Advanced Metering Infrastructure Simulation

• US 20120209584A1
• Filed: 02/11/2011
• Published: 08/16/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/11/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Southern Company Services, Inc. (Southern Company)
• Original Assignee: Southern Company Services, Inc. (Southern Company)
• Inventors: Floyd, Gregory Ray, Morris, Eric A.
• Application Number:
  US13/025,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20120209584A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/17
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 18/00 Testing or calibrating apparatus or arrangements provided for in groups G01D1/00 - G01D15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2218/10 Testing of sensors or measuring arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• 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

Disclosed are various embodiments for systems and methods facilitating simulation of metering devices in an advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) deployment. Meter simulators are executed in a simulation application, and a user can initiate a simulation based upon various operational scenario the user desires to simulate.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one computing device; and

a metering simulation service executable in the at least one computing device, the metering simulation service comprising;

logic that generates a plurality of meter simulators, the meter simulators comprising a meter identifier and a meter state;

logic that receives at least one message from a metering client, the at least one message corresponding a request to modify the meter state associated with at least a subset of the meter simulators;

logic that modifies the meter state associated with the at least a subset of the meter simulators; and

logic that issues a response to the metering client on behalf of the at least a subset of the meter simulators.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the meter simulators further comprises a state machine including a plurality of states associated with the meter simulator.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the meter state is one of:

an on state an off state, an indeterminate state, a brownout state, a high temperature state, and a low temperature state.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the meter simulators is configured to generate a plurality of events, the events comprising at least one of an outage event, a restore event, and a tamper event.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the metering simulation service further comprises a metering client request queue configured to queue incoming requests from the metering client.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the metering simulation service further comprises a metering client response queue configured to queue outgoing responses to the metering client on behalf of the meter simulators.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the metering simulator client is configured to associate the meter identifier associated with the meter simulators with at least one of an operating company and a geographic location.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the metering simulation service further comprises an AMI queue configured to queue messages from the metering simulators to at least one utility system.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the at least one utility system is further configured to communicate with the metering simulation service;

and the metering simulation service further comprises;

logic that receives a message from the at least one utility system;

logic that extracts a message meter identifier from the message;

logic that identifies a meter simulator having a meter identifier corresponding to the message meter identifier;

logic that identifies a meter state associated with the meter identifier;

logic that generates a response to the message based at least upon the identified meter state; and

logic that queues the response in the AMI queue.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the message is a ping request.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the meter simulators are further configured to generate a meter event corresponding to a change in the meter state.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the meter event is at least one of a tamper event, a power failure vent and a power restore event.

13. A method, comprising the steps of:

generating, in at least one computing device a plurality of meter simulators, the meter simulators comprising a meter identifier and a meter state;

receiving, in at least one computing device, at least one message from a metering client, the at least one message corresponding to a request to cause at least one of the meter simulators to generate an event;

generating, in at least one computing device, the event in the at least one of the meter simulators; and

issuing, in at least one computing device, a response to the metering client on behalf of the at least of the meter simulators.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the meter simulators further comprises a state machine, wherein the meter state is one of:

an on state and an off state.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the events comprises at least one of an outage event, a restore event, and a tamper event.

16. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of queuing, in at least one computing device, incoming requests to generate at least one event in a metering simulator from the metering client.

17. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of queuing, in at least one computing device, outgoing responses to the metering client on behalf of the meter simulators.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the metering simulator client is configured to associate the meter identifier associated with the meter simulators with at least one of an operating company and a geographic location.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of queuing messages from the metering simulators to at least one utility computing system.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the at least one utility computing system is further configured to communicate with the at least one computing device;

and the method further comprises the steps of;

receiving a message from the at least one utility computing system;

extracting a meter identifier from the message;

identifying a meter simulator having a meter identifier corresponding to the message meter identifier;

identifying a meter state associated with the meter simulator;

generating a response to the message; and

queuing the response in the AMI queue.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the message is a ping request.