Thin client power management system and method

• US 20040162642A1
• Filed: 07/31/2002
• Published: 08/19/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Power Measurement Ltd. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Power Measurement Ltd. (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Van Gorp, John C., Forth, J. Bradford, Gasper, Marcus, Ransom, Douglas S., Wall, Daniel J.
• Application Number:
  US10/208,924
• Publication Number:
  US 20040162642A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/286
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00001 characterised by the display of information or by user interaction, e.g. supervisory control and data acquisition systems [SCADA] or graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00002 characterised by monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00016 using a wired telecommunication network or a data transmission bus
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 13/00028 involving the use of Internet protocols
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 60/00 Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/18 using switches, relays or circuit breakers, e.g. intelligent electronic devices [IED]
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/30 State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/40 Display of information, e.g. of data or controls
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/124 using wired telecommunication networks or data transmission busses
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/128 involving the use of Internet protocol

Abstract

A power management architecture for an electrical power distribution system, or portion thereof, is disclosed. The architecture includes one or more data sources, such as intelligent electronic devices (“IED'"'"'s”), distributed throughout the power distribution system to manage and report the flow and consumption of the power from the system. The data sources are linked via a network to one or more decentralized world wide web browser based data processing applications, the browser application allowing multiple users to individually retrieve, process and display the data from a single, or a combination of multiple data sources. The browser application also allows users to manage the data.

Claims

1. An electrical power management system comprising:

a network;

a first intelligent electronic device (“

IED”

) coupled with said network operative to provide a power management function and at least one of receive control commands and provide power management data onto said network; and

a first computer coupled with said network, said first computer comprising a first web browser program, said first program operative to retrieve at least said power management data from said network and process said power management data;

wherein said first program is operative to present said processed power management data to a first user of said first computer.

2. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said first IED comprises at least one of an electric meter and electrical relay.

3. The electrical power management system of claim 1 further comprising:

at least one data source coupled with said network operative to provide second data onto said network;

wherein said first web browser program is further operative to retrieve and process said power management data and said second data.

4. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said first web browser program is further operative to substantially simultaneously retrieve said power management data and said second data.

5. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said first web browser program is further operative to simultaneously present at least said processed power management data with at least one of said processed second data.

6. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said at least one data source comprises a second IED.

7. The electrical power management system of claim 6, wherein said web browser program is further operative to transmit a command over said network to said second IED, said command comprising a control command, wherein said command is generated automatically based on said processed power management data.

8. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said at least one data source comprises an enterprise energy management system.

9. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said at least one data source comprises a database.

10. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said at least one data source comprises a web service.

11. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said at least one data source comprises an extensible markup language (“

XML”

) file.

12. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said at least one data source comprises a non-power management data source operative to provide non-power management data.

13. The electrical power management system of claim 3, wherein said power management data is dynamic and where said second data is static.

14. The electrical power management system of claim 3 further comprising:

a second computer coupled with said network, said second computer comprising a second web browser program, said second program operative retrieve and process said power management data and said second data

wherein said second program is operative to present said processed power management data and said processed data to a second user of said second computer;

15. The electrical power management system of claim 1 further comprising:

a second computer coupled with said network, said second computer comprising a second web browser program, said second program operative to retrieve at least said power management data from said network and process said power management data;

wherein said second program is operative to present said processed power management data to a second user of said second computer.

16. The electrical power management system of claim 15, wherein said power management data source is further operative to substantially simultaneously provide said power management data to said first computer and said second computer.

17. The electrical power management system of claim 15, wherein said second computer is located geographically remote from said first computer.

18. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said first IED provides said power management data to said first computer according to a data transfer protocol compatible with said first web browser program, said data transfer protocol comprising Hypertext Transport Protocol (“

HTTP”

).

19. The electrical power management system of claim 18, further comprising a HTTP proxy server coupled with said network, wherein said HTTP proxy server is operative to proxy communications between said first computer and said first IED.

20. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said power management data comprises XML data.

21. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said first computer comprises a display, said first program being further operative to display said processed power management data on said display

22. The electrical power management system of claim 21, wherein said display comprises scalable vector graphics (“

SVG”

).

23. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said first computer comprises an email application, said first program being further operative to email said processed power management data on said email application.

24. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said power management data is at least one of encrypted and signed prior to being provided over said network, and where said power management data is further at least one of decrypted and authenticated when it is retrieved.

25. The electrical power management system of claim 24, where said signing and authentication utilize extensible markup language (“

XML”

) signing.

26. The electrical power management system of claim 24, where said encryption, signing, decryption and authentication utilize at least one of secure sockets layer (“

SSL”

) and transport layer security (“

TLS”

).

27. The electrical power management system of claim 26, where said encryption, signing, decryption and authentication utilize Hypertext Transfer Protocol over Secure Socket Layer (“

HTTPS”

).

28. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said web browser program is further operative to transmit a command over said network to said IED.

29. The electrical power management system of claim 28, wherein said command comprises a configuration command.

30. The electrical power management system of claim 28, wherein said command comprises a control command.

31. The electrical power management system of claim 30, wherein said command is generated by said first user.

32. The electrical power management system of claim 30, wherein said command is generated automatically based on said processed power management data.

33. The electrical power management system of claim 32, wherein said command comprises second power management data.

34. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said power management function comprises at least one of monitoring electrical power distribution, monitoring, computing and reporting revenue, monitoring, computing and reporting power usage, monitoring, computing and reporting power quality, controlling electrical power flow, and load shedding.

35. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said power management data comprises at least one of operations data, power quality data, consumption data, financial data, environmental data.

36. The electrical power management system of claim 1, further wherein said first web browser program is operative to execute a first web page file, said first web page file being operative to process said power management data.

37. The electrical power management system of claim 36, wherein said first web page file utilizes extensible stylesheet language transformation (“

XSLT”

) to process data.

38. The electrical power management system of claim 36, wherein said first web page file is stored on a second computer, said second computer coupled with said network, said first web browser program being further operative to retrieve said first web page file from said second computer over said network prior to said execution.

39. The electrical power management system of claim 38, wherein said second computer is further operative to store a plurality of second web page files, each of said plurality of second web page files operative to perform a data processing function.

40. The electrical power management system of claim 36, wherein said first web page file is operative to dynamically display at least one of text and graphical information.

41. The electrical power management system of claim 1, wherein said first web browser program is further operative to locate said first IED in a registry using a name lookup.

42. An application for use with an electrical power management system, said system comprising a network and an intelligent electronic device (“

IED”

) coupled with said network, said application comprising;

a data retriever operative to transmit a command and retrieve first power management data from said IED over said network;

a data processor operative to process said first power management data and generate said command; and

a graphic display operative to visually display at least said processed first power management data to a user of said application and receive input from said user;

wherein said application is operative to be executed by a web browser program, said web browser program executing on a first computer coupled with said network.

43. The application of claim 42, wherein said system further comprises a second power management data source, said data retriever further operative to retrieve second power management data from said second power management data source over said network, said data retriever further operative to transmit commands to said second power management data source over said network, said data processor further operative to process said second power management data, and wherein said graphic display is further operative to visually display at least one of said second power management data and said processed second power management data.

44. The application of claim 43, wherein said data processor comprises a graphical display template describing a first visual layout of said first power management data in said graphic display.

45. The application of claim 44, wherein said graphical display template further describes a second visual layout of said second power management data in said graphic display, wherein said second visual layout is similar to said first visual layout.

46. The application of claim 44, wherein said graphical display template and said application are further capable of being stored on said first computer using Microsoft Internet Explorer Behaviors.

47. The application of claim 42, said application further capable of being stored on a second computer coupled with said network and loaded into said web browser program over said network from said second computer.

