阅读说明：本技术 一种适用于多场景的用电调度系统及方法 (Power utilization scheduling system and method suitable for multiple scenes ) 是由 刘永春 蔡华 张运长 盛昕伟 夏峰 岳鹏 王瑞 朱程燕 邓风平 庄童 伍罡 薛 于 2021-04-16 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种适用于多场景的用电调度系统及方法,包括：设备层、网络层和主站层；所述设备层,用于利用电网态势对应的预设控制指令和主站层下发的运行指令控制用户侧设备,同时采集并发送用户的用能数据；所述网络层,用于实现设备层与主站层的数据交互；所述主站层,用于根据多场景的负荷调控对接收到的所述用能数据进行分析生成运行指令并发送给设备层。本发明根据用户侧的用能数据,根据多场景的负荷调控对接收到的所述用能数据进行分析生成运行指令,实现闲散能源的再聚合再分配,在发挥能源最大效益的同时显著降低用户用能成本,激发用户节能意愿。(The invention discloses a power utilization scheduling system and method suitable for multiple scenes, which comprises the following steps: the device layer, the network layer and the master station layer; the equipment layer is used for controlling the user side equipment by utilizing a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer, and simultaneously acquiring and sending energy utilization data of a user; the network layer is used for realizing data interaction between the equipment layer and the master station layer; and the master station layer is used for analyzing the received energy consumption data according to multi-scene load regulation to generate an operation instruction and sending the operation instruction to the equipment layer. According to the energy consumption data of the user side and the load regulation and control of multiple scenes, the received energy consumption data are analyzed to generate the operation instruction, so that the reunion redistribution of idle energy is realized, the energy consumption cost of the user is obviously reduced while the maximum energy benefit is exerted, and the energy-saving willingness of the user is stimulated.)

1. A power utilization scheduling system suitable for multiple scenes is characterized by comprising: the device layer, the network layer and the master station layer;

the equipment layer is used for controlling the user side equipment by utilizing a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer, and simultaneously acquiring and sending energy utilization data of a user;

the network layer is used for realizing data interaction between the equipment layer and the master station layer;

and the master station layer is used for analyzing the received energy consumption data according to multi-scene load regulation to generate an operation instruction and sending the operation instruction to the equipment layer.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the device layer comprises an edge internet of things gateway and a user-side device;

the edge Internet of things gateway is used for sensing the situation of a power grid and controlling the running state of the intelligent equipment at the user side by using a preset control instruction corresponding to the situation of the power grid; the energy consumption data of the user are collected and sent to the master station layer, and meanwhile, the operation instruction sent by the master station layer is received;

and the user side equipment is used for providing the energy data for the edge Internet of things gateway, and receiving and executing a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the edge internet of things gateway comprises: the system comprises a main control module and an expansion module;

the main control module comprises 2 paths of 10/100Mbps Ethernet, 2 paths of RS-485, 1 path of Bluetooth BLE5.0 and 1 path of USB2.0 HOST;

the expansion module comprises an I/O module, an HPLC module, an RS-485 module, an RS-232 module, an Ethernet module, an optical fiber module, a 2G/3G/4G/5G module, a LoRa module, a ZigBee module and an alternating current sampling module.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the edge gateway may employ a NEG-9210 virtual power plant controller, a NEG-9220 intelligent gateway, a NEG-9230 energy controller, a NEG-9240 block chain metering terminal, or a NEG-9250 co-located control device.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein the edge internet of things gateway employs a common communication protocol comprising: IEC60870-5-101, IEC60870-5-104, Q/GDW 1376.1-2013, DLT698.45, MQTT, Modbus and DLT645 protocols.

6. The system of claim 2, wherein the edge internet of things gateway communicates with the master layer via 2G/3G/4G/5G/ethernet or fiber;

the edge Internet of things gateway and the user side equipment communicate through micropower wireless, power line carrier, Ethernet, optical fiber or RS-485.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein the user-side device comprises: user special equipment and intelligent terminal equipment;

the user-specific equipment comprises a wind power generation system, a photovoltaic power generation system, an energy storage system, an electric automobile charging pile, an industrial control system and a building air conditioner control system; the intelligent terminal equipment comprises an intelligent socket, an electric meter, a water meter, a gas meter and a heat meter.

