Power grid data monitoring and control

• US 9,634,522 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2012
• Issued: 04/25/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bates, Allen K., Hepner, Dov N., Winarski, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Jason
• Application Number:
  US13/622,759
• Publication Number:
  US 20140081472A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,679 Days
• Field of Search: 700286, 702 60
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00 Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00006 characterised by information or instructions transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated power network element or electrical equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00017 using optical fiber
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/00 Systems supporting electrical power generation, transmission or distribution

Abstract

A method for identifying conditions that correlate with one ore more events related to operation of a power grid. The method includes the determining one or more distinguishing characteristics of a first chunk. The first chunk includes data elements relevant to operating a power grid. The method also includes determining whether a distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk correlates with a distinguishing characteristic of one or more of a plurality of second chunks. Each second chunk includes a plurality of data elements corresponding with the data of the first chunk. The method further includes determining whether a second chunk, having a distinguishing characteristic equivalent to a distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk, is associated with the one or more events. In addition, the method includes determining whether a second chunk, having an association with the one or more events and a distinguishing characteristic equivalent to a distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk, is substantially identical to the first chunk.

Claims

1. A method for identifying conditions that correlate with a plurality of events related to operation of a power grid, comprising:

formatting input data into a first chunk;

determining one or more distinguishing characteristics of a first chunk, the first chunk including data elements relevant to operating a power grid, wherein the data elements of the first chunk include weather data, sample date data, and sample time data;

comparing the data elements of the first chunk to every chunk of a plurality of chunks stored within a repository of previously formatted input data, wherein data elements of each chunk of the plurality of chunks include weather data, date data, and time data, wherein some chunks of the plurality of chunks are not associated with any events of the plurality of events, wherein events of the plurality of events include a blackout, a brownout, and a power surplus;

determining that a distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to a distinguishing characteristic of a second chunk of the plurality of chunks, wherein one or more chunks of the plurality of chunks include a plurality of data elements corresponding with the data elements of the first chunk;

in response to determining that the distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to the distinguishing characteristic of the second chunk, determining whether the second chunk is associated with an event of the plurality of events;

in response to determining that both the second chunk is associated with the event and the distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to the distinguishing characteristic of the second chunk, determining whether the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk; and

generating a pointer in an index from the first chunk to the second chunk when the first chunk is not substantially identical to the second chunk, wherein the pointer creates a correlation between power grid data of the first chunk and the second chunk; and

adjusting the power grid in response to the determination that the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk comprises a determination that the second chunk meets a similarity threshold to the first chunk.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining of whether the second chunk meets the similarity threshold to the first chunk includes comparing each pair of corresponding bytes of the first and second chunks.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing the first chunk in the index.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the input data includes power grid data and external data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining whether the distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk correlates with the distinguishing characteristic of the second chunk is performed in real time.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein data elements of the second chunk are associated with a first time and data elements of the first chunk are associated with a second time, the first time preceding the second time.

8. A power grid controller, comprising:

a data formatter to format input data into a first chunk;

a distinguishing characteristic calculator to determine one or more distinguishing characteristics of the first chunk, the first chunk including data elements relevant to operating a power grid, wherein the data elements of the first chunk include weather data, sample date data, and sample time data;

a similarity comparator to compare the data elements of the first chunk to every chunk of a plurality of chunks stored within a repository of input data that was previously formatted, wherein data elements of each chunk of the plurality of chunks include weather data, sample date data, and sample time data, wherein some chunks of the plurality of chunks are not associated with any events of the plurality of events, wherein events of the plurality of events include a blackout, a brownout, and a power surplus, wherein the similarity comparator determines that a distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to a distinguishing characteristic of a second chunk of the plurality of chunks, wherein chunks of the plurality of chunks include a plurality of data elements corresponding with the data of the first chunk;

an event comparator to determine, in response to the similarity comparator determining that the distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to the distinguishing characteristic of the second chunk, whether the second chunk is associated with an event of the plurality of events;

an identity determiner to determine, in response to both the event comparator determining that the second chunk is associated with the event and the similarity comparator determining that the distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to the distinguishing characteristic of the second chunk, whether the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk; and

a point generator to generate a pointer from the first chunk to the second chunk when the first chunk is not substantially identical to the second chunk, wherein the pointer creates a correlation between the first chunk and the second chunk; and

wherein the power grid controller adjusts a power grid in response to the determination that the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk.

9. The power grid controller of claim 8, wherein the determining whether the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk comprises a determination that the second chunk meets a similarity threshold to the first chunk.

10. The power grid controller of claim 8, further comprising a storage repository to store the plurality of second chunks.

11. The power grid controller of claim 8, further comprising a memory to store an index of distinguishing characteristics.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon which, when executed, cause a processor to perform the following operations:

formatting Input data into a first chunk;

determining one or more distinguishing characteristics of the first chunk, the first chunk including data elements relevant to operating a power grid, wherein the data elements of the first chunk include weather data, date data, and time data;

comparing the data elements of the first chunk to every chunk of a plurality of chunks stored within a repository of input data that was previously formatted, wherein data elements of each chunk of the plurality of chunks include weather data, date data, and time data, wherein some chunks of the plurality of chunks are not associated with any events of a plurality of events, wherein events of the plurality of events include a blackout, a brownout, and a power surplus;

determining that a distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to a distinguishing characteristic of a second chunk of a plurality of chunks, wherein one or more chunks of the plurality of chunks include a plurality of data elements corresponding with the data of the first chunk, wherein data elements of each chunk of the plurality of chunks include weather data, date data, and time data;

in response to determining that the distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to the distinguishing characteristic of the second chunk, determining whether the second chunk is associated with an event of the plurality of events;

in response to determining that both the second chunk is associated with the event and the distinguishing characteristic of the first chunk is equivalent to the distinguishing characteristic of the second chunk, determining whether the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk;

generating a pointer in the index from the first chunk to the second chunk when the first chunk is not substantially identical to the second chunk, wherein the pointer creates a correlation between smart grid data of the first chunk and the second chunk; and

adjusting the power grid in response to the determination that the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk.

13. The storage medium of claim 12, wherein the determining whether the second chunk is substantially identical to the first chunk comprises a determination that the second chunk meets a similarity threshold to the first chunk.

14. The storage medium of claim 13, wherein the determining of whether the second chunk meets the similarity threshold to the first chunk includes comparing each pair of corresponding bytes of the first and second chunks.

15. The storage medium of claim 12, further comprising the operation of storing the first chunk in an index.

16. The storage medium of claim 15, wherein the input data include power grid data and external data.

17. The storage medium of claim 12, wherein data elements of the second chunks are associated with a first time and data elements of the first chunk are associated with a second time, the first time preceding the second time.