METHOD FOR IMPLEMENTING QUALITY ALARMS IN AN ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM REMOTE TERMINAL

• US 20140266673A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gridpoint (Twenty First Century Utilities LLC)
• Original Assignee: Gridpoint (Twenty First Century Utilities LLC)
• Inventors: Mello, Erin
• Granted Patent: US 9,116,519 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/506
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 29/185 Signal analysis techniques for reducing or preventing false alarms or for enhancing the reliability of the system

Abstract

Methods for creating high quality alarms raise EMS operator awareness to abnormal conditions in monitored assets across multiple sites in a single EMS software platform. An embodiment includes steps for accessing an alarm designer software tool that contains a library of alarm definitions and the ability to create new alarm definitions, clone and edit existing alarm definitions, lock alarm definitions and delete alarm definitions. Applicable data is defined using channel attributes identifying which channel or channels associated with the multiple monitored sites are to be evaluated for alarming conditions. The alarm frequency, trigger conditions, pending open duration, close conditions, and pending close duration are also defined. Alarms can trigger upon one or more channels'"'"' behavior over periods of time and conditional relationships between multiple channels. Close conditions for an alarm can be, but are not required to be, the resolution of the trigger conditions.

Claims

1. A method of creating high quality alarms that raise EMS operator awareness to abnormal conditions in monitored assets across multiple sites in a single EMS software platform, the method comprising:

accessing an alarm designer software tool that contains a library of alarm definitions and the ability to create new alarm definitions, clone and edit existing alarm definitions, test alarm definitions, lock alarm definitions and delete unlocked alarm definitions;

defining applicable channel data using one or more channel attributes identifying which channels associated with a site or sites are to be evaluated for alarming conditions;

defining alarm definition parameters, including the frequency, trigger conditions, pending open duration, close conditions, and pending close duration for the alarm;

applying the alarm definition parameters against test channel data having the defined applicable channel data;

generating test results, including potential alarm instances created, triggered alarms generated, and avoided triggered alarms resulting from the defined pending open and pending close durations;

locking valid alarm definition parameters;

activating an alarm definition in an EMS across a pre-defined set of one or more sites;

periodically, as defined by the frequency of the activated alarm, evaluating the pre-defined set of sites against the applicable channel data definition to identify potential alarm instances that meet the applicable channel data definition for the activated alarm and evaluating each potential alarm instance for the predefined trigger conditions;

creating a pending open alarm if the applicable channel data for a potential alarm instance meets the predefined trigger conditions in the activated alarm definition parameters and the pending open duration is greater than the frequency OR creating an open alarm if the applicable data meets the predefined trigger conditions and the pending open duration equals the evaluation frequency of the alarm;

closing the pending open alarm if the applicable data fails to meet the predefined trigger conditions for the full defined pending open duration;

creating an open alarm instance once the trigger conditions occur for the predetermined pending open duration;

populating an EMS software portal with data on an open alarm instance;

periodically, as defined by the frequency of an alarm, comparing the applicable channel data for each open alarm instance to predefined close conditions;

creating a pending close alarm if the applicable channel data meets the predefined close conditions and the pending close duration is greater than the alarm frequency OR closing an alarm if the applicable channel data meets the predefined close conditions and the pending close duration is equal to the alarm frequency;

changing a pending close alarm back to an open alarm if the applicable channel data fails to meet the predefined close conditions for the full predetermined close duration;

closing an open alarm if the close conditions have occurred for the predetermined pending close duration; and

