|Publication number||US7304586 B2|
|Application number||US 10/969,706|
|Publication date||4 Dec 2007|
|Filing date||20 Oct 2004|
|Priority date||20 Oct 2004|
|Also published as||US7999696, US8599036, US20060082468, US20080088476, US20080312851, US20110299418, US20140085103|
|Publication number||10969706, 969706, US 7304586 B2, US 7304586B2, US-B2-7304586, US7304586 B2, US7304586B2|
|Inventors||Wei Wang, Erran Kagan|
|Original Assignee||Electro Industries / Gauge Tech|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (8), Referenced by (43), Classifications (15), Legal Events (5)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to utility revenue meters for measuring usage and quality of electrical power in an electrical power distribution network. In particular, the present invention relates to utility revenue meters that are connected to the Internet via wireless means.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
With proliferation of electrically powered devices and systems, there is an increasing need to accurately and precisely measure and monitor the quality of the electrical power supplying these devices and systems. Electric utility companies (“utilities”) track electric usage by customers by using electrical energy meters. These meters track the amount of energy consumed at a particular location. These locations range from power substations, to commercial businesses, to residential homes. The electric utility companies use the energy meters to charge customers for their power consumption, i.e. revenue metering.
A popular type of energy meter is the socket-type energy meter. As its name implies, the meter itself plugs into a socket for easy installation, removal, and replacement. Other meter installations include panel mounted, switchboard mounted, and circuit breaker mounted. Typically the energy meter connects between utility power lines supplying electricity and a usage point, namely a residence or commercial place of business. Though not typical, an energy meter may also be placed at a point within the utility's power grid to monitor power flowing through that point for distribution, power loss, or capacity monitoring. Also, energy meters that handle sub-metering functions can be used to monitor internal customer usage.
Traditionally, energy meters used mechanical means to track the amount of consumed power. The inductive spinning disk energy meter is still commonly used. The spinning disk drives mechanical counters that track the power consumption information. Newer to the market are electronic energy meters based on solid-state microprocessor applications. Electronic meters have replaced the older mechanical meters, and utilize digital sampling of the voltage and current waveforms to generate power consumption information. In addition to monitoring power consumption, electronic meters can also monitor and calculate power quality, that is, voltage, current, real power, reactive power, apparent power, etc. These power quality measurements and calculations are displayed on an output display device on the meter.
While electrical utility companies currently use devices to measure the amount of electrical power used by both residential and commercial facilities and the quality of electrical power in an electrical power distribution network, these devices generally do not allow for readings to be made automatically via some remote means. The meter readings are collected in the same manner they were collected in the past, a person reads and reports the information displayed on the meter.
In more recent developments, limited power consumption information can be transmitted from the energy meter to the utility through the use of telephone communications circuitry contained either within or external to the meter. These developments are advantageous to the utility company in that they reduce the need for employees being dispatched to the remote locations to collect the power consumption information. A standard modem receives raw power consumption information from the energy meter and transmits the information to the utility company via telephone lines.
While this represents an improvement over past techniques, this method has proven to be costly and unreliable, as there is a need for dedicated telephone line connection and line maintenance, which is expensive. When equipment malfunctions an employee must be dispatched to determine the reason for the malfunction and then a specialist must be sent in to fix it. Therefore, there exists a need for a device, which can accurately, inexpensively, and timely provide measurements, e.g., power consumption information, recorded by a common energy or energy meter.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an electronic energy meter that can deliver power consumption information readings from residential and commercial facilities to electrical utility companies.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic energy meter that provides power consumption information to the electrical utility companies automatically via a remote means.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an electronic energy meter that provides power consumption information to the electrical utility companies without involvement of human meter readers and installation of modems and telephone lines.
The present invention provides an electric energy meter for providing real time revenue metering using wireless or cell phone technology. The present invention describes an electrical metering system capable of performing multiple metering functions, collecting data, and wirelessly provides the collected metering data to a utility operator is disclosed. The electrical metering system comprising at least one computing device for initiating a request for data; a first modem for connecting the computing device to an infrastructure; a wireless embedded modem for wirelessly connecting an electric meter to an infrastructure, wherein the wireless electric modem receives a request from the computing device and wirelessly transmits the metering data to the computing device thereby initiating the request.
The present application describes three infrastructure variations herein below. However, additional combinations and variations of the described infrastructure will be understood by those skilled in the art. The invention describes establishing communication between the embedded wireless modem and the computing device over the following infrastructures:
1. The infrastructure comprises a telephone infrastructure including telephone landlines operated by at least one telephone company and a cell phone infrastructure including cell phone relay stations operated by at least one cell service provider. The embedded wireless modem utilizing industry standard interface protocols used within the cell phone industry to communicate with the computing device.
