Power Measurement Ltd.

Other

J Bradford Forth

Martin A Hancock

Simon H Lightbody

Douglas Stephen Ransom

Michael Edward Teachman

Geoffrey T Hyatt

Markus F Hirschbold

Colin N Gunn

Jordon M Dagg

Peter C Cowan

Jeffrey W Yeo

Andrew W Blackett

Bryan J Gilbert

Benedikt T Huber

Ronald G Hart

Piotr Przydatek

David W Giles

Arthur B Wynans

Eric K Haight

David A Chivers

Peter M Van Doorn

Marcus Gasper

Hal Etheridge

Daniel Alan Cumming

Thomas Stewart Stevenson

Chuen Shan Simon Ki

Jason Sheppard

Paul E Doig

Andres W Blackett

Brian R Kingham

Cs Simon Ki

Douglas S Ransom

An electric power meter is disclosed which includes an analog to digital converter for converting sensed voltage and/or current signals to digital signals corresponding thereto. The meter further comprises storage for storing the digital signals. The meter further comprises a processor for performing power calculations upon the digital signals, and converting the calculations and the digital signals into at least one network protocol. The meter further comprises a network interface for interfacing with an external network. A system for modifying the functionality of the electric power meter is also disclosed.

Intelligent electronic device having network access

An electric power meter is disclosed. The meter comprises means for digitally sampling voltage and current. The meter further comprises means for storing the digitally sampled voltage and current. The meter further comprises means for performing power calculations upon the digitally sampled voltage and current, and converting the calculations and the digitally sampled voltage and current into at least one network protocol. The meter further comprises means for interfacing with an external network. A system for modifying the functionality of the electric power meter is also disclosed.

A line device monitors at least one power parameter of an electric power line and produces at least one representation thereof. The at least one representation is communicated to a microprocessor based device. The representation is compared with a measurement of the at least one power parameter produced by legacy instrumentation.

Method and apparatus for legacy comparison

A power management architecture for an electrical power distribution system, or portion thereof, is disclosed. The architecture includes multiple intelligent electronic devices ('IED's') distributed throughout the power distribution system to manage the flow and consumption of power from the system using real time communications. Power management application software and/or hardware components operate on the IED's and the back-end servers and inter-operate via the network to implement a power management application. The architecture provides a scalable and cost effective framework of hardware and software upon which such power management applications can operate to manage the distribution and consumption of electrical power by one or more utilities/suppliers and/or customers which provide and utilize the power distribution system. Autonomous communication on the network between IED's, back-end servers and other entities coupled with secure networks, themselves interconnected, via firewalls, by one or more unsecure networks, is facilitated by the use of a back-channel protocol. The back-channel protocol allows a device coupled with a secure network to solicit communications from a device on the unsecure network, thereby opening a back-channel through the firewall through which the unsecure network device may send unsolicited messages to the secure network device. Communications between multiple secure networks is accomplished using a unsecure device on an intermediary unsecure network to relay communications between the secure network devices using the protocol described above.

Push communications architecture for intelligent electronic devices

A system for modifying the functionality of intelligent electronic devices installed and operating in the field is disclosed. Each of the intelligent electronic devices operates with a software configuration to monitor electrical energy. A copy of the software configurations may be maintained in a database. Changes to the operation of one or more of the intelligent electronic devices may be made as a function of modifications to the database.

Systems for in the field configuration of intelligent electronic devices

An intelligent electronic device (IED) for monitoring at least one power parameter in a power system is disclosed. The IED comprises at least one voltage input operative to be coupled with at least one power line in the power system and operative to sense at least one voltage in the power system. The IED further comprises at least one current input operative to be coupled with the at least one power line and operative to sense a current flowing through the at least one power line. The IED further comprises at least one analog to digital converter coupled to the voltage input and the current input and operative to produce digital samples indicative of the voltage and current. The IED further comprises a processor coupled with the at least one analog to digital converter and operative to calculate the at least one power parameter. The IED further comprises a power supply operative to supply power to the IED. The IED further comprises a transceiver operative to communicate at least one data packet comprising the at least one power parameter via time domain pulses of RF energy occupying a wide range of frequencies and an antenna coupled with the transceiver operative to transmit the RF data packet.

