Proactive power outage alerts management system and methods
First Claim
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1. A method comprising:
- determining a potential outage associated with a portion of a multiplicity of customer premises coupled with an electrical power distribution grid based upon an outage signal associated with an element of the electrical power distribution grid, each of the multiplicity of customer premises having a smart meter coupling the customer premises to the electrical power distribution grid, the element of the electrical power distribution grid being upstream from a smart meter coupling the electrical power distribution grid to a customer premises of the portion of the multiplicity of customer premises;
determining, based on the outage signal, the portion of the multiplicity of customer premises affected by the potential outage;
initiating sending of a first initial signal to a first smart meter of a first customer premises of the portion of the multiplicity of customer premises, the first smart meter being downstream from the element of the electrical power distribution grid; and
initiating sending of a first outage notification message to a first customer associated with the first customer premises, based upon a first response signal not being received from the first smart meter in acknowledgement of the first initial signal.
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Abstract
A system, an alternative system, and a computer readable storage medium, for a power outage notification system that proactively manages communication of power outage alerts messages to customers of a power distribution system. Wireless communications between smart meters at the edge of an electrical power distribution network and a proactive outage alerts processing engine at an outage alerts notification information processing system facilitate management of communications of power outage alerts messages to customer communication devices. Power outage alerts messages can be communicated to customers using email messaging, text messaging, and voice mail messaging.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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determining a potential outage associated with a portion of a multiplicity of customer premises coupled with an electrical power distribution grid based upon an outage signal associated with an element of the electrical power distribution grid, each of the multiplicity of customer premises having a smart meter coupling the customer premises to the electrical power distribution grid, the element of the electrical power distribution grid being upstream from a smart meter coupling the electrical power distribution grid to a customer premises of the portion of the multiplicity of customer premises; determining, based on the outage signal, the portion of the multiplicity of customer premises affected by the potential outage; initiating sending of a first initial signal to a first smart meter of a first customer premises of the portion of the multiplicity of customer premises, the first smart meter being downstream from the element of the electrical power distribution grid; and initiating sending of a first outage notification message to a first customer associated with the first customer premises, based upon a first response signal not being received from the first smart meter in acknowledgement of the first initial signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 20)
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5. A proactive power outage alerts notification management system, comprising:
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a power outage management system for tracking electrical power outage conditions associated with elements of an electrical power distribution grid that are affecting a multiplicity of customer premises in the electrical power distribution grid, at least a first customer premises of the multiplicity of customer premises having a first smart meter coupling the first customer premises to the electrical power distribution grid and a second customer premises of the multiplicity of customer premises having a second smart meter coupling the second customer premises to the electrical power distribution grid, the first smart meter and the second smart meter being communicatively coupled with an advanced metering infrastructure to communicate electrical power outage conditions measured by the first smart meter at the first customer premises and/or measured by the second smart meter at the second customer premises, and communicated via the advanced metering infrastructure to a proactive outage alerts processing engine communicatively coupled with the advanced metering infrastructure; a customer notification server system for sending outage notification messages to customers via a customer communication network, each customer being associated with a respective one of the multiplicity of customer premises, a first customer being associated with the first customer premises and a second customer being associated with the second customer premises; the proactive outage alerts processing engine being operatively coupled with at least one processor, responsive to computer instructions stored in a memory, operating in a central outage alerts notification information processing system, the central outage alerts notification information processing system being communicatively coupled with the advanced metering infrastructure, the customer notification server system, and the power outage management system; and the proactive outage alerts processing engine, in response to receiving an outage condition signal from the power outage management system, the outage condition signal being associated with an element of the electrical power distribution grid, performing the following; determining, based upon the outage condition signal, a portion of the multiplicity of customer premises associated with a potential outage condition; initiating, in response to the determining, sending of a first initial signal to the first smart meter of the first customer premises, the first smart meter being downstream from the element of the electrical power distribution grid; and initiating sending of a first outage notification message to the second customer associated with the second customer premises, based upon a first response signal not being received from the first smart meter in acknowledgement of the first initial signal. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising instructions executable by a processor in an outage alerts notification information processing system which, responsive to the instructions, the processor is configured to interoperate with a proactive outage alerts processing engine to perform the following operations:
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determining a potential outage associated with a portion of a multiplicity of customer premises coupled with an electrical power distribution grid based upon an outage signal associated with an element of the electrical power distribution grid, each of the multiplicity of customer premises having a smart meter coupling the customer premises to the electrical power distribution grid, the element of the electrical power distribution grid being other than a smart meter; determining, based on the outage signal, the portion of the multiplicity of customer premises affected by the potential outage; initiating sending of a first initial signal to a first smart meter of a first customer premises of the portion of the multiplicity of customer premises; and initiating sending of a first outage notification message to a first customer associated with the first customer premises, based upon a first response signal not being received from the first smart meter in acknowledgement of the first initial signal. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19)
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Specification