Westinghouse Electric Corporation

Elster Electricity, LLC

Abb Power Td & Company

Scott J Weikel

Rodney C Hemminger

Theodore H York

Albert H Maxwell, Jr

Michael A Murphy

Lars A Lindqvist

Richard L Tenor

Thomas J Van Heuklon

Todd Kelsey

Carl E Yates

An example embodiment of an electrical-energy meter comprises a transformer for producing an electrical output proportional to an electrical current in a conductor of electrical energy, a circuit board electrically coupled to the transformer for facilitating the calculation and displaying of a cumulative amount of electrical energy passing through the conductor of electrical energy, a first optical transmitter, a second optical transmitter, and an optical receiver. The first and second optical transmitters and the optical receiver are coupled to the circuit board. The first optical transmitter and the receiver facilitate optical communications between the electrical-energy meter and a first type of external device. The second optical transmitter and the receiver facilitate optical communications between the electrical-energy meter and a second type of external device.

Electrical-energy meter adaptable for optical communication with various external devices

A method and apparatus for detecting a power outage within an energy meter and alerting a remote central computer about the outage using call-in reporting via modem ( ) within the meter to a telephone number designated for outage reporting. A primary battery cell or pack ( ) is placed inside the meter ( ) to operate the modem ( ) when line power is lost. The modem ( ) switches from a line power source in the meter ( ) to the battery source ( ) when an outage is detected and is to be reported to the remote central computer as an outage call. The battery source ( ) is switched off when the outage is completed or aborted. The number of retries to call to report the power outage and the time period between retries is programmable.

Method and apparatus for detecting and reporting a power outage

Apparatus for effecting field calibration of a portion of an electrical energy metering system, the system including a magneto-optic metering transducer (2,30) for producing an optical output signal representative of the current or voltage component of energy to be metered, and the portion of the system which is to be calibrated including a circuit unit (16,50) for receiving, when the metering system is in operation, the output signal produced by the metering transducer and a signal representative of the other component of the energy to be metered, and for generating an output signal representative of the energy delivered by the current and voltage components. The apparatus is composed of: a source (24) for providing calibrating alternating voltage and alternating current signals; a magneto-optic calibration transducer (22,54) for producing an optical output signal representative of one of the calibrating signals and for supplying its output signal to the circuit unit (16,50), in place of the output signal produced by the metering transducer (2,30); a conductor for supplying a signal representative of the other calibrating signal to the circuit unit (16,50), in place of the signal representative of the other component of the energy to be metered; and a metering device (26) connected to receive the calibrating signals provided by the source (24) and the output signal from the circuit unit (16,50) for providing an indication of the relation between the energy delivered by the calibrating signals and the energy represented by the output signal generated by the circuit unit (16,50) during a selected measuring interval.

Method to calibrate magneto-optic based metering system

An electronic circuit arrangement for producing an output signal representative of the average value of an alternating voltage in a power transmission system, composed of: at least one circuit unit composed of a pulse width modulator (6) connected to derive, from the alternating voltage, a train of pulses modulated in width as a function of the amplitude of the alternating voltage and with a defined phase relation to the alternating voltage, an electronic circuit (4,8) connected to derive, from the alternating voltage, an alternating signal which varies in frequency with the alternating voltage and which has the defined phase relation to the alternating voltage, and a signal multiplying device (14) connected to receive the train of pulses modulated in width and the alternating signal for multiplying the pulses and the alternating signal to produce a product signal having an amplitude proportional to the average magnitude of the alternating voltage; and a signal to frequency converter (16) connected to derive from the product signal a train of output pulses having a repetition rate proportional to the amplitude of the product signal and constituting the output signal (18).

Polyphase volt-hour indicating circuit

A portable remote meter reading apparatus is provided which communicates, via a power line conductor, with remote inaccessible electrical meters. A keyboard is provided to enable an operator to enter command and address information to identify a unique inaccessible meter. A baseband data message is formulated to include the unique address and command information. After being modulated with the high frequency carrier signal, the baseband data message is amplified and injected onto the power line conductor for receipt by a remote meter that is equipped with a transmitter and receiver. In response to the command message, the remote meter transmits electrical energy information for receipt by the present invention. The present invention incorporates receiver circuitry which filters lower frequencies from the incoming sinusoidal signal and hard limits the signal to provide a rectangular wave signal to a microprocessor which is capable of demodulating the signal and converting the incoming information into usable energy units, such as kilowatthours, for display on a visual display. Portable direct current power is provided in order to enable the present invention to be completely portable and not depend on the provision of power from external sources.

Portable remote meter reading apparatus

A system for programming a time-of-use meter register includes a portable programmer removably coupled to the register, a computer for compiling time-of-use rate schedules, and a computer interface device for removably connecting the computer and the portable programmer. An operator commands the computer to transmit a plurality of rate schedules from the computer over the computer interface device to the portable programmer where they are stored in RAM memory. Field personnel then optically couple the programmer to the register, and initiate a transfer of the rate schedule from programmer RAM to the register.

Programming system for programmable time registering electric energy

A powerline carrier communications system includes a plurality of types of load management terminals, each of which has a unique address, and a combination field configuration and test terminal which can be plugged into the load management terminals. The combination terminal is coupled to the powerline through the connection to the load management terminal and generates a separate set of test commands for each type of load management terminal, which are transmitted over the powerline for execution by the connected load management terminal. Some types of load management terminals include an INITIALIZATION ENABLE line which, when activated by the connected combination terminal, commands the load management terminal to accept and store an address value received over the powerline as its new unique address.

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Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Scott J Weikel