Wireless communications system incorporating intelligent electronic devices

Systems and methods for reclassifying instrument transformers. A line mounted device that includes a sensor that can be attached to a power line. The line mounted device generates data or representations of the power parameters of the power line. A processor in the line mounted device produces modified representations of the power parameters that are transmitted wirelessly to a microprocessor based device. The microprocessor based device also receives second representations of the power parameters from legacy instrumentation. Compensation data is produced based on the modified representations from the line mounted device and the second representations from the legacy instrumentation. The compensation data can be used to compensate or correct the representations of the power parameters from the legacy instrumentation even after the line mounted device is no longer attached to the power line.

Method and apparatus for instrument transformer reclassification

Devices that couple to high voltage transmission lines obtain power themselves using the body capacitance of an element of the devices. The devices generate a comparatively lower voltage from the current flowing between the high voltage line and the element of the device that generates the body capacitance. The devices can be used to operate sensors that monitor the transmission lines or parameters of the power distribution system, such as current, line temperature, vibration, and the like. The devices can also be used as indicators, such as aircraft warning lights, information signs, etc. In addition, the devices can operate as RF transmission/reception or repeater devices, radar devices, mesh networking nodes, video/audio surveillance, sound emitting devices for scaring animals, drones that traverse the power line, etc. Because the devices operate in response to line voltage rather than current, the devices are reliable even in low current conditions.

Body capacitance electric field powered device for high voltage lines

An Enterprise Energy Management ('EEM') software system is disclosed that displays EEM data and allows a user to interact with the data to better understand and manage their electrical system. The EEM software system collects real-time, near real-time and historical input data from various data sources, creates useful information from that data by filtering and isolating relevant data and performing analytics on the data, displays that data to the user in an easy to understand format, and allows the user to interact with the displayed data. The EEM software allows the user to perform what-if analysis, make changes in their system and verify results of those changes. The graphical user interfaces provide context sensitive and relevant guidance to novice and expert users.

Human machine interface for an energy analytics system

A power management architecture for an electrical power distribution system, or portion thereof, is disclosed. The architecture includes multiple intelligent electronic devices ('IED's') distributed throughout the power distribution system to manage the flow and consumption of power from the system. The IED's are linked via a network to back-end servers. Power management application software and/or hardware components operate on the IED's and the back-end servers and inter-operate via the network to implement a power management application. The architecture provides a scalable and cost effective framework of hardware and software upon which such power management applications can operate to manage the distribution and consumption of electrical power by one or more utilities/suppliers and/or customers which provide and utilize the power distribution system. Security mechanisms are further provided which protect and otherwise ensure the authenticity of communications.

System and method for securing energy management systems

An apparatus for sensing the current in a power line of a power system and systems incorporating the apparatus are disclosed. The apparatus may comprise an enclosure providing a window operable to permit the passage of the power line therethrough. The apparatus may further comprise an active current transformer set within the enclosure and operative to produce a scaled version of the current. The apparatus may further comprise an amplifier coupled with the active current transformer and operative to reduce the phase shift and ratio error between the current and the scaled version of the current. The apparatus may further comprise a powering current transformer set within the enclosure and operative to receive power from the power line on a primary winding and deliver power on a secondary winding. The apparatus may further comprise power supply circuitry set within the enclosure, the power supply circuitry powered through the secondary winding from the powering current transformer and operative to supply power to the amplifier. The apparatus may further comprise at least one of secondary leads and secondary terminals extending from the enclosure, coupled with the active current transformer and operative to deliver the scaled version of the current outside of the enclosure.

Power line sensors and systems incorporating same

An energy monitoring device including procedures for secure communication of data from the device is disclosed. The energy monitoring device includes a public/private key pair used to encrypt and/or digitally sign communications by the device. This allows the receivers of these communications to authenticate the communications to ensure that the device and/or communications have not been compromised. The energy monitoring device is further capable of communications via an ad-hoc 'mesh' network, thereby facilitating communications among devices which are substantially inaccessible due to either physical or economic limitations.

Growing community of inventors

Victoria, Canada

J Bradford Forth