DETERMINING A CONNECTIVITY MODEL IN SMART GRIDS

• US 20140039818A1
• Filed: 07/31/2012
• Published: 02/06/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Utopus Insights, Inc. (Vestas Wind Systems A/S)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Arya, Vijay, Kalyanaraman, Shivkumar, Seetharamakrishnan, Devasenapathi Periagraharam, Thathachar, Jayram S.
• Granted Patent: US 9,285,242 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 702/62
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2204/47 Methods for determining the topology or arrangement of meters in a network
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/00 Tariff metering apparatus in taximeters G07B13/00; apparatus actuated by coins, cards or the like with meter-controlled dispensing of liquid, gas, or electricity G07F15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0811 by checking connectivity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 45/02 Topology update or discovery
• 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

Methods and arrangements for determining a network connectivity model. Meters are interfaced with, and periodic synchronous power-related measurements are collected from different meters. Measurement messages are sent to a predetermined location for being consolidated and processed, and a network connectivity model is thereupon determined.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, from meters in an electric power grid, power-related measurements;

said obtaining comprising receiving the power-related measurements at at least one remote device; and

consolidating and processing the power-related measurements to determine a network connectivity model.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said obtaining comprises collecting measurements of at least one member selected from the group consisting of:

voltage;

current; and

elapsed kilowatt hours.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said obtaining comprises interfacing with at least two members selected from the group consisting of:

at least one smart meter;

at least one feeder meter; and

at least one transformer meter.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said consolidating and processing comprises determining a tree connectivity model.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said determining comprises analyzing a time series of measurements from at least some of the meters.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein said determining comprises finding a sparsest set of the meters whose measurements approximately add up to the measurements of a given meter to determine connectivity among the meters.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein said determining comprises finding a largest set of the meters whose measurements approximately add up to the measurements of a given meter to divine an upstream-downstream connection between the given meter and the largest set of the meters.

8. The method according to claim 5, wherein said determining comprises using base vectors in a null space of a matrix of measurements from at least some of the meters to determine connectivity among the meters.

9. The method according to claim 5, wherein said collecting comprises collecting information including at least one member selected from the group consisting of:

meter type;

voltage;

current;

power factor;

active power; and

reactive power.

10. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor; and

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith and executable by the at least one processor, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to obtain, from meters in an electric power grid, power-related measurements;

computer readable program code configured to receive the power-related measurements at at least one remote device; and

computer readable program code configured to consolidate and process the power-related measurements to determine a network connectivity model.

11. A computer program product comprising:

a computer readable storage medium having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the computer readable program code comprising;

computer readable program code configured to obtain, from meters in an electric power grid, power-related measurements;

computer readable program code configured to receive the power-related measurements at at least one remote device; and

computer readable program code configured to consolidate and process the power-related measurements to determine a network connectivity model.

12. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to collect measurements of at least one member selected from the group consisting of:

voltage;

current; and

elapsed kilowatt hours.

13. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to interface with at least two members selected from the group consisting of:

at least one smart meter;

at least one feeder meter; and

at least one transformer meter.

14. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to determine a tree connectivity model of the meters.

15. The computer program product according to claim 11, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to analyze a time series of meter measurements from at least some of the meters.

16. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to find a sparsest set of the meters whose measurements approximately add up to the measurements of a given meter to determine connectivity among the meters.

17. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to find a largest set of the meters whose measurements approximately add up to the measurements of a given meter to divine an upstream-downstream connection between the given meter and the largest set of the meters.

18. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to use base vectors in a null space of a matrix of measurements from at least some of the meters to determine connectivity among the meters.

19. The computer program product according to claim 15, wherein said computer readable program code is configured to collect information including at least one member selected from the group consisting of:

meter type;

voltage;

current;

power factor;

active power; and

reactive power.

20. A method comprising:

receiving measurements from smart meters in a power network;

receiving measurements from at least one meter upstream from at least one smart meter in the power network;

consolidating measurement data from the smart meters and the at least one upstream meter; and

mapping connections between the smart meters and the at least one upstream meter based on the consolidated measurement data.