48. The application of claim 42, wherein said data processor performs a processing function on said first power management data resulting in said processed power management data.

49. The application of claim 48, wherein said data processor is further operative to receive third data from at least one data source, said processing function based on said first power management data and said third data.

50. The application of claim 49, wherein said third data is stored in said data processor.

51. The application of claim 50, wherein said third data comprises a previous value of said first power management data.

52. The application of claim 49, wherein said processing function comprises presenting said first power management data juxtaposed with said third data to said user.

53. The application of claim 48, wherein said processing function comprises computing a maximum value of said first power management data.

54. The application of claim 48, wherein said processing function comprises annotating said first power management data.

55. The application of claim 48, wherein said processing function comprises plotting said first power management data in a graphic coordinate system to create a graph and displaying said graph to a user.

56. The application of claim 48, wherein said processing function comprises converting said first power management data from a first form to a second form and displaying at least said second form to said user.

57. The application of claim 56, wherein said first form is numeric and said second form is graphical.

58. The application of claim 56, wherein said first form comprises a first unit scale and said second form comprises a second unit scale different from said first unit scale.

59. The application of claim 48, wherein said processing function comprises comparing said first power management data to a first pre-defined threshold and alerting said user when said power management data deviates from said first pre-defined threshold.

60. The application of claim 48, wherein said processing function is further operative to generate a command to said power management data source based on said first power management data.

61. The application of claim 48, wherein said processing function is further operative to generate a command to poll said power management data source to send said first power management data to said data receiver.

62. A method of presenting power management data in a web browser, said web browser coupled with a network and further coupled with at least one power management data source, the method comprising:

a) retrieving at least one power management data response from said at least one power management data source over said network by said web browser;

b) processing said at least one data response in said web browser; and

c) displaying said processed data in said web browser.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein said processing further comprises filtering said at least one data response.

64. The method of claim 62, wherein said processing further comprises comparing said at least one data response.

65. The method of claim 62, wherein said processing further comprises searching said at least one data response.

66. The method of claim 62, wherein said processing further comprises scheduling said at least one data response.

67. The method of claim 62, wherein said processing further comprises storing said processed power management data on a storage device coupled with said first computer.

68. The method of claim 62, said web browser further coupled with a second data source, wherein a) further comprises retrieving a second data response from said second data source, and further wherein b) comprises combining said second data response and said at least one power management data response.

69. A method of controlling the power management function of an IED, said IED coupled with a network and further coupled with at least one web browser, the method comprising:

a) retrieving power management data from said IED;

b) processing said power management data in said web browser to create processed data;

c) generating a control command based on said processed data and sending said control command to said IED for the purpose of controlling a power management function on said IED; and

d) transmitting said control command to said IED.

70. The method of claim 69, wherein said generating a control command is automated based on said processed power management data.

71. The method of claim 69, wherein said generating a control command is further based on input by a user of said web browser.

72. An electrical power management system for managing an electrical power distribution system comprising:

a network;

at least one intelligent electronic device (“

IED”

) coupled with a portion of said electrical power distribution system and further coupled with said network, each of said at least one IED operative to implement a power management function in conjunction with said portion of said electrical power distribution system, said power management function operative to respond to at least one power management command and generate power management data, each of said at least one IED comprising;

a first network interface operative to couple said at least one IED with said network and facilitate transmission of said power management data and receipt of said at least one power management command over said network;

said system further comprising;

a power management application coupled with said network and operative to receive and process said power management data from said at least one IED and generate said at least one power management command to said at least one IED to implement said power management function; and

at least one computer coupled with said network, said computer comprising an internet browser program, said internet browser program operative to retrieve said power management data from said at least one IED and process said power management data;

wherein said internet browser program is operative to present said processed power management data from said internet browser program to a first user of said at least one computer.

73. The electrical power management system of claim 72, wherein said IED further comprises a security module coupled with said first network interface and operative to prevent unauthorized access to said power management data.