On-line web accessed energy meter

• US 7,304,586 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2004
• Issued: 12/04/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: EI Electronics LLC (Hubbell, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Electro Industries/Gauge Tech
• Inventors: Wang, Wei, Kagan, Erran
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Albert K.
• Application Number:
  US10/969,706
• Publication Number:
  US 20060082468A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,140 Days
• Field of Search: 340/870.02, 340/870.03, 702/61, 370/401, 705/412, 455/445
• US Class Current: 340/870.02
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/2513 Arrangements for monitoring electric power systems, e.g. power lines or loads; Logging
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• 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

An electrical metering system capable of performing multiple metering functions, collecting data, and wirelessly provides the collected metering data to a utility operator. In the electrical metering system, at least one computing device for initiating a request for data. A first modem connects the computing device to an infrastructure. A wireless embedded modem for wirelessly connects an electric meter to an infrastructure, and the wireless electric modem receives a request from the computing device and wirelessly transmits the metering data to the computing device, thereby initiating the request.

Claims

1. An electrical metering system capable of performing multiple metering functions, collecting data, and wirelessly providing the collected metering data to a utility operator, the electrical metering system comprising:

at least one computing device for initiating a request for data;

a first modem for connecting the computing device to an infrastructure; and

at least one electric meter comprising;

a digital sampler configured for sampling voltage and current waveforms;

a microprocessor configured to collect the voltage and current data and generate power consumption data from the sampled voltage and current waveforms;

a peripheral device coupled to the at least one electric meter and configured to act as a server for the at least one electric meter, the peripheral device is further configured for presenting the collected and generated data in the form of web pages; and

a wireless embedded modem coupled to the at least one peripheral device and for wirelessly connecting the at least one electric meter to the infrastructure,

wherein the wireless embedded modem receives a request from the computing device and wirelessly transmits the collected and generated metering data to the computing device initiating the request, wherein the computing device accesses the collected and generated data via a browser program.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the infrastructure comprises a telephone infrastructure including telephone landlines coupled to the at least one computing device and a cell phone infrastructure including cell phone relay stations coupling the telephone infrastructure to the wireless embedded modem.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the infrastructure comprises a wide area network.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the infrastructure further comprises a carrier network infrastructure including a broadcasting means operated by at least one carrier network provider.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the wide area network is the Internet.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the computing device is selected from one of a desktop personal computer, a laptop computer, a cell phone, a hand held computing device.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the computing device uses a web browsing program to initiate the request for data.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a communication means for connecting the wireless embedded modem to the at least one peripheral device, the communication means being selected from hard wired or wireless means.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the hard wired means is selected from one of a serial connection, the Ethernet, and a universal bus (USB).

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the wireless means utilizes 802.11 protocol.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the meter peripheral device utilizes metering protocols selected from Modbus remote terminal unit (RTU) and DNP to communicate to the processor of the at least one electric meter.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the embedded wireless modem utilizing industry standard interface protocols are selected from General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) to communicate.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the embedded wireless modem utilizing industry standard interface protocols selected from 802.11a and 802.11b to communicate.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the embedded wireless modem utilizing industry standard interface protocols used with the cell phone industry to communicate.

17. The system of claim 3, wherein the wide area network is Ethernet-based.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the wide area network uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to assign an IP address to the modem.

19. The system of claim 3, wherein the wide area network includes at least one wireless access point and the modem connects to the infrastructure via the at least one wireless access point.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the infrastructure is a wide area network operating on TCP/IP.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the server provides data to the wide area network in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or Extensible Markup Language (XML).

15. A method for performing multiple metering functions, collecting data, and wirelessly providing the collected metering data to a utility operator, the method comprising the steps of:

connecting at least one computing device to an infrastructure;

initiating a request for data from the computing device;

receiving the request in a wireless embedded modem coupled to the infrastructure, the wireless embedded modem coupled to an electric meter configured for collecting and generating power consumption information, the electric meter having a peripheral device intermediate between the modem and meter;

transmitting the request to the peripheral device;

retrieving power consumption information from the electric meter by the peripheral device;

generating web pages of the power consumption information in the peripheral device;

establishing a connection with the computing device over the infrastructure,

wherein the wireless embedded modem wirelessly transmits the web pages to the computing device.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the infrastructure is selected from

(a) a telephone infrastructure including telephone landlines and a cell phone infrastructure including cell phone relay stations;

(b) a wide area network; and

(c) the wide area network and a carrier network infrastructure including a broadcasting means operated by at least one carrier network provider.

22. A meter for measuring and monitoring electrical energy, the meter comprising:

a digital sampler configured for sampling voltage and current waveforms;

a microprocessor configured to collect the voltage and current data and generate power consumption data from the sampled voltage and current waveforms;

a wireless embedded modem configured for transmitting the data to a computing device residing on an infrastructure; and

a peripheral device coupled to modem and the processor, wherein the peripheral device acts as a server for the meter in managing the metering data and the connection between the computing device, wherein the server provides data to the computing device in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or Extensible Markup Language (XML) and

the computing device accesses the meter via a browser program

wherein the peripheral device communicates to the processor via an industrial metering protocol.

23. The meter of claim 22, wherein the modem operates on a 802.11 protocol.

24. The meter of claim 22, wherein the modem operates on a protocol selected from the group consisting of General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA).

25. The meter of claim 22, wherein the modem operates on a cell phone protocol.

26. The meter of claim 22, wherein the infrastructure is a wide area network.

27. The meter of claim 26, wherein the wide area network is Ethernet-based.

28. The meter of claim 27, wherein the wide area network uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) to assign an IP address to the modem.

29. The meter of claim 26, wherein the wide area network includes at least one wireless access point and the modem connects to the infrastructure via the at least one wireless access point.

30. The meter of claim 22, wherein the infrastructure is a wide area network operating on TCP/IP.

31. The meter of claim 22, the industrial metering protocol is Modbus or DNP.