Outage notification, such as fixed network positive outage notification

Abstract

Methods and systems of providing positive outage notification are described. In some examples, the system determines there is an outage at a facility and transmits multiple messages notifying a utility of the outage. In some examples, the messages are received at multiple message collectors. In some examples, the system determines restoration procedures based on the messages.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of components of the positive outage notification system.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of components of a meter within the positive outage notification system.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating suitable data flows that occur in determining and receiving information related to an outage event.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating suitable data flows that occur in collecting outage information from a meter.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating suitable data flows that occur in a collector that receives outage information and transmits alarm packets to a central collection engine.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating suitable data flows that occur in a central collection engine that receives alarm packets and transmits alarm information to an OMS.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating suitable data flows that occur in an example of a restoration process.

FIG. 8A is an example display illustrating a report of outages at a certain time.

FIG. 8B is an example display illustrating a report of outage restorations at a certain time.

Claims

1. A fixed network positive outage notification system, comprising: multiple utility meters that each collect consumption data from a utility, wherein each utility meter includes an outage notification module that wirelessly transmits multiple notification messages upon determining an outage of the utility at the utility meter;multiple collectors, wirelessly connected to at least some of the utility meters, wherein at least one of the multiple collectors receives at least one of the multiple notification messages from the utility meter, decodes the at least one received notification message to determine contents of the received notification message, and transmits an alarm packet containing an alarm message positively identifying the outage when the determined contents contain a positive indication of the outage at the utility; anda central collector, communicatively coupled to the multiple collectors, wherein the central collector receives the alarm packet, decodes the alarm packet to extract the alarm message, and transmits the alarm message to an outage management system to begin a process of restoration of the outage.

2. The system of claim 1, further comprising: a data manager, communicatively coupled to the central collector, that adds identification information about the utility to the alarm message.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the outage notification module transmits each of the multiple notification messages at a different frequency.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the outage notification module transmits two or more of the multiple notification messages at a first frequency and two or more of the multiple notification messages at a second frequency different than the first frequency.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the multiple collectors is configured to receive multiple notification messages transmitted at a certain frequency.

6. A computer-readable medium storing contents that cause a utility meter to perform a method of notifying a utility provider of an outage at a utility consuming facility associated with the utility meter, the method comprising: at the utility meter, detecting the outage of the utility as associated with the utility consuming facility, wherein the detecting includes identifying a state of one or more variables related to consumption of the utility; andat the utility meter, wirelessly transmitting two or more signals, wherein each of the two or more signals each contain information directly related to the outage associated with the utility consuming facility.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein at least one signal of the two or more signals is transmitted at a frequency different than a frequency of the other signals.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein each signal of the two or more signals is transmitted at a frequency unique to the signal.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein at least one signal of the two or more signals is time diverse, frequency diverse, code diverse or spatially diverse from the other signals.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein identifying the state of one or more variables related to consumption of the utility comprises identifying a lack of power at the utility for a predetermined duration.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein identifying the state of one or more variables related to consumption of the utility comprises identifying a missing cycle of AC voltage at the utility.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein identifying the state of one or more variables related to consumption of the utility comprises identifying a drop in voltage at the utility for a predetermined duration.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein the one or more variables to be identified are selected based on characteristics of the utility consuming facility.

14. A method of determining an outage of a utility via a fixed network automated utility data collection system, the method comprising: receiving at least one of two or more outage notification messages wirelessly sent from a utility meter, wherein the outage notification messages are received by at least one of two or more message collectors located in the fixed network automated utility data collection system, and wherein the two or more message collectors are within wireless range of the utility meter;reviewing, at the message collectors, outage information related to the outage from the received notification messages, wherein the reviewed outage information is transmitted to a central collector located in the fixed network automated utility data collection system; andidentifying, at the central collector, the outage based on the reviewed outage information.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the received two or more outage notification messages are received at a different frequency.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the received two or more outage notification messages are received by a different message collector.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising: removing, at the central collector, redundant outage information from the reviewed outage information.

18. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying the outage comprises receiving identification information related to the utility meter from a meter data manager located in the network.

19. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying the outage at the utility consuming facility comprises comparing the reviewed information to restoration information that indicates recently performed outage restorations of utility consuming facilities in communication with utility meters located in the network.

20. The method of claim 14, further comprising: alerting customers associated with the utility of the identified outage via a interactive voice response system.

21. The method of claim 14, further comprising: automatically issuing a work order related to restoring the utility in response to the identification outage.

22. The method of claim 14, further comprising: associating service address information and transformer identification information related to the utility to the identified outage; andtransmitting the associated information and the identified outage to an outage management system.

23. A positive outage notification system, comprising: an outage determination component, wherein the outage determination component determines a possible outage associated with a utility consuming facility;a message transmission component, wherein the message transmission component transmits multiple messages containing information related to the possible outage.a message reception component, wherein the message reception component receives at least one of the multiple messages;an message information extraction component, wherein the message information extraction component extracts the information related to the possible outage; andan outage confirmation component, wherein the outage confirmation component confirms the possible outage as an outage based on the extracted information.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein the outage determination component and the message transmission component are located at a utility meter in communication with the utility consuming facility, and wherein further the message reception component, the message information extraction component, and the outage confirmation component are located on a network shared by the utility meter.

25. A method of confirming a restoration of an outage associated with a utility, the method comprising: at a utility meter in communication with the utility, wirelessly transmitting two or more signals, wherein each of the two or more signals each contain information directly related to a positive indication of a restoration of the outage associated with the utility; andat two or more signal collectors located in a fixed network automated utility data collection system and located within wireless range of the utility meter, receiving at least one of the two or more signals.