2. The infrastructure comprises a wide area network, e.g., the Internet. The embedded wireless modem utilizing industry standard interface protocols, for example, 802.11a and 802.11b, to communicate with the computing device.
3. The infrastructure further comprises the wide area network and a carrier network infrastructure including a broadcasting means operated by at least one carrier network provider. The embedded wireless modem utilizing industry standard interface protocols selected from General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) to communicate with the computing device.
The present invention is further explained by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The present invention provides an electric energy meter for providing real time revenue metering using wireless or cell phone technology to deliver information to a computing device on a network, e.g., an Internet website, managed by an electrical utility company or its affiliates. The operation of the electric energy meter of the present invention is described in a co-owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,563, titled “Electronic Energy meter”, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Portions of U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,563 will be reproduced here.
A web server program (web server) is contained in memory 160, and accessed through network interface 170. The web server provides real time data through any known web server interface format. For example, popular web server interface formats consist of HTML and XML formats. The actual format of the programming language used is not essential to the present invention, in that any web server format can be incorporated herein. The web server provides a user friendly interface for the user to interact with the meter 110. The user can have various access levels to enter limits for e-mail alarms. Additionally, the user can be provided the data in a multiple of formats including raw data, bar graph, charts, etc. The currently used HTML or XML programming languages provide for easy programming and user friendly user interfaces.
The operation of the device of
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, network interface 170 is an Ethernet interface that supports, for example, 100 base-T or 10 base-T communications. This type of network interface can send and receive data packets between WAN connections and/or LAN connections and the meter 110. This type of network interface allows for situations, for example, where the web server may be accessed by one user while another user is communicating via the Modbus TCP, and a third user may be downloading a stored data file via FTP. The ability to provide access to the meter by multiple users, simultaneously, is a great advantage over the prior art. This can allow for a utility company's customer service personnel, a customer and maintenance personnel to simultaneously and interactively monitor and diagnose possible problems with the power service.
Referring again to
As the processor receives packets of data it identifies the network processing necessary for the packet by the port number associated with the packet. The processor allocates the packet to a task as a function of the port number. Since each task is running independently the meter 110 can accept different types of requests concurrently and process them transparently from each other. For example, the web server may be accessed by one user while another user is communicating via Modbus TCP and at the same time a third user may download a log file via FTP.
The Network to Meter Protocol Conversion Function 240 is used to format and protocol convert the different network protocol messages to a common format understood by the other functional sections of meter 110. After the basic network processing of the packet of data, any “commands” or data which are to be passed to other functional sections of meter 110 are formatted and protocol converted to a common format for processing by the Network to Meter Protocol Conversion Function 240. Similarly, commands or data coming from the meter for transfer over the network are pre-processed by this function into the proper format before being sent to the appropriate network task for transmission over the network. In addition this function first protocol converts and then routes data and commands between the meter and external devices.
Numerous types of wireless Ethernet connections can be used to perform the objects of the present invention. These types can be classified in terms of the type of a connection to the network and the configuration and capability of the utility revenue meter. In general, the proposed implementation can be used on any network that includes wireless modems. The following are some examples of proposed configurations.
The computing device 22 may be located anywhere the telephone and cell infrastructures 26 and 40 reaches. This may be on the premises of a utility company itself or at any department or agency entrusted with receiving meter readings. The connection between the computing device 22 and the revenue meter 12 may be established via a dial-up process using a wireless modem 34 to respond to a signal from the computing device 22 relayed by a cell relay station 42.
The wireless embedded modem 34 can communicate with the revenue meter via hard wired communication means 36, such as, a serial connection, the Ethernet, a universal serial bus (USB), and a faster version of USB, USB2, or using wireless means, for example, 802.11 and similar protocols. The meter peripheral device's 38 communicates with the revenue meter 12 via industry standard communication protocols, such as, Modbus remote terminal unit (RTU) from the Modicon Inc., DNP, etc., so that the meter peripheral device 38 can act as a server for any revenue meters 12 utilizing industry standard interfaces and protocols. The peripheral device 38 presents the collected meter readings and data to the wireless modem 34 to be forwarded to the computing device 22 using a browser program.
The revenue meter 12 or a peripheral device 38 attached to the revenue meter manage the wireless modem 34, e.g., controlling the modem's readiness for a dial-up session established by the computing device 22. Additionally, the revenue meter 12 or the peripheral device 38 may be accessed via the wireless modem 34 and used as a server for providing revenue meter's readings and other relevant data to the computing device 22. An interface program, e.g., a browser may be used on the revenue meter 12 or the peripheral device 38 to send and receive data.
