Industrial automation packaged power solution for intelligent motor control and intelligent switchgear with energy management

• US 10,474,119 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2016
• Issued: 11/12/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rockwell Automation Technologies Incorporated (Allen-Bradley Co., Inc.)
• Inventors: Day, Scott Duane, Bayer, Michael Robert, Mazur, David Christopher, Nolan, Jeffrey Gerard, Gama, Sergio Luiz, Kay, John Albert, Venne, Bruce K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shamsuzzaman, Mohammed
• Application Number:
  US15/244,035
• Publication Number:
  US 20170075320A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,176 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/042 using digital processors G05B19/05 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/34012 Smart, intelligent I-O coprocessor, programmable sensor interface
• CPC Class Codes: G05F 1/66 Regulating electric power
• CPC Class Codes: H02H 7/26 Sectionalised protection of cable or line systems, e.g. for disconnecting a section on which a short-circuit, earth fault, or arc discharge has occured locating faults in cables G01R31/08
• 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 13/00004 characterised by the power network being locally controlled
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00016 using a wired telecommunication network or a data transmission bus
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00034 the elements or equipment being or involving an electric power substation
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/0004 involved in a protection system
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/12 The local stationary network supplying a household or a building
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0658 Clock or time synchronisation among packet nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0667 Bidirectional timestamps, e.g. NTP or PTP for compensation of clock drift and for compensation of propagation delays arrangements for monitoring round trip delays in packet switching networks H04L43/0864
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 80/10 Efficient use of energy, e.g. using compressed air or pressurized fluid as energy carrier
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/18 using switches, relays or circuit breakers, e.g. intelligent electronic devices [IED]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/00 : Management or operation of end-user stationary applications or the last stages of power distribution; Controlling, monitoring or operating thereof
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/20 : End-user application control systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 : Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/124 : using wired telecommunication networks or data transmission busses

Abstract

Systems, methods and apparatus are disclosed for interfacing process controllers in a process automation system with one or more intelligent electrical devices of an electrical automation system to use process and electrical control space information to perform actions and make decisions regarding actions in a connected enterprise system to facilitate energy management goals as well as process control goals in view of electrical control space information and process control space information.

Claims

1. A method of providing time synchronization of facility wide data between a process automation system with one or more control devices to control one or more processes and an electrical automation system with one or more intelligent electrical devices (IEDs) to provide power to the process automation system, the method comprising:

distributing a time signal from a timing device through a first network operatively coupled with the control devices of the process automation system, wherein the control devices include a variable frequency drive (VFD);

distributing the time signal from the timing device through a second network operatively coupled with the IEDs of the electrical automation system, wherein the timing device is connected to a first switching device to distribute the time signal to the first network and the timing device is connected to a second switching device to distribute the time signal to the second network;

shutting down a process of the one or more processes during a peak demand time period by using the process automation system to gather information from the electrical automation system; and

executing an add-on instruction (AOI) in a process controller of the process automation system to selectively convert unsigned data from the IED into signed data and to scale the data from at least one of the IEDs according to user-defined scale factors to provide scaled data values for use by the process controller in controlling at least one process for the time synchronization of the facility wide data.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the timing device is a GPS receiver, a precision time protocol (PTP) master clock server, a network time protocol (NTP) server, a fly wheel converter technology device, or a simple network time protocol (SNTP) server.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the time synchronization facilities intelligent energy management decision-making and actions by at least one of the control devices in conjunction with process control decision-making and actions.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the time signal is distributed from the timing device over a standard Ethernet communication media.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the standard Ethernet communication media includes a wired network node, a fiber network node, or a wireless network node.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring the process controller of the process automation system using an add-on profile (AOP) executed on a processor to define data to be exchanged between a given IED of the electrical automation system and the process controller according to an electronic data sheet (EDS) file corresponding to the given IED.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing the AOI in the process controller to scale the data from at least one of the IEDs in the form of unsigned integers to signed real values or floating point values.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising executing the AOI in the process controller to interface a signed data type to an industrial controller tag within a computing system environment.

9. A connected enterprise system, comprising:

a process automation system, including one or more control devices operatively coupled with a first network and operative to control one or more processes, wherein the control devices include a variable frequency drive (VFD), the process automation system including a process controller;

an electrical automation system, including one or more intelligent electrical devices (IEDs) operatively coupled with a second network and operative to provide power to the process automation system; and

a timing device operative to distribute a time signal to at least some of the control devices through the first network, and to distribute the time signal to at least some of the IEDs through the second network, wherein the timing device is connected to a first switching device to distribute the time signal to the first network and the timing device is connected to a second switching device to distribute the time signal to the second network;

wherein the process controller of the process automation system is configured to execute an add-on instruction (AOI) to selectively convert unsigned data from the IED into signed data and to scale the data from at least one of the IEDs according to user-defined scale factors to provide scaled data values for use by the process controller in controlling at least one process.

10. The connected enterprise system of claim 9, wherein the first and second networks individually include a wired network node, a fiber network node, or a wireless network node.

11. The connected enterprise system of claim 9, wherein the process controller of the process automation system is configured using an add-on profile (AOP) executed on a processor to define data exchanged between an IED of the electrical automation system and the process controller.

12. The connected enterprise system of claim 9, wherein the process controller is operatively interconnected with a controlled process and with the first network to obtain electrical control space information, the process controller configured to implement one or more process control goals, and to implement one or more energy management goals at least partially according to process control information and electrical control space information obtained from at least one of the intelligent electrical devices (IEDs) of the electrical automation system.