REMOTE ELECTRICAL SAFETY DIAGNOSIS SYSTEM AND APPARATUS

• US 20120185185A1
• Filed: 11/30/2009
• Published: 07/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Korea Electrical Safety Corporation (Government of South Korea)
• Original Assignee: Korea Electrical Safety Corporation (Government of South Korea)
• Inventors: Bae, Seok Myoung, Lee, Sang Ick, Kim, Gi Hyun
• Granted Patent: US 9,031,799 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/30 using a wired architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 2209/823 where the data is sent when the measured values exceed a threshold, e.g. sending an alarm
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom

Abstract

The present invention relates to an electrical safety diagnosis system and apparatus, which are configured to enable sensed data on user surroundings in a U-city environment, such as electrical safety data for switchboards and distribution boards, and water leakages, faulty outlet connections, etc., to be managed remotely by a server at a U-city integrated information center. In particular, the present invention relates to an electrical safety diagnosis system and apparatus which use a U-city integrated information network to preemptively perform checking and analyses for potential electrically-induced disasters that can occur in public facilities, stores, buildings, and homes within a U-city, by means of a U-city integrated information center, and prevent electrical fires or shocks at the electrical equipment of switchboards or distribution boards, and dangerous conditions (such as water leakages, abnormal temperatures, gas, and faulty outlet connections) in facilities used by users. The remote electrical safety diagnosis system of the present invention comprises: a digital switchboard including the functions of checking electrical equipment in a switchboard room using a contactless arc sensor and a partial discharge sensor on a power line, to diagnose the safety of the electrical equipment, diagnosing an arc or partial discharge in a detected waveform and storing the diagnosed data, and transmitting the diagnosed data to a higher level server; and a digital distribution board including a main circuit breaker and a partial circuit breaker, for checking an AC voltage or current input through the power line, storing the checked data, and transmitting the diagnosed data to the higher level server.

Claims

1. A remote electricity safety diagnosis system, comprising:

a digital switch gear detecting AC voltage or current of a power supply line with a sensor, and diagnosing an arc or a partial discharge in a detected waveform and storing the arc or the partial discharge as a diagnosis data and transmitting the diagnosis data to an upper server, so as to diagnose safety of electric facilities; and

a digital distribution panel including a main breaker and a branch breaker and detecting AC voltage or current input through the power supply line and storing the AC voltage or current as a detection data, and sensing and breaking the arc in the detection data, and transmitting the detection data to the upper server through wired and wireless communication,

wherein the digital distribution panel includes;

a distribution panel controller detecting the current and voltage of the power supply line and an on/off state of a breaker and controlling the breaker;

a sensor module configured to include at least one sensor mounted around the distribution panel;

a black box unit storing the detection data input from the distribution panel controller and the sensing data input from the sensor module; and

a communication unit transmitting a message to the remote server using a data stored in the black box unit and receiving a response message; and

a gateway module including a processor controlling the communication unit.

2. The electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital switch gear include:

a data accumulation unit accumulating and storing arc data detected at a predetermined time in the sensor;

an alarm comparison unit setting an alarm level of the arc or partial discharge through a comparator and generating an alarm at the time of exceeding the alarm level; and

a trend analysis unit detecting and analyzing a generation frequency of the arc or partial discharge in the arc data accumulated by the data accumulation unit, and generating and storing a current trend or a short-term prediction trend data.

3. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the digital distribution panel includes:

a branch breaker having a detection module which detects the voltage or current signal in the power supply line through a current transformer or a zero-phase-sequence current-transformer and converts the voltage or current signal into a digital data and output the digital data in the wireless communication;

a digital control module receiving the digital data, detecting a state of voltage/current and an ON/OFF state of the main breaker and an ON/OFF state of the branch breaker and outputting the detection data and;

a sensor module detecting the surrounding environments of the digital distribution panel and outputting the sensing data through the wireless data;

a gateway module storing the detection data from the digital control module and the sensing data from the sensor module and transmitting the detection data and the sensing data to the upper server;

an LCD module connected with the gateway module to directly confirm the detection data and the sensing data transmitted from the gateway module at the outside; and

an SMPS converting the AC current of the power supply line into the DC current and supplying the DC current to the gate digital control module and the gateway module.

4. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the detection module of the branch breaker includes:

a sensing resistor converting an AC current signal sensed in the current transformer or the zero current transformer into an AC voltage signal;

an amplifier amplifying the AC voltage signal converted in the sensing resistor;

a signal processing module detecting a state of the AC voltage signal amplified through the amplifier;

a root mean square value transformer converting the AC voltage signal from the signal processing module into a root mean square value of the DC voltage through the signal processing module;

an AD converter converting the root mean square value of the DC voltage into a root-mean-digital-signal;

a power supply side photocoupler sensing a power supply state of a power supply side by receiving a signal output from a light-emitting diode connected with the power supply side terminal line of the branch breaker to receive power supply resistance of the power supply side and a terminal of a transistor conducted when the diode emits light; and

a load side photocoupler sensing a power supply state of a load side by receiving a signal from a light-emitting diode connected with the load side terminal line of the branch breaker to receive power supply resistance of the load side and a terminal of a transistor conducted when the diode emits light;

a power supply input and output terminal receiving a first signal from the power supply side photocoupler and a second signal from the load side photocoupler;

a control unit sensing a first power supply state of the power supply side and a second power supply state of the load side using the first signal and the second signal and converting the first power supply state into a first-power-supply-digital-signal and the second power supply state into a second-power-supply-digital-signal;

a digital input and output device inputting the first-power-supply-digital-signal, the second-power-supply-digital-signal, and the root-mean-digital-signal; and

an RF communication unit transmitting the first digital signal, the second digital signal, and the root-mean-digital-signal in wireless communication.

5. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 4, wherein the digital control module further includes a microprocessor controlling the branch breaker to determine a voltage or current state according to the received digital signal and control a branch breaker, and

the digital input and output device is configured to output a digital force trip signal according to the current and voltage state determined through the microprocessor, convert the force trip signal into the analog signal through the control unit to be output through the power supply input and output terminals and penetrate through the zero current transformer of the branch breaker.

6. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the SMPS includes:

a peak voltage sensing unit converting a highest value of the AC voltage input by performing full wave rectification on a primary commercial power supply into a DC value to generate a signal so as to sense a magnitude in AC voltage and output in the DC voltage form;

a triangular wave oscillator oscillating a triangular wave compared with the magnitude in the DC value of the peak voltage sensing unit;

a comparator unit generating a square wave while performing a switching operation by comparing the magnitude of the DC value of the peak voltage sensing unit with the triangular wave;

an isolation and signal transfer unit including a photocoupler turned-on when the square wave is generated in the comparator unit and transferring the square wave to the secondary side; and

a smoothing and adjusting unit converting the square signal transferred through the isolation and signal transfer unit into the DC value.

7. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 3, wherein the sensor module is configured to include any one of a thermal sensing sensor, a smoke sensor, a flooding sensor, and a vibration sensor and outlet contact defect detection sensor and to transmit the detected signals to the gateway module in a Zigbee wireless communication scheme.

8. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 7, wherein the outlet contact defect detection sensor includes:

a voltage detection unit detecting the voltage of the outlet;

an amplifier amplifying a signal waveform output from the voltage detection unit;

a reference voltage generation unit generating reference voltage to the voltage state of the contact defects of the voltage detection unit;

a comparator determining increased voltage amount by comparing the output signal of the amplification unit with the output; and

a communication unit digitalizing the increased voltage amount determined in the comparator and transmitting the digitalized voltage amount to the gateway module.

11. The apparatus for diagnosing electricity safety as claimed in claim 3, wherein the partial discharge diagnosis module selects a frequency band other than frequency bands in which previously known noises are distributed and measures whether the partial discharge occurs.

12. The apparatus for diagnosing electricity safety as claimed in claim 11, wherein the partial discharge diagnosis module determines the detected signal as noises when the magnitude of the detected signal is the predetermined threshold level.

13. The apparatus for diagnosing electricity safety as claimed in claim 12, wherein the partial discharge diagnosis module generates statistical parameters of plural kinds by measuring the partial discharge and generates a risk diagnosis index for the partial discharge using the statistical parameters and analyzes the risk due to the partial discharge.

14. The apparatus for diagnosing electricity safety as claimed in claim 12, wherein the partial discharge diagnosis module includes:

a statistical parameter generation unit generating the statistical parameters by using the phase cascade array;

a risk diagnosis index generation unit entering the statistical parameters into two or more algorithms and generating the risk diagnosis index due to the partial discharge; and

a second risk determination unit determining the risk due to the partial discharge by analyzing the risk diagnosis index due to the partial discharge.

15. The apparatus for diagnosing electricity safety as claimed in claim 14, wherein a risk diagnosis index generation unit entering the statistical parameters into an NN algorithm and an MDA algorithm with a weight value for the NN algorithm and a weight value for the MDA algorithm.

16. The apparatus for diagnosing electricity safety as claimed in claim 15, further comprising:

a display unit mounted in the switch gear and indicating an alarm list and the trend of the arc generation or the partial discharge generation.

17. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the processor makes a message including an ID field of the black box unit, a power data field, and a sensing data field and transmits the message to the remote server at the time of generating a predetermined duration and a specific event.

18. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the power data field includes a supply state of a main power supply, a supply state of a lamp, and a supply state of other power supplies to a certain number of bits and the sensing data field includes each sensing data of at least two different sensors to a certain number of bits, respectively.

19. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 18, wherein the processor determines retransmission according to a specific field value of a response message from the remote server.

20. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the processor calculates a safety factor using the sensing data and stores the safety factor in the black box unit and transmits a message with the safety factor to the remote server.

21. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an apparatus for detecting contact defects within an electric connector,

wherein the apparatus includes:

a voltage detection unit connects to an electric connector and detects and outputs voltage according to an increase in contact resistance;

an amplification unit amplifying and outputting the voltage input from the voltage detection unit;

a comparison unit and outputting a voltage variation which is a difference between the voltage from the amplification unit and the received reference voltage; and

a communication unit converting the voltage variation into a digital data and transmitting the digital data to the outside, wherein the apparatus for detecting contact defects receives the power from the AC power supply connected with the electric connect.

22. The remote electricity safety diagnosis system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the communication unit transmits its own identifier and information regarding the contact defects to the outside.

9. An apparatus for diagnosing electricity safety occurring in a switch gear to analyze a risk, comprising:

an arc data detection unit sensing the arc occurring in the switch gear or the universal distribution panel and storing the sensed arc as the arc data;

a data determination unit determining whether the arc data detected in the arc data detection unit exceeds a predetermined threshold level; and

a first risk determination unit increasing a risk when the arc data exceeds a threshold level of the arc data detected at the predetermined time and generating the alarm signal due to the arc occurrence when the risk exceeds a predetermined alarm level,

wherein the partial discharge diagnosis module includes;

a partial discharge data generation unit measuring a discharge signal in the switch gear and generating the partial discharge data; and

a phase cascade array generation unit performing phi-q-n analysis for the partial discharge data and generating a phase cascade array.

10. The apparatus for diagnosing electricity safety as claimed in claim 9, wherein the first risk determination unit calculates the risk and analyzes the arc generation trend by an on/off contact scheme or an analog linear signal detection scheme.