Energy management system that provides real time situation awareness of a potential energy management failure

• US 8,112,253 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2008
• Issued: 02/07/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alstom Technology Ltd. (Alstom SA)
• Original Assignee: Areva T&D Incorporated (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission)
• Inventors: Castelli, Gennaro, Hackett, Michael, Howard, Michael Quinn, Jones, Lawrence Edmund, Shung, HuiChu Su, Brand, Heath Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Nghiem, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Desta, Elias
• Application Number:
  US12/139,111
• Publication Number:
  US 20090030557A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,334 Days
• Field of Search: 702/182, 702187-189, 705/412, 700/286
• US Class Current: 702/188
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/40 Testing power supplies testing photovoltaic devices H02S50/10
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0486 Drag-and-drop
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/60 Editing figures and text; Combining figures or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/40 Scaling of whole images or parts thereof, e.g. expanding or contracting
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 23/00 Alarms responsive to unspecified undesired or abnormal conditions
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/377 for mixing or overlaying two or more graphic patterns G09G5/02, G09G5/397 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2203/20 Simulating, e g planning, reliability check, modelling or computer assisted design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/00 Circuit arrangements for ac mains or ac distribution networks
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/0012 Contingency detection
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/008 involving trading of energy or energy transmission rights
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/045 for graphical visualisation of monitoring data
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/20 : Information technology specific aspects, e.g. CAD, simulation, modelling, system security
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 : Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid

Abstract

An energy management system has a control center at a utility company, and logic resources coupled to the power system that provide a real time notice of conditions which effect energy management of the utility company. At least one user interface is provided at the control center that is coupled to the logic resources. The user interface provides a real time situation awareness of a potential energy management failure.

Claims

1. An energy management system, comprising:

a control center at a utility company with a power system;

logic resources coupled to the power system and control center that provide a real time notice of conditions which effect energy management of the utility company, the logic resources providing an overview of a majority of a utility system, enabling an operator to access a geographic area from the overview, drill down to a specific area of the geographic area and perform analytics and a situation awareness of the smaller portion of the geographic area, the logic resources configured to re-use at least a portion of data and configurations from pre-existing software applications already in place in the control center, wherein situational awareness (i) facilitates drilling down on conditions that can effect energy management, (ii) facilitates distribution of power, generation of power, transmission and energy market systems, and (iii) mitigates effects of conditions that can create failures in energy management;

the logic resources configured to re-use at least a portion of data and configurations from pre-existing software applications already in place in the control center, the logic resources enabling operators to create their own situational dashboards from large geographical overviews that are savable and reusable; and

at least one user interface at the control center coupled to the logic resources, the at least one user interface including graphics that display one or more of, current status, mitigating factors and recommendations of the power system for one or more utility companies, the at least one user interface providing real time situation awareness of a potential energy management failure from the smaller portion of the geographic area and enabling the user to transmit information relative to the situation awareness of the smaller portion of the geographic area;

the logic resources enable the operators to create their own situational dashboards from large geographical overviews.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the energy management system provides at least one of energy, distribution, generation, transmission and energy market systems.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface provides a specific operator'"'"'s task that can scan one or several utility company applications without navigating between different user interfaces of the control center.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the situational awareness improves energy management.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the situational awareness facilitates drilling down on conditions that can effect energy management.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the situational awareness facilitates at least one of, distribution of power, generation of power, transmission and energy market systems.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the situational awareness mitigates the effects of conditions that can create failures in energy management.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein the situational awareness mitigates conditions that can create failures, the failures selected from at least one of, delivery of power, generation of power, transmission and energy market systems.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes graphics that displays at least one of, current status, mitigating factors and recommendations of a power system of one or more utility companies.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the situation awareness is selected from at least one of perception and comprehension.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the perception is selected from at least one of, auditory and visual.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic resources and the user interface are coupled to a power or distribution system of the utility company.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein at least of the applications is selected from, power distribution, power generation, transmission and energy market systems.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the real time notice of conditions is provided prior to an occurrence of at least one of, a catastrophic failure of power delivery, catastrophic power generation, catastrophic transmission and energy market systems.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface includes advanced graphics that display a current status for at least one of power generation, power generation, transmission and energy market systems.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is independent of an energy management application.

17. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

a context panel that provides context data relative to a given situation facing the utility company.

18. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an information system that is refreshed in real-time.

19. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an information system that is refreshed in a time period of from 1 second to 15 minutes.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic resources are configured to re-use at least a portion of data and configuration from pre-existing software applications already in place in the control center.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the pre-existing software applications include information selected from at least one of, system 1 lines, 1 line diagrams and asset information.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the user interface is automatically generated in response to data and configuration from pre-existing software or pre-existing software applications and also uses its own.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the user interface is a model driven overview.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the model driven overview combines coordinate system based on a geographical coordinate system including but not limited to a (Geographic Information System) GIS.

25. The system of claim 1, wherein the logic resources uses an overview of the majority of the utility system and drills down to more detailed views of the utility system.