updating the alarm details in the EMS software portal to show that an open alarm is now closed.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the applicable channel data defined in the alarm designer software tool can rely on a combination of channel attributes including channel name, unit of measure, measurement type, and channel category.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein applicable channel data are grouped by site and system if applicable channels are part of a system, to create potential alarm instances where channels or groups of channels may trigger if trigger conditions are met.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the close conditions for an alarm are defined independently from the trigger conditions.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein an alarm can trigger upon one or more channels'"'"' behavior over periods of time and conditional relationships between multiple channels.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein both a pending open duration and pending close duration for an alarm can be independently defined and edited to avoid noisy or repeat alarms.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein alarm definitions can be cloned and new definitions can be created starting from a copy of an existing alarm definition.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein draft alarm definitions are validated upon save to ensure they will be able to evaluate before they can be locked, thereby preventing further editing of an alarm definition and making it a candidate for activation.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein a user of the alarm designer software tool can select historical data from a site or simulated data, specify a date range, and run a test for any saved and validated alarm definition against the selected data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarm designer software tool produces test results that include a listing of all potential alarm instances created and a count of triggered alarm instances for each potential alarm instance.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarm designer software tool produces test results that show, by potential alarm instance created, which potential instances triggered and which triggered alarms closed over the date range selected for the test.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarm designer software tool produces test results that show, by potential alarm instance created, which potential instances did not trigger but met trigger conditions for a duration less than the pending open duration and which triggered alarms had close conditions that were met for a duration less than the pending close duration.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarm definitions, once locked and activated, can be evaluated against near real-time data based on a frequency defined in the alarm definition.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of potential alarm instances grows automatically over time without the need for additional alarm configuration when additional sites are added to the pre-defined set of sites.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarm details populated in an EMS software portal include time stamp information identifying when the alarm trigger conditions first occurred for an open alarm.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarms details populated in an EMS software portal include time stamp information identifying when the alarm close conditions were met for a closed alarm.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the alarms details of any triggered alarms populated in the EMS software portal include a graphical representation of the applicable data channels specific to the site that has triggered an alarm, with context intervals showing the channel data behavior before alarm start time and after alarm end time.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the operator can, for any number of selected sites and date range, view alarm counts and summary information by alarm definition, can drill into details for specific alarm definitions and into individual triggered alarms, then can drill further into the graphical data for the site that includes more channels than those associated with the alarm for detailed analysis of conditions on site.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the channel data used for testing an alarm definition can be historical data for sites.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the channel data used for testing an alarm definition can be simulated data.

21. The method of claim 1, further comprising adjusting, one or more times, the alarm definition parameters based on the test results after the test results are generated.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a notification to the operator of the open alarm instance, including time stamp information identifying when the alarm trigger conditions first occurred for an open alarm.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a notification to the operator of the open alarm instance, including time stamp information identifying when the close alarm conditions were met for a close alarm.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a notification to the operator of the open alarm instance, including a graphical representation of the data for the applicable data channels specific to the site that has triggered an alarm, with context intervals showing the channel data behavior before alarm start time and after alarm end time.

25. A method of creating high quality alarms that raise EMS operator awareness to abnormal conditions in monitored assets across multiple sites in a single EMS software platform, the method comprising:

accessing an alarm designer software tool that contains a library of alarm definitions and the ability to create new alarm definitions, clone and edit existing alarm definitions, test alarm definitions, lock alarm definitions and delete unlocked alarm definitions;

defining applicable channel data using one or more channel attributes identifying which channels associated with a site or sites are to be evaluated for alarming conditions;

defining alarm definition parameters, including the frequency, trigger conditions, pending open duration, close conditions, and pending close duration for the alarm;

applying the alarm definition parameters against test channel data having the defined applicable channel data;

generating test results, including potential alarm instances created, triggered alarms generated, and avoided triggered alarms resulting from the defined pending open and pending close durations; and

locking valid alarm definition parameters.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the applicable channel data defined in the alarm designer software tool can rely on a combination of channel attributes including channel name, unit of measure, measurement type, and channel category.

27. The method of claim 25, wherein applicable data are grouped by site and system if applicable channels are part of a system, to create potential alarm instances where channels or groups of channels may trigger if trigger conditions are met.

28. The method of claim 25, wherein the close conditions for an alarm are defined independently from the trigger conditions.

