Patent Application
20120229295
The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to meter technology, and more particularly, to tools for monitoring electrical devices communicatively connected to a utility meter.
Some electrical devices, for example, certain air conditioners, washing machines or refrigerators, have fault display systems included in their design. These fault display systems may include a digital display, a warning light and/or an audible alarm communicatively connected to at least one sensor. In response to an electrical short or other similar undesirable operating condition detected by the at least one sensor, the system is designed to notify a consumer so that preventative or corrective action can be taken. However, these error messages do not provide specific operational data, instead merely indicating that an error exists and providing little to no diagnostic assistance. Additionally, electrical devices which have begun to fail or degrade but have not gotten to the point where they have triggered an error message, may remain in operation unbeknownst to consumers or the utility, operating inefficiently, avoiding preventative maintenance and concealing a potentially dangerous condition.
Systems for monitoring electrical devices communicatively connected to metered services are disclosed. In one embodiment, a monitoring system for an electrical device includes: a utility meter communicatively connected to the electrical device; and at least one computing device disposed within the utility meter, the at least one computing device adapted to monitor the electrical device by performing actions comprising: obtaining operational data about the electrical device; comparing the operational data about the electrical device with predefined operational criteria for the electrical device; determining a health status for the electrical device based upon the comparison of the operational data about the electrical device and the predefined operational criteria for the electrical device; and providing to the utility meter a health status indicator, the health status indicator including an operational status of the electrical device.
A first aspect of the disclosure provides a monitoring system for an electrical device including: a utility meter communicatively connected to the electrical device; and at least one computing device disposed within the utility meter, the at least one computing device adapted to monitor the electrical device by performing actions comprising: obtaining operational data about the electrical device; comparing the operational data about the electrical device with predefined operational criteria for the electrical device; determining a health status for the electrical device based upon the comparison of the operational data about the electrical device and the predefined operational criteria for the electrical device; and providing to the utility meter a health status indicator, the health status indicator including an operational status of the electrical device.
A second aspect provides a program product stored on a computer readable medium, which when executed by at least one computing device disposed upon a utility meter, performs the following: obtains operational data about an electrical device communicatively connected to the utility meter; compares the operational data about the electrical device with predefined operational criteria for the electrical device; determines a health status for the electrical device based upon the comparison of the operational data about the electrical device and the predefined operational criteria for the electrical device; and provides a health status indicator to the utility meter, the health status indicator indicating an operational status of the electrical device.
A third aspect provides a utility meter including: a meter base configured to be connected to a power source and communicatively connectable to at least one electrical device; and a computing device communicatively connected to the meter base, the computing device adapted to determine a health status of the at least one electrical device by performing actions including: obtaining operational data about the at least one electrical device; storing the operational data; comparing the operational data with predefined operational criteria for the at least one electrical device; determining an operational status for the at least one electrical device based upon the comparison of the operational data and the predefined operational criteria; and providing a health status indicator to the meter base, the health status indicator indicating an operational status of the at least one electrical device.
These and other features of this invention will be more readily understood from the following detailed description of the various aspects of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings that depict various embodiments of the invention, in which:
It is noted that the drawings of the disclosure are not necessarily to scale. The drawings are intended to depict only typical aspects of the disclosure, and therefore should not be considered as limiting the scope of the disclosure. In the drawings, like numbering represents like elements between the drawings.
As indicated above, aspects of the invention provide for systems and solutions configured to monitor the operational characteristics and performance of electrical devices communicatively connected to a utility meter. The utility meter is configured to obtain operational data (e.g. electrical parameters or a combination of electrical parameters such as a voltage magnitude, a current magnitude, a power factor, a fault message, a error message, an amount of power consumption etc.) from at least one electrical device and to process the operational data using a Device Health Monitoring System (DHMS) including a health prediction algorithm to determine a health status of the at least one electrical device. The health status being a health of the device, an indication and/or determination as to the operating conditions, degradation, faults, errors and efficiency of the electrical device. The DHMS compares the operational data to predefined operational criteria for the electrical device, the predefined operational criteria being based upon original operational design values specific to the at least one electrical device and being stored on at least one of the utility meter, the electrical device and a utility network. From this comparison, the DHMS determines a health status of the at least one electrical device based upon operating conditions and the variance between the operational data and the predefined operational criteria, and provides a health status indicator to the utility meter. The operational data is stored on the utility meter thereby generating/creating an operational health profile for the at least one electrical device which is available for periodic or prompted transmission to the utility or consumer. This provides a secure localized system which is capable of obtaining operational data, developing operational profiles, and reporting the health status of a plurality of electrical devices. As a result, the utility company and the consumer are able to securely monitor the performance of electrical devices connected to the utility meter, thereby avoiding potentially hazardous situations, performing preventative maintenance and optimizing performance and consumption of services.