8. The system of claim 2, wherein the edge internet of things gateway is specifically configured to:

and when the frequency of the power grid is lower than the set frequency value, generating a control instruction for load shedding control or cutting off a preset control instruction for load according to a preset fixed value.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the master layer is specifically configured to:

when the power grid fails to generate power shortage, calling an operation instruction of each fault processing stage from a preset strategy according to the adjustable load in the energy consumption data;

when a demand response demand exists, aggregating the distributed power generation resources and the load resources in the energy consumption data, and calling a preset operation instruction for responding the demand response according to an aggregation result.

10. The method for the multi-scenario power utilization scheduling system according to any one of claims 1 to 9, comprising:

the equipment layer controls the user side equipment by using a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer, and simultaneously acquires and transmits energy utilization data of a user;

the network layer realizes data interaction between the equipment layer and the master station layer;

and the master station layer analyzes the received energy consumption data according to the multi-scene load regulation to generate an operation instruction and sends the operation instruction to the equipment layer.

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of power utilization scheduling, in particular to a power utilization scheduling system and method suitable for multiple scenes.

Background

With the continuous deepening of electric power marketization, based on the thinking mode of the energy internet, the structural reform of the energy field is promoted, and the electric power marketization is deepened more and more urgently. At present, energy management of domestic electric power customers such as industrial enterprises, parks and the like is mostly not standard, most of the electric power customers do not have standard grading measurement, and the energy consumption condition is not transparent. Scientific management and monitoring can not be realized, and customers can not finely analyze and evaluate the energy consumption condition and can not be reformed and optimized. Some electric power customers build energy management systems, but generally operate independently, and the systems are mutually independent, lack of modes and strategies for realizing linkage, cannot really realize load storage of a longitudinal source network and transverse multi-energy complementary coordination optimization, lack of interaction with a power grid, and do not perform interconnection and intercommunication with a large power grid system.

Aiming at the construction of an energy management system of a power customer, the demand of the power customer needs to be differentially analyzed according to different scenes, a proper functional architecture is selected, and the system is popularized and applied through a proper mode. The energy management system of the power customer is built according to scenes by combining the differences of the power customer in various aspects such as an energy utilization structure, a user-level energy management system control level, power grid interaction capacity and the like.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the above-mentioned deficiencies in the prior art, the present invention provides a power dispatching system suitable for multiple scenes, comprising: the device layer, the network layer and the master station layer;

the equipment layer is used for controlling the user side equipment by utilizing a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer, and simultaneously acquiring and sending energy utilization data of a user;

the network layer is used for realizing data interaction between the equipment layer and the master station layer;

and the master station layer is used for analyzing the received energy consumption data according to multi-scene load regulation to generate an operation instruction and sending the operation instruction to the equipment layer.

Preferably, the device layer comprises an edge internet of things gateway and a user side device;

the edge Internet of things gateway is used for sensing the situation of a power grid and controlling the running state of the intelligent equipment at the user side by using a preset control instruction corresponding to the situation of the power grid; the energy consumption data of the user are collected and sent to the master station layer, and meanwhile, the operation instruction sent by the master station layer is received;

and the user side equipment is used for providing the energy data for the edge Internet of things gateway, and receiving and executing a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer.

Preferably, the edge internet of things gateway includes: the system comprises a main control module and an expansion module;

the main control module comprises 2 paths of 10/100Mbps Ethernet, 2 paths of RS-485, 1 path of Bluetooth BLE5.0 and 1 path of USB2.0 HOST;

the expansion module comprises an I/O module, an HPLC module, an RS-485 module, an RS-232 module, an Ethernet module, an optical fiber module, a 2G/3G/4G/5G module, a LoRa module, a ZigBee module and an alternating current sampling module.

Preferably, the edge internet-of-things gateway can adopt an NEG-9210 virtual power plant controller, an NEG-9220 intelligent gateway, an NEG-9230 energy source controller, an NEG-9240 block chain metering terminal or an NEG-9250 local co-control device.

Preferably, the general communication protocol adopted by the edge internet of things gateway includes: IEC60870-5-101, IEC60870-5-104, Q/GDW 1376.1-2013, DLT698.45, MQTT, Modbus and DLT645 protocols.

Preferably, the edge internet of things gateway communicates with the master station layer through a 2G/3G/4G/5G/Ethernet or an optical fiber;

the edge Internet of things gateway and the user side equipment communicate through micropower wireless, power line carrier, Ethernet, optical fiber or RS-485.

Preferably, the user side device includes: user special equipment and intelligent terminal equipment;

the user-specific equipment comprises a wind power generation system, a photovoltaic power generation system, an energy storage system, an electric automobile charging pile, an industrial control system and a building air conditioner control system; the intelligent terminal equipment comprises an intelligent socket, an electric meter, a water meter, a gas meter and a heat meter.

