Intelligent sensor and controller framework for the power grid

• US 9,094,385 B2
• Filed: 08/05/2011
• Issued: 07/28/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/05/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Original Assignee: Battelle Memorial Institute
• Inventors: Akyol, Bora A., Haack, Jereme Nathan, Craig, Philip Allen Jr., Tews, Cody William, Kulkarni, Anand V., Carpenter, Brandon J., Maiden, Wendy M., Ciraci, Selim
• Primary Examiner(s): Shaw, Brian
• Application Number:
  US13/204,606
• Publication Number:
  US 20130036311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,453 Days
• Field of Search: 713/187, 713/189, 700/297, 315/294
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 19/2513 Arrangements for monitoring electric power systems, e.g. power lines or loads; Logging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/44 Program or device authentication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/123 received data contents, e.g. message integrity
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/126 the source of the received data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/20 Information technology specific aspects, e.g. CAD, simulation, modelling, system security

Abstract

Disclosed below are representative embodiments of methods, apparatus, and systems for monitoring and using data in an electric power grid. For example, one disclosed embodiment comprises a sensor for measuring an electrical characteristic of a power line, electrical generator, or electrical device; a network interface; a processor; and one or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions. In this embodiment, the computer-executable instructions include instructions for implementing an authorization and authentication module for validating a software agent received at the network interface; instructions for implementing one or more agent execution environments for executing agent code that is included with the software agent and that causes data from the sensor to be collected; and instructions for implementing an agent packaging and instantiation module for storing the collected data in a data container of the software agent and for transmitting the software agent, along with the stored data, to a next destination.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a sensor operable for measuring an electrical characteristic of a power line, electrical generator, or electrical device associated with the sensor;

a network interface;

a processor; and

one or more computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable instructions including,

instructions for implementing an authorization and authentication module for validating a software agent received at the network interface, the software agent comprising resource requirements information indicating resources used to execute the software agent,

instructions for comparing the resource requirements information to available resources for one or more agent execution environments prior to executing instructions for the software agent within at least one of the agent execution environments,

instructions for, when the comparing indicates that the resource requirements are valid, implementing the one or more agent execution environments for executing agent code that is included with the software agent and that causes data measured using the sensor to be collected, and

instructions for implementing an agent packaging and instantiation module for storing the collected data in a data container of the software agent and for transmitting the software agent, along with the stored data, to a next destination.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor comprises a phasor measurement sensor.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is part of an electrical meter for a household on a power grid, or a control unit for one or more household electrical devices that receive power from the power grid.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system is part of a control unit in communication with a power grid.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer-readable media further store data indicative of cryptographically verifiable identities, the data indicative of cryptographically verifiable identities being used by the authorization and authentication module to validate the software agent.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer-readable media further store data indicative of a network identity for the next destination, the network identity being used by the agent packaging and instantiation module to transmit the software agent to the next destination.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more computer-readable media further store instructions for controlling an information exchange bus that facilitates communication to the one or more agent execution environments.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the instructions for implementing the one or more agent execution environments include instructions for executing an agent written in a first language in a first execution environment and instructions for executing an agent written in a second language in a second execution environment different from the first execution environment.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensor is configured to measure one or more of power usage, voltage, current, or phase angle of the power line, electrical generator, or electrical device.

10. A method, comprising:

transmitting an outgoing software agent to one or more hardware nodes on a network, wherein at least one of the hardware nodes is communicatively coupled to (a) a sensor for measuring an electrical parameter of a power line of a power grid, (b) a sensor for measuring an electrical parameter of a distributed generator coupled to the power grid, (c) an electrical meter for a household coupled to the power grid, (d) a control unit for one or more household electrical devices that receive power from the power grid, or (e) a control unit for controlling power distribution on the power grid, and wherein the outgoing software agent includes resource requirements information indicating resources used to execute the software agent on at least one of the hardware nodes and a cryptographic signature for the software agent; and

