KR-102962485-B1 - Method and system for detection and notification of power outages and power quality

KR102962485B1KR 102962485 B1KR102962485 B1KR 102962485B1KR-102962485-B1

Abstract

A method and system for detecting and notifying power outages and power quality are described herein. A sensor coupled to a circuit transmits a keep-alive packet to a server. The sensor detects an input signal generated by electrical activity. The sensor generates an output signal based on the input signal. The sensor monitors the output signal. During a clock cycle, the sensor determines whether a rising edge has occurred and transmits an error packet to the server if a rising edge occurs before a predetermined clock value or if no rising edge occurs. The server receives the error packet from the sensor and listens for keep-alive packets. The server transmits a power outage notification when keep-alive packets are not received for at least a specified period after the error packet is received. The server transmits a power restoration notification when one or more keep-alive packets are subsequently received.

Inventors

슬룹, 크리스토퍼, 데일
마샬, 로버트, 에스.
빅슬러, 도니
리우, 총린

Assignees

위스커 랩스 인코포레이티드

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20210312
Priority Date: 20200313

Claims (20)

As a system for detecting and notifying power outages, A sensor device coupled to a circuit — the sensor device is, Periodically send keep-alive packets to the server computing device; Detecting an input signal generated by electrical activity on the above circuit; Generate an output signal based on the above-detected input signal; Monitoring the generated output signal during each of the plurality of clock cycles having a predetermined duration; During each clock cycle: Determine whether a rising edge occurred in the above-mentioned generated output signal; Transmitting an error packet to the server computing device when the rising edge occurs prior to a predetermined clock value in the clock cycle or when the rising edge does not occur in the clock cycle; Configured to initiate a new clock cycle ―; The server computing device is coupled to the sensor device in a manner that allows communication, and the server computing device comprises: Receive the error packet from the sensor device; Listening for one or more keep-alive packets from the sensor device; When no keep-alive packets are received from the sensor device for at least a specified period after the above error packet is received, a power outage notification is transmitted to one or more remote computing devices; A system configured to transmit a power recovery notification to one or more remote computing devices when one or more keep-alive packets are subsequently received from the sensor device after the above power outage notification has been transmitted.
In Article 1, A system in which the above input signal includes an alternating current (AC) voltage sine wave having a plurality of zero crossings.
In Article 2, A system in which the output signal is a voltage curve having a plurality of rising edges corresponding to the zero crossing of the input signal.
In Article 2, A system comprising power quality data, wherein the above keep-alive packet includes one or more of the following: a root mean square (RMS) voltage, the frequency of the voltage sine wave, the relative phase angle of the voltage sine wave, the amplitude of the voltage sine wave harmonics, or any number of scales of the high-frequency noise amplitude.
In Article 1, A system in which each clock cycle has a predefined duration of 9 milliseconds.
In Article 5, A system in which the predetermined clock value of the above clock cycle is 8.33 milliseconds.
As a computerized method for detecting and notifying power outages, A step of periodically transmitting keep-alive packets to a server computing device by a sensor device coupled to the circuit; A step of detecting an input signal generated by electrical activity on the circuit by a sensor device; A step of generating an output signal based on the detected input signal by the sensor device; A step of monitoring the generated output signal during each of a plurality of clock cycles having a predetermined duration by the sensor device; During each clock cycle: A step of determining whether a rising edge has occurred in the generated output signal by the sensor device; A step of transmitting an error packet to the server computing device by the sensor device when the rising edge occurs before a predetermined clock value in the clock cycle or when the rising edge does not occur in the clock cycle; A step of initiating a new clock cycle by the sensor device above; A step of receiving the error packet from the sensor device by the server computing device; A step of listening for one or more keep-alive packets from the sensor device by the server computing device; The step of transmitting a power outage notification to one or more remote computing devices by the server computing device when no keep-alive packets are received from the sensor device for at least a specified period after the error packet is received; and A method comprising the step of transmitting a power recovery notification to one or more remote computing devices when one or more keep-alive packets are subsequently received from the sensor device after the power outage notification is transmitted by the server computing device.
In Article 7, A method in which the input signal comprises an alternating current (AC) voltage sine wave having a plurality of zero crossings.
In Article 8, A method in which the output signal is a voltage curve having a plurality of rising edges corresponding to the zero crossing of the input signal.
In Article 8, A method comprising power quality data, wherein the keep-alive packet comprises one or more of the following scales: a root mean square (RMS) voltage, the frequency of the voltage sine wave, the relative phase angle of the voltage sine wave, the amplitude of the voltage sine wave harmonics, or the amplitude of the high-frequency noise.
In Article 7, A method in which each clock cycle has a predetermined duration of 9 milliseconds.
In Article 11, A method in which the predetermined clock value of the above clock cycle is 8.33 milliseconds.
As a system for detecting and notifying power quality, One or more sensor devices each coupled to the circuit — each sensor device is, Detecting an input signal generated by electrical activity on the above circuit; Generate an output signal based on the above-detected input signal; Configured to transmit power quality data based on the above output signal to a server computing device —; It includes a server computing device, and the server computing device is, Receiving power quality data from one or more sensor devices; Detecting one or more power quality events by analyzing the power quality data in relation to the historical power quality data received from the one or more sensor devices; (i) correlating one or more detected power quality events with the external event based on the time of the external event greater than or equal to 0, the location of the external event, and power quality characteristics for the external event; and (ii) correlating a power quality event detected from the first sensor device with a power quality event detected from one or more other sensor devices based on the time of the power quality event detected from one or more other sensor devices, the location of the power quality event detected from one or more other sensor devices, and power quality characteristics for the power quality event detected from one or more other sensor devices; and A system configured to transmit power quality notifications to one or more remote computing devices based on the aforementioned associated power quality events.
In Article 13, A system in which one or more of the above-detected power quality events include one or more of surge events, surge jump events, sag events, sag jump events, brownout events, swell jump events, high frequency (HF) filter jump events, frequency jump events, recurring power quality problems, phase angle jump events, loose neutral events, or generator activation events.
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In Article 14, The above server computing device is: For a single sensor device, analyze the number and amplitude of surge events, surge jump events, and sag events recorded by the single sensor device within a predetermined period that is independent of matching power quality events from any other sensor devices adjacent to the single sensor device; A system for detecting a loose neutral event by generating a loose neutral event when the average number of the above surge events is greater than a first number specified per day, or the average number of the above surge jump events having a magnitude greater than a specified percentage of the nominal voltage is greater than a second number specified per day, or the average number of the above sag events is greater than a third number specified per day.
In Article 14, The above output signal comprises one or more of the following scales: root mean square (RMS) voltage, frequency of the voltage sine wave, relative phase angle of the voltage sine wave, amplitude of the voltage sine wave harmonics, or amplitude of the high-frequency noise.
In Article 17, The above server computing device is: Analyzes multiple sequential data points of RMS voltage from one or more sensor devices; A system for detecting surge events by generating a surge event when the above RMS voltage is greater than a predetermined threshold percentage of the nominal voltage for a plurality of consecutive data points.
In Article 18, A system in which the above-mentioned predetermined threshold percentage varies based on the number of consecutive data points in which the RMS voltage is greater than the minimum threshold percentage.
In Article 14, The above server computing device is: Analyzes multiple sequential data points of RMS voltage from one or more sensor devices; A system for detecting a brownout event by generating a brownout event when the above RMS voltage is less than a predetermined threshold percentage of the nominal voltage for a number of consecutive data points.

