Power monitoring and testing

• US 7,548,826 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2006
• Issued: 06/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/24/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Generac Power Systems Incorporated (Generac Holdings Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Blue Pillar, Inc. (Generac Holdings Incorporated)
• Inventors: Witter, Bradley Jay, Butler, Thomas Joseph
• Primary Examiner(s): TSAI, CAROL S W
• Application Number:
  US11/556,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20080052027A1
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• Field of Search: 702/62, 702/57, 702/60, 702/189, 702/115, 702/127, 702/106, 702/58, 702/61, 702/108, 702/188, 702/182, 700/22, 700/286, 700/295, 700/291, 700/296, 340/995.1, 324/140, 324/113, 705/1, 705/14, 705/40
• US Class Current: 702/115
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00001 characterised by the display of information or by user interaction, e.g. supervisory control and data acquisition systems [SCADA] or graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00036 the elements or equipment being or involving switches, relays or circuit breakers circuits for indication of single switches H01H9/167
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/30 State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/40 Display of information, e.g. of data or controls
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/12 Billing, invoicing, buying or selling transactions or other related activities, e.g. cost or usage evaluation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/14 Marketing, i.e. market research and analysis, surveying, promotions, advertising, buyer profiling, customer management or rewards

Abstract

Systems and methods for monitoring, managing, and testing power systems are disclosed. In various embodiments, a site server collects data from one or more generators, automatic transfer switches, sensors, and cameras at a site. The site server stores captured data and triggers alarm events when preselected limits are exceeded. The site server also enables users to configure, initiate, pause, resume, monitor, and abort scripted tests of the monitored entities. In some of these and other embodiments, an enterprise-wide server collects data from multiple site servers, makes the data available via a web-based or other client interface, and provides consolidated monitoring, alarm, test management, and management resources.

Claims

1. An electrical generator monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of sensors that detect operational parameters of a plurality of electrical generators at a plurality of physical locations;

a computing device; and

a plurality of communication devices, where each communication device;

has a communication status that reflects whether the communication device is or is not in effective communication with the computing device at a given time;

is in communication with one or more of the sensors to receive information about the operational parameters detected by those one or more sensors; and

makes data characterizing the received information available to the computing device;

wherein the computing device produces a unified display that simultaneously shows the communication status of the plurality of communication devices.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the unified display also shows at least a portion of the information received by the plurality of communication devices.

3. An electrical generator monitoring system, comprising:

a plurality of site servers, each site server;

communicating with one or more electrical generators to collect data representing one or more operational parameters from each generator; and

aggregating the data by taking one or more of the actions in a first action group consisting of;

filtering the data;

calculating a maximum for at least one of the operational parameters of at least one generator over a period of time;

calculating a minimum for at least one of the operational parameters of at least one generator over a period of time;

detecting that one or more of the operational parameters of at least one generator has exceeded a limit; and

making the data available via a data network for access by remote individuals; and

an enterprise server, the enterprise server;

communicating with each of the plurality of site servers to retrieve at least a portion of the data collected by each; and

processing the retrieved data by applying one or more actions in the first action group to the retrieved data.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein at least one of the site servers:

stores configuration information about a logging group; and

records events as a function of the configuration information for the logging group.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the configuration information about the logging group is maintained on the enterprise server.

6. The. system of claim 4, wherein the aggregating comprises making the data available for access by remote individuals using a web browser.

7. The system of claim 4, wherein the aggregating comprises making the data available for access by sending an e-mail message to one or more addresses.