Portable Power Quality Analyzer with Networking Capabilities

• US 20080312851A1
• Filed: 08/25/2008
• Published: 12/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EI Electronics LLC (Hubbell, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Electro Industries/Gaugetech
• Inventors: Wang, Wei, Kagan, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 9,696,180 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/60
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/2513 Arrangements for monitoring electric power systems, e.g. power lines or loads; Logging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

An intelligent electronic device (IED) for monitoring power quality of electrical services and receiving/transmitting information using a wireless and wired communication protocol is disclosed. The IED may be configured as a terminal or server of a Wi-Fi network, a cellular network, Intranet, LAN, WAN, or the Internet. In one application, these techniques are implemented in IEDs such as portable power quality analyzers.

Claims

1. An intelligent electronic device (IED), comprising:

an input module configured for monitoring waveforms of voltages and currents of electrical services;

at least one processing module configured for processing the waveforms and administering operation of the IED;

a user interface module including at least one graphics LCD module;

a communication module configured for transmitting/receiving information to/from the IED using at least one of Wi-Fi communication protocol and SMS communication protocol; and

wherein the processing module stores the waveforms in non-volatile memory for later retrieval via said at least one of WIFI communication and SMS communication protocol.

2. The IED of claim 1, wherein the electrical services include at least one (1-3)-phase AC electrical service and/or at least one DC electrical service and wherein the WIFI communication protocol includes at least one of Modbus TCP, HTTP, FTP, DHCP and SMTP.

3. The IED of claim 1, wherein said IED is configurable and/or upgradeable using a touch-screen display of the user interface unit and/or using the information received via the communication module.

4. The IED of claim 1, wherein said IED is compliant with at least one of:

the TCP/IP and 10/100Base-T Ethernet, Modbus/TCP, Modbus, DNP 3.0, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTML), the File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and the Extensive Markup Language (XML) Protocol.

5. The IED of claim 1, wherein said IED is further configured to operate as a server or a terminal of a Wi-Fi network, a cellular network, an Intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the Internet.

6. The IED of claim 1, wherein said IED is configured for (i) transmitting and receiving email messages and (ii) transmitting at least one of raw or systemized data, alarms, text/symbolic messages, tables, charts, and bar graphs.

7. The IED of claim 1, wherein said IED is configured for performing at least one of:

automatic accuracy calibrations;

automatic temperature compensation;

time stamping of data;

accumulating the data during pre-scheduled time intervals;

collecting the data per an event-triggered schedule;

reporting the data with pre-scheduled periodicity;

storing, displaying, and transmitting graphs of the waveforms and data; and

storing, displaying, and transmitting pre-event and post-event portions of the waveforms.

8. The IED of claim 1, wherein said IED is configured for determining parameters selected from (i) the group consisting of voltage/current fault signatures, voltage surges and sags, voltage flickers, neutral-to-ground voltage fluctuations, voltage/current harmonics and interharmonics, voltage/current total harmonic distortion (THD), voltage/current transient events and sub-cycle transient events, real power, reactive power, total power, and a power factor, and/or (ii) the group consisting of line voltages/currents, phase voltages/currents, root mean square (RMS) values of the line and phase voltages/currents, energy, and revenue.

9. The IED of claim 1, wherein the input module is further configured for at least one of:

digitizing in real time a plurality of the waveforms using analog-to-digital (A/D) converters operating at pre-selected sampling rates and defining data points of the digitized waveforms;

processing each digitized waveform (i) starting at a pre-selected phase angle of the waveform and (ii) for a pre-determined duration of time or a pre-determined number of cycles of the waveform; and

averaging numerical values of the data points having same timing relationship during a pre-defined number of consecutive AC cycles.

10. The IED of claim 1, wherein said IED is a portable power quality analyzer, a digital electrical power and energy meter, a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC), a Remote Terminal Unit, a protective relay, or a fault recorder.

11. A portable power quality analyzer comprising:

a portable enclosure having a field openable cover for gaining access to internal components, the portable enclosure including at least one voltage connection and at least one current connection accessible from an outer surface of the portable enclosure;

an input module coupled to the at least one voltage and current connections configured for monitoring waveforms of voltages and currents of electrical services;

a processing module configured for processing the waveforms and determining power quality events;

a user interface module disposed internal to the portable enclosure and accessible when the cover is open; and

a communication module configured for transmitting/receiving information to/from the portable power quality analyzer using at least one wireless communication protocol.

12. The portable power quality analyzer of claim 11, wherein the at least one wireless communication protocol is a Wi-Fi communication protocol.

13. The portable power quality analyzer of claim 11, wherein the at least one wireless communication protocol is a SMS communication protocol.

14. The portable power quality analyzer of claim 11, further comprising a wound flat coil antenna disposed on the cover and coupled to the communication module.

15. The portable power quality analyzer of claim 11, wherein the user interface module is a touch screen graphical display.

16. The portable power quality analyzer of claim 11, wherein the portable power quality analyzer is further configured to operate as a server or a terminal of a Wi-Fi network, a cellular network, an Intranet, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), or the Internet.

17. A power monitoring system comprising:

a plurality of portable power quality analyzers communicating over an ad hoc network;

a base unit for coupling the ad hoc network to another second network;

each of the portable power quality analyzers comprising;

a portable enclosure having a field openable cover for gaining access to internal components, the portable enclosure including at least one voltage connection and at least one current connection accessible from an outer surface of the portable enclosure;

an input module coupled to the at least one voltage and current connections configured for monitoring waveforms of voltages and currents of electrical services;

a processing module configured for processing the waveforms and (determining power quality events;

a user interface module disposed internal to the portable enclosure and accessible when the cover is open;

a communication module configured for transmitting/receiving information to/from the portable power quality analyzer using at least one wireless communication protocol; and

a signal strength indicator for determining the signal strength of the wirelesses connection between each portable power quality analyzer and the base unit,

wherein the power quality analyzer with a highest signal strength is configured as a server and the remaining portable power quality analyzers are configured as clients.

18. The power monitoring system of claim 17, wherein the second network is the Internet.

19. The power monitoring system of claim 17, wherein the at least one wireless communication protocol is a SMS communication protocol.

20. The power monitoring system of claim 17, further comprising a wound flat coil antenna disposed on the cover and coupled to the communication module.