battery, a photovoltaic power inverter configured to control an electric power output of a photovoltaic field, and a controller. The controller generates a battery power setpoint for the battery power inverter and a photovoltaic power setpoint for the photovoltaic power inverter. The generated setpoints cause the battery power inverter and the photovoltaic power inverter to simultaneously perform both frequency regulation and ramp rate control.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 25, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2020
    Assignee: Con Edison Battery Storage, LLC
    Inventors: Mohammad N. ElBsat, Michael J. Wenzel, Brett M. Lenhardt