29. The method of claim 25, wherein an alarm can trigger upon one or more channels'"'"' behavior over periods of time and conditional relationships between multiple channels.

30. The method of claim 25, wherein both a pending open duration and pending close duration for an alarm can be independently defined and edited to avoid noisy or repeat alarms.

31. The method of claim 25, wherein alarm definitions can be cloned and new definitions can be created starting from a copy of an existing alarm definition.

32. The method of claim 25, wherein draft alarm definitions are validated upon save to ensure they will be able to evaluate before they can be locked, thereby preventing further editing of an alarm definition and making it a candidate for activation.

33. The method of claim 25, wherein a user of the alarm designer software tool can select historical data from a site or simulated data, specify a date range, and run a test for any saved and validated alarm definition against the selected data.

34. The method of claim 25, wherein the alarm designer software tool produces test results that include a listing of all potential alarm instances created and a count of triggered alarm instances for each potential alarm instance.

35. The method of claim 25, wherein the alarm designer software tool produces test results that show, by potential alarm instance created, which potential instances triggered and which triggered alarms closed over the date range selected for the test.

36. The method of claim 25, wherein the alarm designer software tool produces test results that show, by potential alarm instance created, which potential instances did not trigger but met trigger conditions for a duration less than the pending open duration and which triggered alarms had close conditions that were met for a duration less than the pending close duration.

37. A method of creating using quality alarms that raise EMS operator awareness to abnormal conditions in monitored assets across multiple sites in a single EMS software platform, the method comprising:

activating an alarm definition in an EMS across a pre-defined set of one or more sites, wherein the activated alarm definition includes;

one or more channel attributes identifying which channels associated with the multiple sites are to be evaluated for alarming conditions, and

test alarm definition parameters, including the frequency, trigger conditions, pending open duration, close conditions, and pending close duration for the activated alarm;

periodically, as defined by the frequency of an alarm, evaluating the pre-defined set of sites against the applicable data definition to identify potential alarm instances that meet the applicable data definition for the activated alarm and evaluating each potential alarm instance for the predefined trigger conditions;

creating a pending open alarm if the applicable channel data for a potential alarm instance meets the predefined trigger conditions in the activated alarm definition parameters and the pending open duration is greater than the frequency OR creating an open alarm if the applicable data meets the predefined trigger conditions and the pending open duration equals the evaluation frequency of the alarm;

closing the pending open alarm if the applicable data fails to meet the predefined trigger conditions for the full defined pending open duration;

creating an open alarm instance once the trigger conditions occur for the predetermined pending open duration;

populating an EMS software portal with data on an open alarm instance;

periodically, as defined by the frequency of an alarm, comparing the applicable data for each open alarm instance to predefined close conditions;

creating a pending close alarm if the applicable data meets the predefined close conditions and the pending close duration is greater than the alarm frequency OR closing an alarm if the applicable data meets the predefined close conditions and the pending close duration is equal to the alarm frequency;

changing a pending close alarm back to an open alarm if the applicable data fails to meet the predefined close conditions for the full predetermined close duration;

closing an open alarm if the close conditions have occurred for the predetermined pending close duration; and

updating the alarm details in the EMS software portal to show that an open alarm is now closed.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein the number of potential alarm instances grows automatically over time without the need for additional alarm configuration when additional sites are added to the pre-defined set of sites.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein the alarm details populated in an EMS software portal include time stamp information identifying when the alarm trigger conditions first occurred for an open alarm.

40. The method of claim 37, wherein the alarms details populated in an EMS software portal include time stamp information identifying when the alarm close conditions were met for a closed alarm.

41. The method of claim 37, wherein the alarms details of any triggered alarms populated in the EMS software portal includes a graphical representation of the applicable data channels specific to the site that has triggered an alarm, with context intervals showing the channel data behavior before alarm start time and after alarm end time.