Preferably, the edge internet of things gateway is specifically configured to:

and when the frequency of the power grid is lower than the set frequency value, generating a control instruction for load shedding control or cutting off a preset control instruction for load according to a preset fixed value.

Preferably, the master station layer is specifically configured to:

when the power grid fails to generate power shortage, calling an operation instruction of each fault processing stage from a preset strategy according to the adjustable load in the energy consumption data;

when a demand response demand exists, aggregating the distributed power generation resources and the load resources in the energy consumption data, and calling a preset operation instruction for responding the demand response according to an aggregation result.

Based on the same inventive concept, the invention also provides a method based on the power utilization scheduling system applicable to multiple scenes, which comprises the following steps:

the equipment layer controls the user side equipment by using a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer, and simultaneously acquires and transmits energy utilization data of a user;

the network layer realizes data interaction between the equipment layer and the master station layer;

and the master station layer analyzes the received energy consumption data according to the multi-scene load regulation to generate an operation instruction and sends the operation instruction to the equipment layer.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

according to the technical scheme provided by the invention, the equipment layer is used for controlling the user side equipment by utilizing the preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and the operation instruction issued by the master station layer, and simultaneously acquiring and transmitting the energy utilization data of the user; the network layer is used for realizing data interaction between the equipment layer and the master station layer; and the master station layer is used for analyzing the received energy consumption data according to multi-scene load regulation to generate an operation instruction and sending the operation instruction to the equipment layer. According to the energy consumption data of the user side and the load regulation and control of multiple scenes, the received energy consumption data are analyzed to generate the operation instruction, so that the reunion redistribution of idle energy is realized, the energy consumption cost of the user is obviously reduced while the maximum energy benefit is exerted, and the energy-saving willingness of the user is stimulated.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a power utilization scheduling system suitable for multiple scenarios in this embodiment;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an electric scheduling system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

For a better understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and examples.

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all, embodiments of the present invention. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

As shown in fig. 1, the power utilization scheduling system suitable for multiple scenarios provided in this embodiment includes: the device layer, the network layer and the master station layer;

the equipment layer is used for controlling the user side equipment by utilizing a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer, and simultaneously acquiring and sending energy utilization data of a user;

the network layer is used for realizing data interaction between the equipment layer and the master station layer;

and the master station layer is used for analyzing the received energy consumption data according to multi-scene load regulation to generate an operation instruction and sending the operation instruction to the equipment layer.

In this embodiment, the master station layer is configured to obtain operation data of the device in real time, perform application analysis on the device data, and perform remote control on the device through a network channel according to a load regulation and control requirement;

the network layer is mainly a data interaction channel between the equipment layer and the main station platform and is realized based on 2G/3G/4G/5G, Ethernet or optical fiber;

in the equipment layer, the equipment side realizes the collection and monitoring of energy consumption data of the user side by deploying different types of edge internet-of-things gateways and intelligent terminal equipment such as intelligent sockets, electric meters, water meters, gas meters and heat meters, and realizes the dynamic control of the running state of the equipment of the user side by applying different regulation and control strategies according to different application scene requirements.

In a specific embodiment, different types of edge internet of things gateways can be selected according to different field application requirements.

Wherein, the edge thing allies oneself with the gateway and includes: the system comprises an NEG-9210 virtual power plant controller, an NEG-9220 intelligent gateway, an NEG-9230 energy source controller, an NEG-9240 block chain metering terminal and an NEG-9250 local co-control device.

The edge Internet of things gateway comprises a main control module and an expansion module, and different expansion modules can be selected and matched according to the field application condition.

In a specific embodiment, the main control module comprises resources such as 2 paths of 10/100Mbps Ethernet, 2 paths of RS-485, 1 path of Bluetooth BLE5.0, 1 path of USB2.0 HOST and the like;

the expansion module includes: the device comprises an I/O module, an HPLC module, an RS-485 module, an RS-232 module, an Ethernet module, an optical fiber module, a 2G/3G/4G/5G module, a LoRa module, a ZigBee module, an alternating current sampling module and the like.

The edge internet of things gateway in this embodiment supports multiple general communication protocols, including: IEC60870-5-101, IEC60870-5-104, Q/GDW 1376.1-2013, DLT698.45, MQTT, Modbus, DLT645 and the like.

In one embodiment, the device layer comprises an edge internet of things gateway and a user side device;

the edge Internet of things gateway is used for sensing the situation of a power grid and controlling the running state of the intelligent equipment at the user side by using a preset control instruction corresponding to the situation of the power grid; the energy consumption data of the user are collected and sent to the master station layer, and meanwhile, the operation instruction sent by the master station layer is received;

and the user side equipment is used for providing the energy data for the edge Internet of things gateway, and receiving and executing a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer.

