Patent ID: 8803362

Claim:
A standalone unit for a standalone power grid, comprising: a photovoltaic unit for generating power from renewable resources, an energy storage unit for storing energy, a consumer connection unit for connecting the standalone unit to a consumer unit for the consumption of energy, a grid unit, including an inverter unit, for connecting the standalone unit to a power grid, for drawing energy from the power grid and for feeding energy into the power grid, and an interface unit for communicating an energy withdrawal request or an energy storage request with a second standalone unit, which is adapted to send to the second standalone unit the energy storage request to store energy in the second standalone unit or an energy withdrawal request to draw energy from the second standalone unit, wherein energy withdrawal requests and energy storage requests are sent using direct communications from the standalone unit to only one other adjacent standalone unit in the standalone power grid without communicating through a central control unit, and wherein the other standalone unit is adapted to decide autonomously whether to handle the requests or to forward the requests to a next adjacent unit, wherein a specific sequence of standalone units is defined within the standalone power grid for energy balancing among adjacent standalone units.