Distributed utility monitoring, such as for monitoring the quality or existence of a electrical, gas, or water utility

• US 20060004679A1
• Filed: 07/05/2005
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Itron, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Itron, Inc.
• Inventors: Cahill-O'Brien, Barry, Osterloh, Christopher, Nagy, Christopher J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,283,916 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/412
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 11/56 Special tariff meters
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

In a system for automatic meter reading of utility meters, a utility supply measuring system may include one or more collector units, wherein each one of the collector units accesses a supply of a utility, wherein the accessing occurs in addition to receiving meter reading data from a telemetry device, such as a telemetry device coupled to a utility. In accessing the supply of the utility, the collector unit component may itself be at least loosely coupled to a utility supply, or may communicate with a device that monitors quality, such as an outage detector. A method for transmitting utility supply data for such communications may include continuously transmitting a PN sequence code over a single channel.

Claims

1. In a system for automatic meter reading of utility meters, a method for measuring a quality of a consumable utility, the method comprising:

monitoring a supply of a utility, wherein the monitoring occurs in addition to receiving meter reading data from a telemetry device coupled to a utility meter;

detecting if the supply of the utility is compromised; and

providing an indication of whether the supply is compromised, wherein providing the indication occurs in addition to providing the received meter reading data to a central processor associated with the utility supply.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting if the quality of the supply is compromised includes:

transforming a received alternating current waveform to a digital signal;

reconstructing the digital signal into a digital representation of the alternating current waveform;

analyzing the digital representation; and

determining if present conditions exceed at least one predetermined threshold.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the supply includes:

receiving a coded sequence from a utility supply monitoring component, wherein the utility supply monitoring component is configured to monitor a supply of a utility, wherein the received coded sequence corresponds to the monitoring, and wherein the coded sequence is transmitted substantially continuously;

at the collector node, correlating the received coded sequence; and

if the correlation is unsuccessful, determining that the supply of the utility is compromised.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein monitoring the supply includes locally accessing or sampling an incoming supply of the utility.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein providing an indication of whether the supply is compromised includes reporting a detected outage of the supply of the utility immediately following the detected outage.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the system or automatic meter reading of utility meters is a fixed network meter reading system, and wherein providing an indication of whether the supply is compromised is performed via the fixed network.

7. In a system for automatic meter reading of utility meters, a utility supply analysis system comprising:

one or more collector units, wherein each of the one or more collector units includes;

a utility supply monitoring component, wherein the utility supply monitoring component is configured to access an incoming or outgoing supply of a utility and to generate a first signal representing a quality or presence of a utility based, at least in part, on accessing the incoming or outgoing supply; and

a meter data collection component configured to receive a second signal representing collected meter data related to consumption of the utility, wherein the second signal is generated at a source external to the one or more collector units.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the incoming or outgoing supply of the utility is an electrical power line and wherein the utility supply monitoring component is a voltage sensing component.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the incoming or outgoing supply of the utility is an electrical power line.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the incoming or outgoing supply of the utility is a gas line or a water line.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the source external to the one or more collector units includes at least one telemetry device that is coupled to a utility meter, and wherein the at least one telemetry device transmits the meter data to at least one of the collector devices via a radio frequency transmission.

12. The system of claim 7 wherein the second signal is not associated with monitoring the supply of the utility.

13. The system of claim 7 wherein the meter data collection component includes at least one meter reading application.

14. The system of claim 7 wherein at least one of the one or more collector units is mounted on a telephone pole including a power supply line.

15. The system of claim 7 wherein the incoming supply of a utility is a gas line and wherein the utility supply monitoring component is a gas pressure sensing component.

16. The system of claim 7 wherein the incoming supply of a utility is a water line and wherein the utility supply monitoring component is a water pressure sensing component.

17. A computer-readable medium containing instructions for performing a method for measuring the quality or presence of a supply of a utility in a system for automatic meter reading of utility meters, the method comprising:

at a collector node, receiving a coded sequence from a utility supply monitoring component, wherein the utility supply monitoring component is configured to monitor a supply of a utility, wherein the received coded sequence corresponds to the monitoring, and wherein the coded sequence is transmitted substantially continuously;

at the collector node, correlating the received coded sequence; and

if the correlation is unsuccessful, determining that the supply of the utility is compromised.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises sending a report to a head end system via a network, wherein the report indicates the quality of the supply based on the correlation.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises, receiving meter reading data associated with consumption of the utility at the collector node.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the coded sequence includes a pseudo-random number code sequence.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the coded sequence includes a pseudo-random number code sequence having a predetermined length, and wherein the correlation is performed based on time period equal to twice the length of the pseudo-random number code sequence.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the method further comprises, at the collector node, receiving additional coded sequences, wherein all the coded sequences received at the collector node are continuously transmitted over a single channel.

23. In a system for automatic meter reading of utility meters, a system for measuring the quality of a supply of a utility, the system comprising:

means for repeatedly transmitting a signal providing an indication of whether a utility supply is subject to an outage; and

means for collecting utility information;

wherein the means for collecting utility information includes;

means for receiving the repeatedly transmitted signal from the means for repeatedly transmitting, and

means to collect meter data related to consumption of the utility.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the means for receiving the repeatedly transmitted signal interprets the signal using a correlation technique.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the means for receiving the repeatedly transmitted signal interprets the signal using a technique other than correlation.

26. The system of claim 23 wherein the means for repeatedly transmitting a signal providing an indication of whether a utility supply is subject to an outage is at least loosely coupled to one or more utility meters.

27. The system of claim 23 further comprising means to receive, from the means for collecting, information associated with consumption of the utility and outages associated with the utility.