The edge internet of things gateway is specifically configured to:

and when the frequency of the power grid is lower than the set frequency value, generating a control instruction for load shedding control or cutting off a preset control instruction for load according to a preset fixed value.

The master station layer in this embodiment is specifically configured to:

when the power grid fails to generate power shortage, calling an operation instruction of each fault processing stage from a preset strategy according to the adjustable load in the energy consumption data;

when a demand response demand exists, aggregating distributed power generation resources and load resources in the energy consumption data, and calling a preset operation instruction for responding the demand response according to an aggregation result;

the power utilization scheduling system in one embodiment comprises the following functions:

(1) in-place frequency autonomous control

The user load self-adaptively senses the change mode of the power grid situation, and the active switching regulation and control mode in an emergency state is realized. The method mainly aims at the emergency fault of the extra-high voltage power grid, such as sudden simultaneous locking of a plurality of direct currents, the high-power shortage condition is rapidly generated, the fault is obvious, at the moment, the edge Internet of things gateway adopts an advanced frequency measurement method, the frequency is measured with high precision, the low-frequency load reduction control function can be started, and load reduction control is carried out according to the frequency measured in real time on site and the preset load reduction fixed value so as to assist in power grid frequency recovery.

In the process, the master station issues the frequency value and the load shedding fixed value to the edge Internet of things gateway in a preset mode, and when the edge Internet of things gateway detects that a low-frequency event (namely an emergency fault occurs in an ultra-high voltage power grid) occurs, the low-frequency load shedding control function is started immediately.

(2) Flexible regulation and control

The power utilization scheduling system receives the regulation and control instruction of the main station under the scene, the power shortage is small under the condition of most general faults, comprehensive allocation of various means can be carried out according to the whole network scheduling resources, the edge internet of things gateway can receive different operation instructions from the main station of the system at each stage of accident handling, and the user can be orderly regulated and controlled to regulate and control the load so as to assist the power grid to schedule and operate. In the mode, the edge Internet of things gateway has the functions of load monitoring, load forecasting, control interaction and the like, and realizes remote flexible load regulation and control.

The edge internet of things gateway calculates an adjustable load by combining load monitoring data, load prediction data and a user participation regulation and control intention and sends the adjustable load to the master station, and when the power grid fails to generate power shortage, the master station calls operation instructions of each fault processing stage from a preset strategy according to the adjustable load and sends the operation instructions to the edge internet of things gateway to realize flexible load regulation and control.

(3) Demand response

The demand response purpose of the power utilization scheduling system in the embodiment is to ensure the safety of a power grid and the power utilization quality of users by scheduling distributed power generation resources and load resources when the frequency of the power grid fluctuates or is at the peak valley of the power utilization;

the method comprises the steps that the edge internet-of-things gateway uploads collected user energy consumption data and willingness of a user to participate in demand response under different stimuli to a master station, the master station classifies and aggregates distributed power generation resources and load resources in the energy consumption data, and an operation instruction for responding the demand response is formulated according to a classification and aggregation result, willingness of the user to participate in demand response under different stimuli and current electric quantity needing to participate in the response;

in the actual scheduling process, when a demand response demand exists, the distributed power generation resources and the load resources in the energy consumption data uploaded by the edge internet of things gateway are aggregated, and a preset operation instruction is called according to the aggregation result or the operation instruction is formulated in real time.

The incentive policy of demand response is used for transferring the user to actively participate in response, so that the pressure of the power grid during power utilization peak is solved, and the power quality of the user is guaranteed. The method has the advantages that intermittent and random influences of renewable energy power generation and loads on an external system are eliminated, the loads participate in power grid auxiliary service, and corresponding control strategies are formulated according to resource differences and complementary characteristics, so that the consumption capacity of a power grid is improved, the flexibility and the regulation and control capacity of the power grid are improved, and stable operation of various loads is realized.

(4) Block chaining techniques

The power utilization scheduling system in the implementation can provide a transparent and open transaction environment for application services by adopting a block chain technology, and improves the safety, transparency and credibility of the whole process data of the power market transaction by establishing a block chain network, compiling an intelligent contract and a block chain metering terminal.

The power management mechanism deploys intelligent contracts and links the business at the main station layer so as to realize power transaction contract, and the block chain metering terminal is used for performing link distributed storage on the business data so as to realize safe, transparent and traceable transaction data.

