Prepayment System For Electric Power Meters Using A Contactless Smart Card With An Automatic Supply Cut-Off Device

• US 20080033892A1
• Filed: 09/30/2005
• Published: 02/07/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/13/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Control De Energia A La Medida Ega, S.a. De C.V.
• Original Assignee: IUSA SA de CV (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Neri-Badillo, Eduardo
• Granted Patent: US 7,840,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/412
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 15/003 for electricity
• CPC Class Codes: Y02W 30/40 Bio-organic fraction processing; Production of fertilisers from the organic fraction of waste or refuse

Abstract

The present invention refers to the use of a meter completely integrated on a single piece, totally covered and without contact with the exterior that incorporates a prepayment system and a more efficient method to control the electric energy supply and obtains excellent information from the meter by means of contactless intelligent cards.

Claims

1. Prepayment method of electric energy using a contactless intelligent card and an electronic electricity energy meter with internal reader-writer for contactless intelligent cards, characterized by comprising the steps of:

interchanging information between the meter and the contactless intelligent card by means of radiofrequency;

authenticating the prepayment intelligent card and the internal reader-writer for contactless intelligent cards, in mutual form, by two or more digital signatures and the serial number of the meter;

discharging and storing the amount of Prepaid kWh of the intelligent prepayment card in the memory of the electronic meter; and

recording the information generated about the state of the meter in the contactless prepayment intelligent card.

2. The electric energy prepayment method according to claim 1, further characterized in that the step of interchanging information between the meter and the contactless intelligent card also includes the steps of:

emitting a radiofrequency command from the meter by means of a contactless prepayment control card;

detecting the presence of a contactless prepayment intelligent card inside the detection field of the electric energy meter;

determining if there is more than one contactless prepayment intelligent card in the detection field of the electric energy meter; and

selecting the contactless prepayment intelligent card in accordance with a data transmission protocol by a radiofrequency previously specified.

3. The prepayment method of electric energy according to claim 1, further characterized by the step of authenticating the intelligent prepayment card and the internal reader-writer of contactless intelligent cards also includes the steps of:

verifying if the contactless prepayment intelligent card corresponds to the electric energy meter; and

determining if the contactless prepayment intelligent card has credit greater than zero of the amount of Prepaid kWh.

4. The prepayment method of electric energy according to claim 1, further characterized by the step of discharging the amount of prepaid kWh of the prepayment intelligent card to the electronic meter could be partial or total.

5. The prepayment method of electric energy according to claim 4, further characterized by the partial or total discharge of the amount of Prepaid kWh depending on the predetermined amount recorded in the contactless prepayment intelligent card.

6. The prepayment method of electric energy according to claim 1, further characterized by the step of discharging the amount of prepaid kWh of the prepayment intelligent card to the electronic meter include the steps of:

reading the remaining credit in the meter;

adding the total or partial credit discharged from the intelligent card to the remaining balance in the meter; and

storing the new value of the prepaid credit in the meter.

7. The prepayment method of electric energy according to claim 1, further characterized in that the information that is recorded in the contactless prepayment intelligent card consists on the energy consumed by the user during the life of the meter, data gotten by the meter and meter tampering such as disconnections, inversions, presence of derivations and similar actions.

8. The prepayment method of electric energy according to claim 1, further characterized in that the internal reader-writer of contactless intelligent card of the electronic meter is activated according to the information displayed in the screen in order to save energy to the energy utilities company.

9. Method for automatically control the electric energy supply to a contactless prepayment electronic meter using an automatic supply shut off device, characterized because it includes the steps of:

reading the prepaid credit in the memory of the electronic meter;

verifying if the prepaid credit is greater than 0; and

verifying the state of the automatic supply shut off device to determine if it is opened or closed; and

generating a command to open or close the automatic electric energy supply shut off device based on the read prepaid credit;

up to here, when the credit is greater than 0 a command is generated to close the automatic supply shut off device to aloud the supply of electric energy to the meter, and when the balance is not greater than 0 a command is generated to open the automatic supply shut off device to shut off the supply of electric energy to the user.

10. The method to control the electric energy supply in a contactless prepayment electronic meter according to claim 9, further characterized in that this automatic supply shut off device is a relay.

11. A method to obtain information about the use of a prepayment electronic meter with internal reader-writer of contactless intelligent cards, characterized by:

storing the information generated about the state of the meter in the memory of such meter;

transmitting this information stored in the meter toward an intelligent prepayment contactless card; and

discharging the information recorded in this contactless intelligent card every time that the user recharges with prepaid kWh this reusable card, in a data base through a point of sale for a further analysis by the energy utilities company.

12. The method to obtain information of the use of an electronic prepayment meter with internal reader-writer of contactless intelligent card, according to claim 11, further characterized in that the obtained information consists on the energy consumed by the user during the life of the meter, the credit of the meter, and meter tampering such as the number of disconnections, interruptions, derivations, energy accumulated during the use of derivations and inversions.

13. Prepayment and control method of electric energy supply for electronic meters that have an internal reader-writer of contactless intelligent cards and an automatic supply shut off device using a contactless intelligent card, characterized because includes the steps of:

reading the credit in the memory of the electronic meter;

verifying if the credit is greater than 0;

verifying the state of the automatic supply shut off device to determine if it is opened or closed; and

generating a command to open or close the automatic supply shut off device based on the prepayment credit read, up where, when the credit is greater than 0 a command is generated to close the automatic supply shut off device to aloud the electric energy supply to the meter, and when the credit is not greater than 0, a command is generated to open the automatic device for supply shut off of the electric energy supply to the user;

detecting the presence of a contactless prepayment intelligent card;

interchanging information between the meter and the contactless intelligent card by radiofrequency;

authenticating the intelligent prepayment card and the internal reader-writer of contactless intelligent cards, in mutual form, by two or more digital signatures and the serial number of the meter;

discharging and storing the amount of prepaid kWh from the intelligent prepayment card in the memory of the electronic meter; and

recording the information generated about the state of the meter in the contactless prepayment intelligent card.

