Meter data management systems, methods, and software with outage management capabilities
First Claim
1. A system for handling data from electrical usage meters comprising one or more computer processors configured for:
- receiving and storing messages for electrical usage meters, the messages including energization status messages;
determining whether one or more of the energization status messages are associated with an outage condition presently recorded in an outage management system; and
transmitting outage condition data based on one or more of the energization status messages to the outage management system, wherein the transmitted outage condition data excludes data based on the energization status messages determined to be associated with the presently recorded outage condition in the outage management system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present inventors recognized a need to leverage the data from Advanced Metering Systems (AMIs) in the management of electrical outages. To address this and/or other needs, they present inventors devised, among other things, systems, methods, and software that not only intelligently filter and communicate AMI outage data to Outage Management Systems (OMSs), but also facilitate communications between OMSs and multiple types of AMI systems. One exemplary system includes an outage management module that receives AMI outage data in the form of “last gasp” messages from meters and determines whether the OMS is already aware of a power outage associated with those meters. If the OMS is already aware of an outage associated with these meters, the outage management module excludes the outage reports from its communications with the OMS, thereby preserving its capacity to handle new outage information and overcoming a significant obstacle to using AMI data within OMSs.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. A system for handling data from electrical usage meters comprising one or more computer processors configured for:
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receiving and storing messages for electrical usage meters, the messages including energization status messages; determining whether one or more of the energization status messages are associated with an outage condition presently recorded in an outage management system; and transmitting outage condition data based on one or more of the energization status messages to the outage management system, wherein the transmitted outage condition data excludes data based on the energization status messages determined to be associated with the presently recorded outage condition in the outage management system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A system comprising:
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a computer processor configured for optimizing interactions between advanced metering systems and utility back-office systems by filtering data from advanced metering systems prior to transmitting the data to the utility back-office systems in order to detect, analyze, and respond to outage events, thereby minimizing duration of the outage events; wherein the filtering comprises analyzing energization status messages; determining whether one or more of the energization status messages are associated with a known outage condition recorded in the utility back-office systems; and transmitting outage condition data to the utility back-office systems based on the energization status messages; wherein the transmitted outage condition data excludes data based on the energization status messages determined to be associated with the known outage condition. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method comprising:
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optimizing messaging interactions via a filtering of messages between advanced metering systems and outage management systems or other utility back-office systems; maximizing an efficacy of the outage management systems or other utility back-office systems while protecting the outage management systems or other utility back-office systems from a messaging overload that could cause failure or unacceptable performance degradation of the outage management systems or other back-office system; wherein the filtering comprises analyzing energization status messages; determining whether one or more of the energization status messages are associated with a known outage condition recorded in the outage management systems or other utility back-office systems; and transmitting outage condition data to the outage management systems or other utility back-office systems based on the energization status messages; wherein the transmitted outage condition data excludes data based on the energization status messages determined to be associated with the known outage condition. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A non transient computer-readable medium comprising instructions for executing a process for facilitating management of electrical power outages, comprising:
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identifying an electrical usage meter; receiving an indication of an energization status of the electrical usage meter based on meter data; and transmitting an indication of the energization status of the electrical usage meter based on meter data to an outage management system wherein the transmitted indication excludes data based on the energization status messages determined to be associated with a known outage condition recorded in the outage management system.
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Specification