In the operation process of the multi-scene power utilization scheduling system, advanced acquisition control, edge calculation, block chain and other technologies are applied, idle energy of users is classified, aggregated, coordinated and optimized, re-aggregation and redistribution of the idle energy are realized through power market trading and blending deficiencies, the energy cost of the users is obviously reduced while the maximum benefit of the energy is exerted, and the energy-saving willingness of the users is stimulated.

The power utilization scheduling system suitable for multiple scenes adopts the advanced Internet of things technology to promote the updating and upgrading of related equipment, and drives the rapid development of upstream and downstream industrial chains.

Based on the above scheme, the present embodiment further explains the present invention as shown in fig. 2, and a technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a power utilization scheduling system suitable for multiple scenarios for the current technical situation, including a system master station layer, an edge internet of things gateway, user-specific devices, and some intelligent terminal devices such as smart sockets, electric meters, water meters, gas meters, and heat meters, which are installed according to the field energy utilization type. The edge internet of things gateway can select an NEG-9210 virtual power plant controller, an NEG-9220 intelligent gateway, an NEG-9230 energy source controller, an NEG-9240 block chain metering terminal or an NEG-9250 local cooperative control device according to an application scene. The user special equipment comprises a wind power generation system, a photovoltaic power generation system, an energy storage system, an electric automobile charging pile, an industrial control system, a building air conditioner control system and other related equipment. The intelligent terminal equipment comprises an intelligent socket, an electric meter, a water meter, a gas meter and a heat meter.

The edge Internet of things gateway and the system main station platform communicate through a 2G/3G/4G/5G/Ethernet or an optical fiber. The edge Internet of things gateway is connected with special equipment of a user or equipment such as an electric meter, a water meter, a gas meter, a heat meter and the like through micro-power wireless, power line carrier, Ethernet, optical fiber or RS-485.

The edge Internet of things gateway and the system main station communicate by adopting general communication protocols such as IEC60870-5-101, IEC60870-5-104, DLT698.45, MQTT and the like.

The edge Internet of things gateway and the user special equipment and the intelligent meter adopt general communication protocols such as DLT698.45, IEC60870-5-101, IEC60870-5-104, Modbus, Q/GDW 1376.1-2013 and the like for communication.

The type edge Internet of things gateway integrates high-speed sampling, signal processing, remote control, remote signaling and data acquisition, and the control system and the data acquisition system are physically isolated, so that the load shedding is flexibly selected on the basis of ensuring the data safety, and the diversity, the rapidity and the accuracy of the grid shedding load are improved.

Based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment further provides a power utilization scheduling method applicable to multiple scenes, which comprises the following steps:

the equipment layer controls the user side equipment by using a preset control instruction corresponding to the power grid situation and an operation instruction issued by the master station layer, and simultaneously acquires and transmits energy utilization data of a user;

the network layer realizes data interaction between the equipment layer and the master station layer;

and the master station layer analyzes the received energy consumption data according to the multi-scene load regulation to generate an operation instruction and sends the operation instruction to the equipment layer.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or part of the flow of the method according to the above-described embodiment may be implemented by a computer program, which may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium and used to implement the steps of the above-described embodiments of the method when the computer program is executed by a processor. Wherein the computer program comprises computer program code, which may be in the form of source code, object code, an executable file or some intermediate form, etc. The computer-readable medium may include: any entity or device capable of carrying said computer program code, media, usb disk, removable hard disk, magnetic diskette, optical disk, computer memory, read-only memory, random access memory, electrical carrier wave signals, telecommunication signals, software distribution media, etc. It should be noted that the computer readable medium may contain content that is subject to appropriate increase or decrease as required by legislation and patent practice in jurisdictions, for example, in some jurisdictions, computer readable media does not include electrical carrier signals and telecommunications signals as is required by legislation and patent practice.

As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, embodiments of the present application may be provided as a method, system, or computer program product. Accordingly, the present application may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects. Furthermore, the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied on one or more computer-usable storage media (including, but not limited to, disk storage, CD-ROM, optical storage, and the like) having computer-usable program code embodied therein.

The present application is described with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the application. It will be understood that each flow and/or block of the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, and combinations of flows and/or blocks in the flow diagrams and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, embedded processor, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

These computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart flow or flows and/or block diagram block or blocks.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only for illustrating the technical solutions of the present invention and not for limiting the same, and although the present invention is described in detail with reference to the above embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that: modifications and equivalents may be made to the embodiments of the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is to be covered by the claims.