In this mode, after the connection between the embedded wireless modem 34 and the computing device 22 is established, the revenue meter 32 or the meter peripheral device 38 control the embedded wireless modem 34 maintaining its readiness for a dial-up session. Such a session may be initiated by the computing device 42 at any time.
Wireless Packet Data Connection
In another embodiment of the invention illustrated in
A connection between computing device 22, e.g., a computer or a hand held wireless device and the revenue meter 12 may be established via a carrier network 54. The computing device 22 uses a dial-up modem 24 or some other means to access an Internet service provider (ISP) and a common browser program, e.g., a Microsoft Explorer, to connect to the Internet 50, and through it to the carrier network 54. The dial-up modem 24 can be a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem or a cable modem and can connect to the Internet via the cable, satellite, or the telephone infrastructure, including hot spots located within appropriate distance from the modem 24. The modem 24 may be built into the computing device 22.
The carrier network 54 may include a carrier network provider facility 52, a broadcasting means 56, e.g., a broadcasting tower, a satellite, etc., and some means of access to the Internet 50. The coupling device 22 may be located anywhere, the only requirement is that it has an ability and means to connect to the Internet 50. The computing device 22 may be located on the premises of a utility company itself or at any department or agency entrusted with receiving meter readings.
A request for information from the computing device 22 is forwarded over the Internet 50 to the carrier network provider facility 52, where the request is processed and transmitted via the broadcasting means 56 to the wireless embedded modem 34. The wireless embedded modem 34 can communicate with the revenue meter via hard wired communication means 36, such as, a serial connection, the Ethernet, a universal serial bus (USB), and a faster version of USB, USB2, or using wireless means, for example, 802.11 and similar protocols.
The revenue meter 12 or a peripheral device 38 attached to the revenue meter, manages the wireless modem 34, e.g., control the modem's readiness to send information to the computing device 22. Additionally, the revenue meter 12 or the peripheral device 38 may perform as a server for providing revenue meter's readings and other relevant data to the computing device 22. An interface program, e.g., a browser, may be used to send and receive data.
In another embodiment of the invention illustrated in
Although the illustrative embodiments of the present disclosure have been described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to those precise embodiments, and that various other changes and modifications may be affected therein by one skilled in the art. That is, those skilled in the art will envision other modifications within the scope and spirit of the claims appended hereto.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US6396839 *||12 Feb 1998||28 May 2002||Abb Automation Inc.||Remote access to electronic meters using a TCP/IP protocol suite|
|US6437692 *||12 Nov 1999||20 Aug 2002||Statsignal Systems, Inc.||System and method for monitoring and controlling remote devices|
|US6751563 *||12 Apr 2002||15 Jun 2004||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Electronic power meter|
|US6900738 *||19 Jun 2001||31 May 2005||Henry Crichlow||Method and apparatus for reading a meter and providing customer service via the internet|
|US6985087 *||15 Mar 2002||10 Jan 2006||Qualcomm Inc.||Method and apparatus for wireless remote telemetry using ad-hoc networks|
|US7043459 *||7 Dec 1998||9 May 2006||Constellation Energy Group, Inc.||Method and apparatus for metering electricity usage and electronically providing information associated therewith|
|US7049975 *||23 Jan 2002||23 May 2006||Fisher Controls International Llc||Reporting regulator for managing a gas transportation system|
|US7050808 *||6 Jun 2001||23 May 2006||Telemics, Inc.||Method and system for transmitting, receiving and collecting information related to a plurality of working components|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US7554320||30 Oct 2006||30 Jun 2009||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech.||Intelligent electronic device for providing broadband internet access|
|US7609719||27 Oct 2009||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||System and method for simultaneous communication on modbus and DNP 3.0 over Ethernet for electronic power meter|
|US7616656||10 Nov 2009||Electron Industries / Gauge Tech||System and method for providing communication between intelligent electronic devices via an open channel|
|US7747733||29 Jun 2010||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Power meter having multiple ethernet ports|
|US7761226 *||20 Jul 2010||The United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Navy||Interactive pedestrian routing system|
|US7843897 *||30 Oct 2006||30 Nov 2010||Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.||System, apparatus and method for mixed mode communication on a single network|
|US7999696 *||3 Dec 2007||16 Aug 2011||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||On-line web accessed energy meter|
|US8022690||29 Jun 2009||20 Sep 2011||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Intelligent electronic device for providing broadband internet access|
