Monitoring electrical assets for fault and efficiency correction
First Claim
1. An apparatus for monitoring an electrical asset in an electrical infrastructure, the apparatus comprising:
- a sensor coupled to the electrical asset for obtaining data corresponding to at least one of a voltage, current, and phase angle waveforms;
a globally synchronized timer for time-stamping the data with a globally synchronized time;
a mesh network radio for communicating at least one gateway and for relaying communications between one or more other electrical asset monitors and the at least one gateway; and
a power supply for extracting and storing energy from the electrical asset and supplying power to at least the sensor, the timer, and the radio.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method of monitoring a plurality of electrical assets comprise an electricity distribution infrastructure, including a plurality of electrical asset sensors coupled to the electrical assets for monitoring an operating condition of the electrical assets as well as any fault conditions. The sensors may include a current transformer for obtaining a current waveform, a GPS receiver for applying a synchronized time-stamp to the waveform data, and a mesh network radio for transmitting the time-stamped waveform data. Data from the plurality of sensors may be encrypted and transmitted over a mesh network to one or more gateways that are in communication with a central command processor. In response to an abnormal operating condition of any electrical asset, the central command processor may determine a probable fault location, a probable fault type, and a fault response.
148 Citations
43 Claims
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1. An apparatus for monitoring an electrical asset in an electrical infrastructure, the apparatus comprising:
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a sensor coupled to the electrical asset for obtaining data corresponding to at least one of a voltage, current, and phase angle waveforms;
a globally synchronized timer for time-stamping the data with a globally synchronized time;
a mesh network radio for communicating at least one gateway and for relaying communications between one or more other electrical asset monitors and the at least one gateway; and
a power supply for extracting and storing energy from the electrical asset and supplying power to at least the sensor, the timer, and the radio. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system for monitoring a plurality of electrical assets defining an electrical infrastructure, the system comprising:
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a plurality of electrical asset monitors coupled to respective ones of the electrical assets, each monitor including a sensor coupled to the electrical asset for obtaining data corresponding to at least one of a voltage, current, and phase angle waveforms, a globally synchronized timer, a mesh network radio, a power supply, and a power storage device;
one or more gateways, each gateway including a gateway mesh network radio for communicating with the plurality of electrical asset monitors and a network interface for communicating with a central command center via a network distinct from the mesh network;
the central command center including a further network interface for communicating with the one or more gateways, a memory for storing a database of fault signatures, a second memory for storing the sensed data, and a processor for analyzing the sensed data to identify a probable fault type, a probable fault location, and a fault response; and
a mesh network for routing communications among the plurality of electrical asset monitors and the one or more gateways, whereby the mesh network coordinates efficient communication paths among the plurality of electrical asset monitors and the one or more gateways. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of monitoring an electrical asset in an electrical infrastructure, the method comprising the steps of:
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sensing, by a monitoring element, one or more of a current, voltage, and phase angle waveforms of an electrical asset;
digitizing the sensed waveforms into a digital signal;
encrypting the digital signal;
transmitting the encrypted digital signal through a mesh network, the transmission being routed to a gateway based on a most efficient path between the monitoring element and the gateway; and
relaying, to the gateway, one or more other encrypted digital signals from one or more other monitoring elements monitoring one or more other electrical assets. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 29)
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30. A method of managing one or more electrical assets defining an electrical infrastructure, the method comprising the steps of:
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receiving, from one or more gateways, encrypted data collected by a plurality of electrical asset sensors;
decrypting the encrypted data to obtain a plurality of sensed waveforms, wherein each one of the sensed waveforms is synchronized according to a globally synchronized timer and includes a plurality of coordinates identifying a source location of the waveform; and
determining, based on the plurality of sensed waveforms and respective source locations, one or more of an abnormal condition and a normal condition. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. An apparatus for controlling electric assets comprising:
an ad-hoc MESH radio configured for use with sensors and gateway, and a processor having analog and digital input and output ports wherein the input ports are configured to receive signal data from at least one electric asset and the output ports are configured to control the at least one electrical asset.
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42. A method of load-balancing a plurality of electrical assets in an electrical infrastructure, the method comprising the steps of:
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sensing, by each of a plurality of monitoring elements, one or more of a current, voltage, and phase angle waveforms of an electrical asset;
digitizing the sensed waveforms into a digital signal;
transmitting the digital signals via a plurality of ad-hoc mesh radios through a mesh network, the transmission being routed to a plurality of gateways based on a most efficient path between the monitoring element and each of the gateways; and
relaying, to the gateways, one or more other digital signals from one or more other monitoring elements monitoring one or more other electrical assets;
Wherein the system further includes at least one algorithm that operates to equalize a number of ad-hoc mesh radios that cluster to any one gateway; and
to globally coordinate network traffic among the gateways.
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43. A system for monitoring a plurality of electrical assets defining an electrical infrastructure for pin pointing fault locations the system comprising:
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a plurality of electrical asset monitors coupled to respective ones of the electrical assets, each monitor including a sensor coupled to the electrical asset for obtaining data corresponding to at least ones of a voltage, current, or a phase angle waveform, a globally synchronized timer to time stamp the data, to measure time and to provide position information, a mesh network radio, a power supply, and a power storage device;
one or more gateways, each gateway including a gateway mesh network radio for communicating with the plurality of electrical asset monitors and a network interface for communicating with a central command center via a network distinct from the mesh network;
the central command center including a further network interface for communicating with the one or more gateways, a memory for storing a database of fault signatures, a second memory for storing the sensed data, a third memory for storing fixed asset information that includes at least one of cable type, cable propagation velocity, cable segment length, or asset type and asset electrical impedance, and a processor for analyzing the sensed data to identify a probable fault type, a probable fault location, and a fault response;
wherea system is configured to calculate a fault location from the globally synchronized times and at least one of respective arrival times of the fault signal from multiple ones of the plurality of electrical asset monitors, asset monitor position, fault signal propagation, and cable segment lengths.
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Specification