42. The method of claim 37, wherein the operator can, for any number of selected sites and date range, view alarm counts and summary information by alarm definition, can drill into details for specific alarm definitions and into individual triggered alarms, then can drill further into the graphical data for the site that includes more channels than those associated with the alarm for detailed analysis of conditions on site.

43. The method of claim 37, further comprising sending a notification to the operator of the open alarm instance, including time stamp information identifying when the alarm trigger conditions first occurred for an open alarm.

44. The method of claim 37, further comprising sending a notification to the operator of the open alarm instance, including time stamp information identifying when the close alarm conditions were met for a close alarm.

45. The method of claim 37, further comprising sending a notification to the operator of the open alarm instance, including a graphical representation of the data for the applicable data channels specific to the site that has triggered an alarm, with context intervals showing the channel data behavior before alarm start time and after alarm end time.

46. A computer program product creating high quality alarms that raise EMS operator awareness to abnormal conditions in monitored assets across multiple sites in a single EMS software platform, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in the computer usable medium for causing an application program to execute on a computer system, the computer readable program code means comprising;

computer readable program code for accessing an alarm designer software tool that contains a library of alarm definitions and the ability to create new alarm definitions, clone and edit existing alarm definitions, test alarm definitions, lock alarm definitions and delete unlocked alarm definitions;

computer readable program code for defining applicable channel data using one or more channel attributes identifying which channels associated with the multiple monitored sites are to be evaluated for alarming conditions;

computer readable program code for defining alarm definition parameters, including the frequency, trigger conditions, pending open duration, close conditions, and pending close duration for the test alarm;

computer readable program code for applying the alarm definition parameters against test channel data having the defined applicable channel data;

computer readable program code for generating test results, including potential alarm instances created, triggered alarms generated, and avoided triggered alarms resulting from the defined pending open and pending close durations; and

computer readable program code for locking valid alarm definition parameters.

47. A computer program product using high quality alarms that raise EMS operator awareness to abnormal conditions in monitored assets across multiple sites in a single EMS software platform, comprising:

a computer usable medium having computer readable program code embodied in the computer usable medium for causing an application program to execute on a computer system, the computer readable program code means comprising;

computer readable program code for activating an alarm definition in an EMS across a pre-defined set of one or more sites, wherein the activated alarm definition includes;

one or more channel attributes identifying which channels associated with the multiple sites are to be evaluated for alarming conditions, and

test alarm definition parameters, including the frequency, trigger conditions, pending open duration, close conditions, and pending close duration for the activated alarm;

computer readable program code for periodically, as defined by the frequency of an alarm, evaluating the pre-defined set of sites against the applicable data definition to identify potential alarm instances that meet the applicable data definition for the activated alarm and evaluating each potential alarm instance for the predefined trigger conditions;

computer readable program code for creating a pending open alarm if the applicable channel data for a potential alarm instance meets the predefined trigger conditions in the activated alarm definition parameters and the pending open duration is greater than the frequency OR creating an open alarm if the applicable data meets the predefined trigger conditions and the pending open duration equals the evaluation frequency of the alarm;

computer readable program code for closing the pending open alarm if the applicable data fails to meet the predefined trigger conditions for the full defined pending open duration;

computer readable program code for creating an open alarm instance once the trigger conditions occur for the predetermined pending open duration;

computer readable program code for populating an EMS software portal with data on an open alarm instance;

computer readable program code for periodically, as defined by the frequency of an alarm, comparing the applicable data for each open alarm instance to predefined close conditions;

computer readable program code for creating a pending close alarm if the applicable data meets the predefined close conditions and the pending close duration is greater than the alarm frequency OR closing an alarm if the applicable data meets the predefined close conditions and the pending close duration is equal to the alarm frequency;

computer readable program code for changing a pending close alarm back to an open alarm if the applicable data fails to meet the predefined close conditions for the full predetermined close duration;

computer readable program code for closing an open alarm if the close conditions have occurred for the predetermined pending close duration; and

computer readable program code for updating the alarm details in the EMS software portal to show that an open alarm is now closed.