14. The prepayment and control method for the supply of electric energy for electronic meters according to claim 13, further characterized by the step of interchanging information between the meter and the contactless intelligent card also includes the steps of:

emitting a radiofrequency command from the meter by means of a contactless prepayment control card;

detecting the presence of a contactless prepayment intelligent card in the detection field of the electric energy meter;

determining if there is more than one contactless prepayment intelligent card in the detection field of the electric energy meter; and

selecting the contactless prepayment intelligent card in accordance with a data transmission protocol by radiofrequency previously specified.

15. The prepayment method and control of electric energy supply for electronic meters according to claim 13, further characterized by the step of authenticating the intelligent prepayment card and the internal reader-writer of contactless intelligent card also includes the steps of:

verifying if the contactless prepayment intelligent card corresponds to the electric energy meter; and

determining if the contactless prepayment intelligent card has credit.

16. The prepayment and control method of electric energy supply for electronic meters according to claim 13, further characterized in that the step of discharging the amount of prepaid kWh from the prepayment intelligent card to the electronic meter could be partially or totally.

17. The prepayment and control method of electric energy supply for electronic meters according to claim 16, further characterized by the partial or total discharge of the amount of Prepaid kWh depends on the predetermined amount recorded in the contactless intelligent prepayment card.

18. The prepayment and control method of electric energy supply for electronic meters according to claim 13, further characterized in that the step of discharging the amount of prepaid kWh of the prepayment intelligent card of the electronic meter also includes the steps of:

reading the remaining credit in the meter;

adding the total or partial balance discharged from the intelligent card to the remaining balance in the meter; and

storing the new value of the prepaid credit in the meter.

19. The prepayment and control method of electric energy supply for electronic meters according to claim 13, further characterized in that the information that is recorded in the contactless prepayment intelligent card consists on the energy consumed by the user during the life of the meter and meter tampering such as disconnections, inversions, presence of derivations, energy accumulated during the use of derivations and similar actions.

20. The prepayment and control method for electric energy supply for electronic meters according to any of claim 13, further characterized in that the internal reader-writer of contactless intelligent cards of the electronic meter is activated according to the information displayed in the screen to save energy to energy utilities distribution companies.

21. A prepayment and control of electric energy supply system using a contactless intelligent card for an electronic meter of the type that includes a electric energy measurement card that includes a measurement module that registers the electric energy consumed by the user;

a microcontroller for controlling the operation of the energy measurement module, which has a flash memory to store information generated in the measurement module regarding the energy consumed by the user during the life of the meter and meter tampering;

a liquid crystal display to display information about the state of the meter; and

independent feeding source for this energy measurement module and this microcontroller,

characterized the electric energy prepayment and control system of supply because it includes;

a) contactless prepayment control and energy supply shut off card, and such control card includes;

i) a reader-writer element of contactless intelligent card to detect the presence of a contactless prepayment intelligent card, interprets the commands of the contactless prepayment intelligent card, and generates and sends a radiofrequency power command;

ii) a microcontroller to interchange information between the reader-writer of prepayment cards and the microcontroller of the measurement module of energy of the meter, where this microcontroller reads the available amount of electric energy of the user in the energy measurement card;

iii) a cross zero detector of the electric energy that sends a command to the microcontroller when a energy failure is presented to avoid the lost of information during the electric supply failure;

iv) a controller of the supply shut off device to open and close this shut off device when the microcontroller requires it by a cutting of or opening command;

v) a feeding source of this prepayment control card, where the source of energy works when there is electric energy supply, and works at most one second when there is a supply failure, time enough to back up the information of any transaction of energy.

b) an energy supply shut off device; and

c) a command transmission/reception element.

22. The prepayment and control system of electric energy supply using a contactless intelligent card for an electronic meter, according to the claim 21, further characterized in that the reader-writer of contactless cards also includes an encryption/deencryption module to verifying and validating the authenticity of the prepayment card, coding the transferred data and verifying the validity of the information recorded in the memory of the microcontroller or the printed circuit of specific use for prepayment cards of this contactless prepayment card before discharging it.

23. The prepayment and control system of electric energy supply using a contactless intelligent card for an electronic meter, according to claim 22, further characterized in that the information that verifies and validates the contactless reader-writer could be the meter number, contract number, last date of load of the card, security keys, prepaid kWh amount data and/ or amount of the prepaid kWh to be transfer to the meter by discharge.

24. The prepayment and control system of electric energy supply using a contactless intelligent card for an electronic meter, according to claim 21, further characterized in that the data of the prepaid amount of electric energy discharged from the contactless prepayment control card is stored in the flash memory of the microcontroller of the measurement module.

25. The prepayment and control system of electric energy supply using a contactless intelligent card for an electronic meter, according to claim 21, further characterized in that the liquid crystal display of the meter displays the information of the available energy previously paid by the user as well as when could it be discharged the amount of prepaid kWh from a contactless prepayment card and also includes special information that indicates to the user to place the card near the meter to begin the discharge of the amount of prepaid kWh.