Patent ID: 9116519
Filing Date: 2015-08-25
Classification: G05B,G08B

Abstract:
1. A method of creating high quality alarms that raise EMS operator awareness to abnormal conditions in monitored assets across multiple sites in a single EMS software platform, the method comprising: accessing an alarm designer software tool that contains a library of alarm definitions and the ability to create new alarm definitions, clone and edit existing alarm definitions, test alarm definitions, lock alarm definitions and delete unlocked alarm definitions; defining applicable channel data using one or more channel attributes identifying which channels associated with a site or sites are to be evaluated for alarming conditions; defining alarm definition parameters, including the frequency, trigger conditions, pending open duration, close conditions, and pending close duration for the alarm; applying the alarm definition parameters against test channel data having the defined applicable channel data; generating test results, including potential alarm instances created, triggered alarms generated, and avoided triggered alarms resulting from the defined pending open and pending close durations; locking valid alarm definition parameters; activating an alarm definition in an EMS across a pre-defined set of one or more sites; periodically, as defined by the frequency of the activated alarm, evaluating the pre-defined set of sites against the applicable channel data definition to identify potential alarm instances that meet the applicable channel data definition for the activated alarm and evaluating each potential alarm instance for the predefined trigger conditions; creating a pending open alarm if the applicable channel data for a potential alarm instance meets the predefined trigger conditions in the activated alarm definition parameters and the pending open duration is greater than the frequency OR creating an open alarm if the applicable data meets the predefined trigger conditions and the pending open duration equals the evaluation frequency of the alarm; closing the pending open alarm if the applicable data fails to meet the predefined trigger conditions for the full defined pending open duration; creating an open alarm instance once the trigger conditions occur for the predetermined pending open duration; populating an EMS software portal with data on an open alarm instance; periodically, as defined by the frequency of an alarm, comparing the applicable channel data for each open alarm instance to predefined close conditions; creating a pending close alarm if the applicable channel data meets the predefined close conditions and the pending close duration is greater than the alarm frequency OR closing an alarm if the applicable channel data meets the predefined close conditions and the pending close duration is equal to the alarm frequency; changing a pending close alarm back to an open alarm if the applicable channel data fails to meet the predefined close conditions for the full predetermined close duration; closing an open alarm if the close conditions have occurred for the predetermined pending close duration; and updating the alarm details in the EMS software portal to show that an open alarm is now closed.