Description

Method and system for detection and notification of power outages and power quality [0001] The present application claims priority to U.S. provisional application No. 62/989,415 filed on March 13, 2020, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. [0002] The subject of this application is generally a method and system for detecting and notifying power outages and power quality in electrical systems. [0003] Consumers continue to rely increasingly on the availability of uninterrupted electricity for a wide variety of activities, such as power supply, communication devices, computing devices, medical devices, heating and cooling appliances, and refrigeration. However, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average U.S. electricity consumer was without power for 250 minutes and experienced 1.3 outages in 2016. In 2017, the amount of time consumers were without power nearly doubled to an average of 470 minutes (7.8 hours) with 1.4 outages. While the longest outage was around 20 hours in 2016, that number increased to slightly over 40 hours in 2017. Often, these outages are unplanned and, in some cases, may go unnoticed, for example, by homeowners who are away from home. Since these outages can have a significant impact on almost every aspect of daily life, including health and safety, the immediate detection and notification of outages are critical. [0004] Currently available technologies for power outage detection typically rely on the use of backup batteries and/or generators to temporarily supply power to power outage detection devices and supporting communication equipment. However, batteries have a limited lifespan and add to the cost of power outage detection devices. Replacing batteries places a continuous maintenance burden on the user. Additionally, in some cases, activating the battery backup can cause an undesirable delay between when the power outage begins and when the backup power is activated to supply power to the detection device. [0005] Furthermore, generation, transmission, and distribution systems are becoming increasingly complex. The transition to energy sources that produce less carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) implies that there will be combinations of many different generation methods, including wind, solar, nuclear, batteries, natural gas, and coal. Homes and businesses will increasingly have on-premise energy generation methods, and all of these generation systems will overlap on the electrical grid with varying levels of aging and environmental exposure. The transition between different types of generation can cause voltage surges and sags, as well as other power quality issues. Aging and environmental exposure cause transformers and electrical interconnects to deteriorate and fail. Surges, sags, and deteriorating equipment can not only cause appliances or devices to fail but also create very dangerous situations where electric shock and electrical fires may occur. In residential environments, fires often start in walls or other hidden openings, gaining significant heat and progress before being detected by homeowners or smoke detectors, leading to substantial losses. Electrical malfunctions are one of the major causes of residential fires. Due to the hidden nature of ignition sources, electrical fires are also a disproportionate cause of death. It is estimated that electrical fires cause 420 deaths, 1,370 injuries, and $1.4 billion in residential losses annually. [0006] Current technology does not provide homeowners with much of the necessary information regarding the quality of the power they receive from utilities. For example, homeowners may not be warned of very serious problems with electrical connections within their homes or electrical networks, but may notice flickering lights or frequent failures of sensitive electronic equipment. Furthermore, damage and deterioration of the U.S. electrical grid are increasing risks and liabilities for grid utility owners and their consumers. For example, according to a recent fire accident data report by Pacific Gas & Energy (PG&E), PG&E experienced over 2,400 grid-induced fires between 2014 and 2019. These fires resulted in liabilities exceeding $13 billion and triggered PG&E's bankruptcy filing. In another example, according to research by the Texas Wildfire Mitigation Project, there were 4,000 fires; while most were localized and of little significance, larger fires were caused by events in utility transmission or distribution systems that occurred in the less than four years prior to the study. In addition to wildfires, the increase in transformer fires and explosions, as well as other catastrophic grid events, is linked to the deterioration of utility equipment. In one horrific example, in mid-July 2019, firefighters responded to a call in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, where a high-voltage transformer exploded and ignited a fire. Another recent event was a transformer explosion and fire at an Amer