Sensors in electrical devices are often connected to alarms or displays such as a buzzer, audible alarm or flashing light, these alarms for alerting consumers as to an unsafe operating condition in the electrical device. However, these alarms and alerts do not provide a localized comprehensive data set or profile of the operational condition of a given electrical device. Further, these alarms and indications are activated in response to a fault, and as a result, fail to monitor and alert consumers or utility companies as to an initial degradation of a system. This delay in notification of a degrading or damaged system leads to inefficient operation and delaying preventative maintenance and corrective action until a fault occurs.
In contrast to conventional systems, embodiments of the current invention provide for a utility meter which uses a DHMS to monitor a health status of at least one electrical device communicatively connected to the utility meter. Using the DHMS, the utility meter analyzes operational data obtained from the at least one electrical device and compares it with predefined operational criteria for the at least one electrical device to determine whether the electrical device is operating outside of a designed or optimal range. After processing the operational data, the utility meter may create or update an operational health profile for the at least one electrical device. The health profile including an operational history of the performance and/or maintenance of the at least one electrical device which may include trends in performance, past errors or faults, operating conditions or other diagnostic and analytical factors as are known in the art. The utility meter may further securely communicate any alerts, device identification tags (e.g., serial numbers, global positioning coordinates, device name or other identification data known in the art), operational data and/or operational health profiles to the utility and or consumer. The transmission of operational data or health profiles to the utility or consumer may be done periodically or in response to a command. The operational data and operational health profiles gathered and generated by the utility meter and DHMS may provide for more effective and timely preventative maintenance, more efficient device operation and an overall secure system.
As will be appreciated by one skilled in the art, the monitoring system described herein may be embodied as a system(s), method(s) or computer program product(s), e.g., as part of a monitoring system. Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module,” “network” or “system.” Furthermore, the present invention may take the form of a computer program product embodied in any tangible medium of expression having computer-usable program code embodied in the medium.
Any combination of one or more computer usable or computer readable medium(s) may be utilized. The computer-useable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device. More specific examples (a non-exhaustive list) of the computer-readable medium would include the following: an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a transmission media such as those supporting the Internet or an intranet, or a magnetic storage device. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could even be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, or otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The computer-usable medium may include a propagated data signal with the computer-usable program code embodied therewith, either in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. The computer usable program code may be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including but not limited to wireless, wire line, optical fiber cable, RF, etc.
Computer program code for carrying out operations of the present invention may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable medium 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 medium produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which implement the function/act specified in the block diagram block or blocks.
The 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 processes for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
Turning to the Figures, embodiments of a monitoring system are shown, where the monitoring system may provide a utility company and or consumer with operational data for an electrical device, a health status of the electrical device and/or an operational health profile for the electrical device, thereby enabling the utility company and consumer to respond to electrical device failures and to improve electrical device efficiency. Each of the components in the Figures may be connected via conventional means, e.g., via wireless mesh, WiFi, power line communication, cellular, radio frequency, radio interface, Home Area Network (HAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Neighborhood Area Network (NAN), Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), cellular interface, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), or other known means as is indicated in the
In one embodiment, computing device 124 may include a utility meter 110 processor. Interface 122 may comprise any interface known in the art, including but not limited to, a low-power digital radio, power line communication, a wireless local area network, wireless mesh, WiFi, radio frequency, radio interface, Home Area Network (HAN), Local Area Network (LAN), Neighborhood Area Network (NAN), Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Global System for Mobile communications (GSM), cellular interface, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX), or other known means. In one embodiment, interface 122 may be integrated into electrical device 120 to transmit operational data to utility meter 110. In another embodiment, computing device 124 may provide an error status indicator to utility meter 110 in response to receiving an error message or fault message as part of the operational data. In another embodiment, utility meter 110 may provide a safety shut-down command to electrical device 120 in response to a health status determination by DHMS 127, the safety shut-down command turning off power and/or removing power supply from electrical device 120. In another embodiment, DHMS 127 may diagnosis an error or fault message received by computing device 124 from electrical device 120 by comparing a most recently received set of operational data for electrical device 120 with either or both of stored operational data for electrical device 120 and the predefined operational criteria for electrical device 120.
In any event, computing device 124 can comprise any general purpose computing article of manufacture capable of executing computer program code installed by a user (e.g., a personal computer, server, handheld device, etc.). However, it is understood that computing device 124, interface 122, DHMS 127 and electrical device 120 are only representative of various possible equivalent computing devices that may perform the various process steps of the disclosure. To this extent, in other embodiments, computing device 124 can comprise any specific purpose computing article of manufacture comprising hardware and/or computer program code for performing specific functions, any computing article of manufacture that comprises a combination of specific purpose and general purpose hardware/software, or the like. In each case, the program code and hardware can be created using standard programming and engineering techniques, respectively.
Similarly, computing device 124 is only illustrative of various types of computer infrastructures for implementing the disclosure. For example, in one embodiment, computing device 124 comprises two or more computing devices (e.g., a server cluster) that communicate over any type of wired and/or wireless communications link, such as a network, a shared memory, or the like, to perform the various process steps of the disclosure. When the communications link comprises a network, the network can comprise any combination of one or more types of networks (e.g., the Internet, a wide area network, a local area network, a virtual private network, etc.). Network adapters may also be coupled to the system to enable the data processing system to become coupled to other data processing systems or remote printers or storage devices through intervening private or public networks. Modems, cable modem and Ethernet cards are just a few of the currently available types of network adapters. Regardless, communications between the computing devices may utilize any combination of various types of transmission techniques.