|US8107491 *||6 Nov 2009||31 Jan 2012||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||System and method for providing communication between intelligent electronic devices via an open channel|
|US8116072 *||9 Nov 2009||14 Feb 2012||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Current inputs interface for an electrical device|
|US8176174||28 Jun 2010||8 May 2012||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Power meter having multiple ethernet ports|
|US8189617||29 May 2012||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||System and method for simultaneous communication on Modbus and DNP 3.0 over Ethernet for electronic power meter|
|US8350718||8 Jan 2013||Itron, Inc.||Secure collector diagnostic portal activation|
|US8441372||22 Feb 2010||14 May 2013||Aclara Power-Line Systems, Inc.||Wireless broadband communications network for a utility|
|US8442660||30 Oct 2006||14 May 2013||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Intelligent electronic device having audible and visual interface|
|US8477794 *||30 Apr 2009||2 Jul 2013||Elster Electricity, Llc||Multiple communications protocol routing in advanced metering infrastructure context|
|US8515348||30 Oct 2006||20 Aug 2013||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Bluetooth-enable intelligent electronic device|
|US8599036||15 Aug 2011||3 Dec 2013||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||On-line web accessed energy meter|
|US8677464||22 Jun 2011||18 Mar 2014||Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories Inc.||Systems and methods for managing secure communication sessions with remote devices|
|US8907657||19 Sep 2011||9 Dec 2014||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Intelligent electronic device for providing broadband internet access|
|US8929391||22 Jun 2011||6 Jan 2015||Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.||Systems and methods for communications devices having multiple interfaces|
|US8930153||1 Mar 2011||6 Jan 2015||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Metering device with control functionality and method thereof|
|US8933815||30 Oct 2006||13 Jan 2015||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Intelligent electronic device having an XML-based graphical interface|
|US9063181||28 Dec 2007||23 Jun 2015||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Memory management for an intelligent electronic device|
|US9080894||3 Apr 2008||14 Jul 2015||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Intelligent electronic device for receiving and sending data at high speeds over a network|
|US9130945||14 Mar 2013||8 Sep 2015||Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Inc.||Detection and response to unauthorized access to a communication device|
|US9194720 *||3 May 2012||24 Nov 2015||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Power meter having multiple Ethernet ports|
|US9288215||8 Mar 2013||15 Mar 2016||Itron, Inc.||Utilizing routing for secure transactions|
|US9322669||13 May 2013||26 Apr 2016||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Intelligent electronic device having audible and visual interface|
|US20060083260 *||20 Oct 2004||20 Apr 2006||Electro Industries/Gaugetech||System and method for providing communication between intelligent electronic devices via an open channel|
|US20080088476 *||3 Dec 2007||17 Apr 2008||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech.||On-line web accessed energy meter|
|US20080101251 *||30 Oct 2006||1 May 2008||Casebolt David J||System, apparatus and method for mixed mode communication on a single network|
|US20080235143 *||20 Mar 2007||25 Sep 2008||Square D Company||Real time data tunneling for utility monitoring web applications|
|US20080312851 *||25 Aug 2008||18 Dec 2008||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech.||Portable Power Quality Analyzer with Networking Capabilities|
|US20100054276 *||6 Nov 2009||4 Mar 2010||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech.|
|US20100057387 *||4 Mar 2010||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Current inputs interface for an electrical device|
|US20100214123 *||22 Feb 2010||26 Aug 2010||Aclara Power-Line Systems Inc.||Wireless broadband communications network for a utility|
|US20100278187 *||4 Nov 2010||Elster Electricity, Llc||Multiple Communications Protocol Routing In Advanced Metering Infrastructure Context|
|US20110004421 *||20 Feb 2009||6 Jan 2011||Sentec Limited||Method of inference of appliance usage. data processing apparatus and/or computer software|
|US20110010470 *||10 Dec 2007||13 Jan 2011||Visible Computing Limited||USB Autorun Device|
|US20110035063 *||10 Feb 2011||Saju Anthony Palayur||Water Management System|
|US20120226454 *||6 Sep 2012||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||Power meter having multiple ethernet ports|
|US20140085103 *||2 Dec 2013||27 Mar 2014||Electro Industries/Gauge Tech||On-line web accessed energy meter|
|U.S. Classification||340/870.02, 702/61, 705/412, 370/401|
|Cooperative Classification||Y04S20/325, Y04S20/32, Y02B90/243, Y02B90/241, G06Q50/06, G01R19/2513, G01D4/002|
|European Classification||G06Q50/06, G01D4/00R, G01R19/25D|
|20 Oct 2004||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: ELECTRO INDUSTRIES/GAUGETECH, NEW YORK
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:WANG, WEI;KAGAN, ERRAN;REEL/FRAME:015941/0340
Effective date: 20041018
|11 Jul 2011||REMI||Maintenance fee reminder mailed|
|2 Dec 2011||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4
|2 Dec 2011||SULP||Surcharge for late payment|
|2 Jun 2015||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8