after the transmission of the outgoing software agent, receiving an incoming software agent that includes data collected from the one or more hardware nodes on the network, wherein the at least one of the hardware nodes compared the resource requirements information to available resources for the at least one of the hardware nodes prior to executing the outgoing software agent.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of an operational state of one or more distributed generators coupled to the power grid, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the operational state of the one or more distributed generators.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of an operational state of one or more power lines coupled to the power grid, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the operational state of the one or more power lines.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicating one or more of an identity, location, or electrical characteristics of electrical devices associated with each of the one or more hardware nodes, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicating one or more of the identity, location, or electrical characteristics of the electrical devices associated with each of the one or more hardware nodes.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of a fault location among the one or more hardware nodes, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the fault location among the one or more hardware nodes.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the outgoing software agent to two or more hardware nodes on the network, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code causing the outgoing software agent to incrementally move to each of the two or more hardware nodes and to incrementally collect data from each of the two or more hardware nodes in a mutable data container.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

at each of the respective hardware nodes, cryptographically signing the mutable data container; and

at an initiator of the transmitting, verifying that the two or more hardware nodes are the sources of the incoming software agent prior to extracting the data in the mutable data container.

17. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a computer causes the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

transmitting an outgoing software agent to one or more nodes on a network, wherein at least one of the nodes is communicatively coupled to (a) a sensor for measuring an electrical parameter of a power line of a power grid, (b) a sensor for measuring an electrical parameter of a distributed generator coupled to the power grid, (c) an electrical meter for a household coupled to the power grid, (d) a control unit for one or more household electrical devices that receive power from the power grid, or (e) a control unit for controlling power distribution on the power grid, and wherein the outgoing software agent includes resource requirements information indicating resources used to execute the software agent on at least one of the nodes and a cryptographic signature for the software agent; and

after the transmission of the outgoing software agent, receiving an incoming software agent that includes data collected from the one or more nodes on the network, wherein the at least one of the nodes compared the resource requirements information to available resources for the at least one of the nodes prior to executing the outgoing software agent.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of an operational state of one or more distributed generators coupled to the power grid, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the operational state of the one or more distributed generators.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of an operational state of one or more power lines coupled to the power grid, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the operational state of the one or more power lines.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicating one or more of an identity, location, or electrical characteristics of electrical devices associated with each of the one or more nodes, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicating one or more of the identity, location, or electrical characteristics of the electrical devices associated with each of the one or more nodes.

21. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 17, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of a fault location among the one or more nodes, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the fault location among the one or more nodes.

22. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the outgoing software agent to two or more nodes on the network, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code causing the outgoing software agent to incrementally move to each of the two or more nodes and to incrementally collect data from each of the two or more nodes in a mutable data container.

23. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 22, further comprising:

at each of the respective nodes, cryptographically signing the mutable data container; and

at an initiator of the transmitting, verifying that the two or more nodes are the sources of the incoming software agent prior to extracting the data in the mutable data container.

24. A circuit comprising computing hardware configured to perform a method, the method comprising:

transmitting an outgoing software agent to one or more nodes on a network, wherein at least one of the nodes is communicatively coupled to (a) a sensor for measuring an electrical parameter of a power line of a power grid, (b) a sensor for measuring an electrical parameter of a distributed generator coupled to the power grid, (c) an electrical meter for a household coupled to the power grid, (d) a control unit for one or more household electrical devices that receive power from the power grid, or (e) a control unit for controlling power distribution on the power grid, and wherein the outgoing software agent includes resource requirements information indicating resources used to execute the software agent on at least one of the nodes and a cryptographic signature for the software agent; and

after the transmission of the outgoing software agent, receiving an incoming software agent that includes data collected from the one or more nodes on the network, wherein the at least one of the nodes compared the resource requirements information to available resources for the at least one of the nodes prior to executing the outgoing software agent.

25. The circuit of claim 24, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of an operational state of one or more distributed generators coupled to the power grid, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the operational state of the one or more distributed generators.

26. The circuit of claim 24, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of an operational state of one or more power lines coupled to the power grid, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the operational state of the one or more power lines.

27. The circuit of claim 24, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicating one or more of an identity, location, or electrical characteristics of electrical devices associated with each of the one or more nodes, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicating one or more of the identity, location, or electrical characteristics of the electrical devices associated with each of the one or more nodes.

28. The circuit of claim 24, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code for collecting data indicative of a fault location among the one or more nodes, and wherein the incoming software agent includes the data indicative of the fault location among the one or more nodes.

