Power distribution, management, and monitoring systems and methods

• US 10,642,299 B2
• Filed: 11/15/2017
• Issued: 05/05/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Server Technology Incorporated (Legrand SA)
• Original Assignee: Server Technology Incorporated (Legrand SA)
• Inventors: Ewing, Carrel W., Cleveland, Andrew J., Maskaly, James P., McGlumphy, Dennis W., Auclair, Brian P., Eisenberg, Marc, Nicholson, Calvin, Szeto, Andy
• Primary Examiner(s): Shechtman, Sean
• Application Number:
  US15/814,268
• Publication Number:
  US 20180157284A1
• Time in Patent Office: 902 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/66 Regulating electric power
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/189 Power distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/266 Arrangements to supply power to external peripherals either directly from the computer or under computer control, e.g. supply of power through the communication port, computer controlled power-strips
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/28 Supervision thereof, e.g. detecting power-supply failure by out of limits supervision
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 4/00 Circuit arrangements for mains or distribution networks not specified as ac or dc
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/10 Current supply arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0213 Standardised network management protocols, e.g. simple network management protocol [SNMP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/344 Out-of-band transfers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0876 Network utilisation, e.g. volume of load or congestion level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/20 End-user application control systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/00 Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them

Abstract

Managing electrical power usage in a power distribution system. Power usage data indicative of electrical current flow through electrical outlets in the system are collected and displayed for a user. The user may select an outlet and issue a command to control current flow through that outlet. Environmental data may also be collected and displayed. Outlets in different Cabinet Power Distribution Units (CDUs) in different locations may be clustered for reporting and control. A database structure provides a “system” table for data descriptive of the system, a “tower” table for data descriptive of outlets and other elements in the system, an “infeed” table for data descriptive of input electrical power, and an “outlet” table for data descriptive of electrical power flowing through the outlets.

Claims

1. A power distribution unit comprising:

a power distribution unit housing disposable in an electrical equipment rack of the type in which a plurality of electrical components are removably mountable;

at least one power input penetrating the housing;

a plurality of power outputs disposed in the housing, each in electrical communication with said at least one power input, and each connectable to an electrical load;

a sensor system, comprising;

at least one voltage sensor disposed in said housing; and

a plurality of current sensors disposed in said housing, each in electrical communication with an associated one of said plurality of power outputs to sense current therethrough;

a power monitoring section in electrical communication with said sensor system and responsive to signals provided by said sensor system to calculate an amount of energy consumed by each connected load; and

at least one intelligent power module (IPM) comprising an associated sub-plurality of said plurality of outputs, said at least one voltage sensor including a voltage sensor associated with said IPM for sensing a line voltage that is supplied to the sub-plurality of outputs on said IPM.

2. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 wherein said power monitoring section is responsive to calculate, for each connected load, energy consumed over an interval longer than one alternating current (AC) cycle of input power.

3. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 wherein said power monitoring section is responsive to calculate energy consumed for all loads connected to said plurality of power outputs.

4. A power distribution unit as in claim 3 wherein said power monitoring section is responsive to calculate, for all loads connected to said plurality of power outputs, energy consumed over an interval longer than one alternating current (AC) cycle of input power.

5. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 wherein said power monitoring section calculates, for each connected load, at least one of active power, apparent power, power factor, and input current crest factor.

6. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 wherein said power monitoring section comprises at least one analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in electrical communication with the at least one voltage sensor and the plurality of current sensors.

7. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 wherein said at least one voltage sensor comprises one input voltage sensor associated with an input to said power distribution unit, and wherein said sensor system further comprises at least one input current sensor associated with said input.

8. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 further comprising a network interface card (NIC) having application firmware and hardware to interface said power distribution unit to a remote network, and wherein at least a portion of said power monitoring section is associated with said IPM and comprises an energy measurement chip and a microcontroller in communication with said energy measurement chip.

9. A power distribution unit as in claim 8 wherein said energy measurement chip is optically isolated from said microcontroller.

10. A power distribution unit as in claim 8 wherein said energy measurement chip uses current information related to each respective output of said sub-plurality of outputs, along with input voltage supplied to said IPM, to calculate power consumed through said sub-plurality of outputs.

11. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 wherein the voltage sensor associated with said IPM includes a voltage dropping resistor network and an opto-isolated amplifier and provides an indication of instantaneous line voltage for an input power source to said IPM.

12. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 further comprising an energy-related information reporting system associated with said power distribution unit housing and being (i) in energy-related information-determining communication with at least one of said plurality of power outputs, and (ii) connectable in energy-related information transfer communication with a separate communications network distal from the power distribution housing.

13. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 wherein the at least one voltage sensor outputs a voltage level of the at least one power input or at least one of the plurality of power outputs.

14. A power distribution unit as in claim 1 wherein the line voltage corresponds to an instantaneous voltage for a single phase AC or a polyphase AC power source used as an input power source to said IPM.

15. A power distribution unit comprising:

a power distribution unit housing disposable in an electrical equipment rack of the type in which a plurality of electrical components are removably mountable;

at least one power input penetrating the housing;

a plurality of power outputs disposed in the housing, each in electrical communication with said at least one power input, and each connectable to an electrical load;

a sensor system, comprising;

at least one voltage sensor disposed in said housing; and

a plurality of current sensors disposed in said housing, each in electrical communication with an associated one of said plurality of power outputs to sense current therethrough;

a power monitoring section in electrical communication with said sensor system and responsive to signals provided by said sensor system to calculate an amount of energy consumed by each connected load, wherein said power monitoring section calculates the amount of energy consumed by each connected load by multiplying an instantaneous line voltage for an input power source to said power distribution unit with an instantaneous current for each power output and integrating this product over time; and

at least one intelligent power module (IPM) comprising an associated sub-plurality of said plurality of outputs, said at least one voltage sensor including a voltage sensor associated with said IPM for sensing a line voltage that is supplied to the sub-plurality of outputs on said IPM.