SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENERGY MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT USING A BACKPLANE

• US 20110004426A1
• Filed: 03/29/2007
• Published: 01/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.), Susan M. Donahue
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Lombardi, Steven A., Wright, Kevin P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,301,404 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/61
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/2513 Arrangements for monitoring electric power systems, e.g. power lines or loads; Logging

Abstract

An energy monitoring and management system and method are provided herein. The system and method centralize load metering by utilizing at least one sensor for observing load characteristics (e.g., Volts, Amperes, Watts, active energy . . . ) communicatively coupled via a backplane to a waveform analyzer component of a control component. The waveform analyzer component generates metered data values after receiving input from the at least one sensor. Subsequently and if so desired, the control component can send a control signal to the load to alter the state of the load or simply reduce the power to a load. Such input, output, and processing functionality, according to an aspect of the present invention, are employed using a backplane to facilitate high-speed communication among components and to allow metered data to be centrally stored, manipulated, analyzed or communicated to other components or sub-components.

Claims

1. A load monitoring and management system, comprising:

a plurality of sensors associated with one or more loads; and

a load control component, wherein the control component has a waveform analyzer component which receives data from the plurality of sensors and determines power data that is utilized by the control component to determine the rate of energy distributed to the load.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the control component and the waveform analyzer component are connected and communicate via a backplane.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the waveform analyzer component is located on a printed circuit board.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the circuit board contains a processor and memory.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the processor time stamps data as it is received and stores it in memory.

6. The system of claim 2, further comprising an input component that converts input signals to backplane signals thereby facilitating communication of input signals to components connected to the backplane.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the load control component communicates with other load control components to determine a load control strategy for a plurality of loads.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the control strategy is determined at least in part upon data captured by the plurality of sensors.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the sensors collect data relating to the health of a load.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the waveform analyzer component utilizes the data captured by sensors relating to the health of the load to determine power data.

11. A method for metering a load comprising:

receiving data from one or more sensors associated with one or more loads;

transferring the data from one or more sensors to a backplane device;

time-stamping the data from individual sensors as it arrives;

storing the time stamped data in memory; and

utilizing the time stamped data and energy algorithms to meter a load.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the sensed data is limited to Volts, Amperes, and Watts.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein metering the load comprises determining total energy consumed by a load in a given period.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein metering the load includes measuring harmonic distortion.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein metering the load includes measuring a power factor associated with the load.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein the backplane device is a waveform analyzer component located on a removable circuit board.

17. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable instructions for carrying out the method of claim 11.