29. The circuit of claim 24, wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the outgoing software agent to two or more nodes on the network, wherein the outgoing software agent comprises executable code causing the outgoing software agent to incrementally move to each of the two or more nodes and to incrementally collect data from each of the two or more nodes in a mutable data container.

30. The circuit of claim 29, further comprising:

at each of the respective nodes, cryptographically signing the mutable data container; and

at an initiator of the transmitting, verifying that the two or more nodes are the sources of the incoming software agent prior to extracting the data in the mutable data container.

31. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions for a system, the computer-executable instructions including:

instructions for implementing an authorization and authentication module for validating a software agent received at the network interface, the software agent comprising resource requirements information indicating resources used to execute the software agent;

instructions for comparing the resource requirements information to available resources for one or more agent execution environments prior to executing instructions for the software agent within at least one of the agent execution environments;

instructions for, when the comparing indicates that the resource requirements are valid, implementing one or more agent execution environments for executing agent code that is included with the software agent and that causes data measured using a sensor to be collected;

instructions for comparing the resource requirements information to available resources for at least one of the one or more agent execution environments prior to executing instructions for the software agent within the at least one of the one or more agent execution environments; and

instructions for implementing an agent packaging and instantiation module for storing the collected data in a data container of the software agent and for transmitting the software agent, along with the stored data, to a next destination.

32. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein the sensor comprises a phasor measurement sensor.

33. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein the system is part of an electrical meter for a household on a power grid, or a control unit for one or more household electrical devices that receive power from the power grid.

34. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein the system is part of a control unit in communication with a power grid.

35. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein the one or more computer-readable media further store data indicative of cryptographically verifiable identities, the data indicative of cryptographically verifiable identities being used by the authorization and authentication module to validate the software agent.

36. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein the one or more computer-readable media further store data indicative of a network identity for the next destination, the network identity being used by the agent packaging and instantiation module to transmit the software agent to the next destination.

37. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein the one or more computer-readable media further store instructions for controlling an information exchange bus that facilitates communication to the one or more agent execution environments.

38. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein the instructions for implementing the one or more agent execution environments include instructions for executing an agent written in a first language in a first execution environment and instructions for executing an agent written in a second language in a second execution environment different from the first execution environment.

39. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 31, wherein the sensor is configured to measure one or more of power usage, voltage, current, or phase angle of the power line, electrical generator, or electrical device.

40. A method implemented with a hardware node comprising a network interface and a sensor operable for measuring an electrical characteristic of a power line, electrical generator, or electrical device associated with the sensor, the method comprising:

with the hardware node;

validating a software agent received at the network interface, the software agent including resource requirement information indicating resources used to execute the software agent;

comparing the resource requirements information to available resources for at least one of the agent execution environments prior to executing instructions for the software agent within the at least one of the agent execution environments;

when the comparing indicates that the resource requirements are valid, executing agent code that is included with the software agent and collecting data measured using the sensor; and

storing the collected data in a data container of the software agent and transmitting the software agent, along with the stored data, to a next destination.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the sensor comprises a phasor measurement sensor.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the method is implemented in a system that is part of an electrical meter for a household on a power grid, or a control unit for one or more household electrical devices that receive power from the power grid.

43. The method of claim 40, wherein the method is implemented in a system that is part of a control unit in communication with a power grid.

44. The method of claim 40, wherein the method further comprises storing data indicative of cryptographically verifiable identities, the data indicative of cryptographically verifiable identities being used to validate the software agent.

45. The method of claim 40, wherein the method further comprises storing data indicative of a network identity for the next destination, the network identity being used by to transmit the software agent to the next destination.

46. The method of claim 40, wherein the method further comprises storing instructions for controlling an information exchange bus that facilitates communication to the one or more agent execution environments.

47. The method of claim 40, wherein the instructions for implementing the one or more agent execution environments include instructions for executing an agent written in a first language in a first execution environment and instructions for executing an agent written in a second language in a second execution environment different from the first execution environment.

48. The method of claim 40, wherein the sensor is configured to measure one or more of power usage, voltage, current, or phase angle of the power line, electrical generator, or electrical device.