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Following process P2A, in process P3, computing device 124 uses Device Health Monitoring System (DHMS) 127 to compare obtained operational data from electrical device 120 with predefined operational criteria for electrical device 120. In one embodiment, the predefined operational criteria may be stored in computing device 124. In another embodiment, the predefined operational criteria may be stored in electrical device 120. In another embodiment, the predefined operational criteria may be accessed on utility network 130 via utility meter 110. In any event, following process P3, in decision D2, DHMS 127 may determine and/or calculate a degree of variation between the actual usage values and the predefined operational criteria for electrical device 120. In one embodiment, the degree of variation may be determined by a percent offset. In another embodiment, the variation may be determined by an absolute difference. In any event, computing device 124 determines if the variances determined in decision D2 are greater than a predetermined tolerable amount of variance. That is, computing device 124 compares the determined variances to variances that have been deemed optimal or tolerable by any of a designer, the utility or the consumer. If the variances are not determined to be larger than the predetermined variances (no to decision D2), then computing device 124 may revert back to process P1. However, if the variances are determined to be larger than the predetermined variances, then, following decision D2, in process P4, computing device 124 provides an alert notification and/or a health status indicator to utility meter 110. That is, computing device 124 may provide to utility meter 110 the health status indicator for transmission to cloud 222 to alert any of the utility, the consumer, emergency services or maintenance services. The health status indicator may include an identification number for electrical device 120, information about degradation of electrical device 120, a health status or health status profile of electrical device 120. Following process P4, in process P5, utility meter 110 transmits the operational health status indicator to utility network 130. In one embodiment, utility meter 110 may also transmit the operational data for electrical device 120 to cloud 222. In another embodiment, utility meter 110 may transmit the operational data for electrical device 120 to cloud 222 at any time.
The data flow diagram and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of code, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). It should also be noted that, in some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
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As previously mentioned and discussed further below, Device Health Monitoring System (DHMS) 127 has the technical effect of enabling computing device 124 to perform, among other things, the electrical device monitoring functions described herein. It is understood that some of the various components shown in FIG. 4 can be implemented independently, combined, and/or stored in memory for one or more separate computing devices that are included in computing device 124. Further, it is understood that some of the components and/or functionality may not be implemented, or additional schemas and/or functionality may be included as part of monitoring system 100.
Computing device 124 is shown including a memory 412, a processor (PU) 414, an input/output (I/O) interface 416, and a bus 418. Further, computing device 124 is shown in communication with an external I/O device/resource 420 and a storage system 422. As is known in the art, in general, processor 414 executes computer program code, such as device monitoring system 127, that is stored in memory 412 and/or storage system 422. While executing computer program code, processor 414 can read and/or write data, such as operational data 430 and/or network predefined operational criteria data 434, to/from memory 412, storage system 422, and/or I/O interface 416. Bus 418 provides a communications link between each of the components in computing device 124. I/O device 420 can comprise any device that enables a user to interact with computing device 124 or any device that enables computing device 124 to communicate with one or more other computing devices. Input/output devices (including but not limited to keyboards, displays, pointing devices, etc.) can be coupled to the system either directly or through intervening I/O controllers.
In some embodiments, as shown in
As discussed herein, various systems and components are described as “obtaining” data (e.g., temperatures, grid frequency, etc.). It is understood that the corresponding data can be obtained using any solution. For example, the corresponding system/component can generate and/or be used to generate the data, retrieve the data from one or more data stores or sensors (e.g., a database), receive the data from another system/component, and/or the like. When the data is not generated by the particular system/component, it is understood that another system/component can be implemented apart from the system/component shown, which generates the data and provides it to the system/component and/or stores the data for access by the system/component.
The foregoing drawings show some of the processing associated according to several embodiments of this disclosure. In this regard, each drawing or block within a flow diagram of the drawings represents a process associated with embodiments of the method described. It should also be noted that in some alternative implementations, the acts noted in the drawings or blocks may occur out of the order noted in the figure or, for example, may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or in the reverse order, depending upon the act involved. Also, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that additional blocks that describe the processing may be added.
The monitoring system of the present disclosure is not limited to any one particular meter, electrical meter, smart meter, network or other system, and may be used with other power and communication systems. Additionally, the monitoring system of the present invention may be used with other systems not described herein that may benefit from the accurate, secure, real-time data communications link, diagnosis and analysis provided by the monitoring system described herein.
It is understood that as described herein, electrical device 120 may include one or more conventional electrical devices including but not limited to: a vital signs monitor, an activity monitor, a computer, a refrigerator, an alarm system, a cooking range, a smart meter, an intelligent electrical device, a television, a power management unit, a programmable communicating thermostat, an air conditioning system, a heating system.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.
