Patent ID: 8700224
Filing Date: 2014-04-15
Classification: H02J,Y02A,Y02B,Y02E,Y04S

Abstract:
1. A standardized system for connection of any combination of electric energy supply source including a Utility Power Grid, Auxiliary Generator, Wind Turbines, Fuel Cell, Storage Battery, Solar Panel Arrays, and an Electric Car which are collectively aggregated to feed into a Main Service Panel of a Home or Small Business through a single plug-in connection to a Home or Small Business's electrical service entrance and provide for collective operational monitoring and management through an IP Networked Communication Link, commonly referred to as IP Networked Communication across the Internet, thereby providing bidirectional communication and control between a Grid-Tied Controller (GTC) and a Smart Load Management functionality resident on the Internet, the system comprising: Means for providing a scalable, single point, plug-in electrical connection that inserts into a Meter Receiver Box to feed electricity to a Main Service panel of the Home or Small Business, of which the insertion is accomplished completely outside the Home or Small Business, requiring no electrical rewiring inside the Home or Small Business to complete the connection which once completed, provides for the supplying of electric energy into the Home or Small Business or back out to the Utility Power Grid from any of the connected sources of electrical energy supply; Means to provide for measuring and recording, in near real time, the amount of electric energy being produced by each, electric energy supply source feeding electric energy into the GTC; Means to provide for the measuring and recording, in near real time, the amount of electric energy being using by the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for the measuring and recording, in near real time, the amount of electric energy being used and operational status of one or more Electric Appliances being powered from the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for the measuring and recording, in near real time, environmental site parameters located at the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for the measuring and recording, in near real time, operational parameters for each source of electric energy supply connected and feeding into the GTC; Means to provide for, in near real time, bi-directional communication across the Internet of energy supply data, energy use data, operational and environmental parameter data to and from the Smart Load Management functionality which is accessible through the Internet and residing on the Internet Cloud; Means to provide for programmatic control, in near real time through the Internet, programming control of a Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board and a Programmable Digital Signal Processor associated with the GTC; Means to provide for programmatic control, in near real time through the Internet, programming control of Remote Load Management Modules connected to participating Electric Appliances powered from the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for extending the electric service entrance coming from the Utility Power Grid and connecting to the Meter Receiver Box located on the Home or Small Business, providing for electric energy to pass through to a New Meter Socket and return from the New Meter Socket located in a Weather Tight Custom Cabinet which is provided for by electric energy passing from the Meter Receiver Box into a Meter Jumper Plug and through a Supply Power Wire No.1 and a Supply Power Wire No.2 contained in a Custom Wire Harness which extends over into the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet where the terminating ends of the Supply Power Wire No.1 and the Supply Power Wire No.2 connect to the supply side of the New System Meter Socket contained in the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for the return of electric energy from the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet to the Meter Receiver box after it has passed through the New Meter Socket and an Electric Meter inserted in the New system Meter Socket providing for feed in electric energy to travel back through the Feed In Power Wire No.3 and the Feed In Power Wire No.4 contained inside the Custom Wire Harness returning from the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet to the Meter Jumper Plug installed on the Meter Receiving Box which is connected to and provides for the feed in of electric energy into the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet to act as the Electrical Meter Receiver Box for newly constructed Home and Small Businesses providing for a weather tight connection point that a Power Mast connects to the Weather Tight Connection Cabinet and through which the Feed In Utility Power Lines enter into the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet, which is provided for by removing a Water Proof Cap from the top or bottom of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet depending on whether the Feed In Utility Power Lines are approaching from underground or overhead of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet and once inside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet the Utility Power Lines are connected to the New System Meter Socket supply side connection terminals; Means to provide for connecting any type or combination of electric energy supply source to all circuits of the electrical system of the Home or Small Business accomplished entirely outside the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for scaling the electrical capacity of the GTC to match the Home or Small Business's electric capacity up to a maximum of 200 amps, 240 volts AC; Means to provide for manual and simultaneous isolation and disconnection of all electric energy supply sources from the Utility Power Grid; Means to provide for detecting the loss of the Utility Power Grid power during a Utility Power Grid power outage; Means to provide for an automated simultaneous disconnection and isolation of all electric energy supply sources from the Utility Power Grid in the event of a power outage of the Utility Power Grid power; Means to provide for manual, onsite disconnection of any selected electric energy supply source feeding through each of the Feed In Breakers located in the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet and then on into the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for remotely disconnecting, in near real time, any of the electric energy supply sources delivering electric energy to the Feed In Breakers, located in the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet, then passing on into the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business, where disconnection is accomplished using an Electrical Contactor that acts as an electrically activated switch invoked by signals from the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board which applies preprogrammed algorithms and rules based triggers, which are communicated through the Internet from the Smart Load Management functionality residing on the Internet, to the operational data stored on the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board for each electric energy supply source; Means to provide for converting multiple sources of input AC or DC electrical energy into electrical energy that is compatible with the Utility Power Grid power both in voltage and frequency; Means to provide for onsite visual control and monitoring of a Multi-Mode Inverter/Converter from a liquid emitting diode (LED) display to check the GTC operational status, program features and initiate maintenance procedures; Means to provide for bidirectional IP Networked Communication through the Home or Small Business's electrical Power Wires for communication with the Remote Load Management Modules connected to electrical appliances powered from the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for bidirectional communication using wireless ZipBee communication protocol for communication with the Remote Load Management Modules connected to electrical appliances powered from the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small business and an Electric Meter provided by the Electric Power Utility Company for use at the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for the mounting of the GTC on the exterior wall of the Home or Small Business using a Custom Mounting Bracket that provides sufficient stand off from the wall to radiate any accumulated heat being released by the GTC and will give easy access for the connection of electric energy supply sources into an Energy Input Wiring Bus on the bottom of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for heat dissipation by a Heat Sink mounted to the back of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for feeding electric energy generated by the Solar Panel Arrays and the Wind Turbines mounted on top of the Home or Small Business's roof or on a free standing pole down through a Main Energy Source Cable into the Energy Input Wiring Bus on the bottom of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for a System Programming Port to program the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board while onsite; Means to provide for remote programming the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board through the Internet from the Smart Load Management functionality residing on the Internet Cloud or directly by remote connection through the Internet using the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board; Means to provide for communication and control of energy supply sources connected to the Energy Input Wiring Bus using the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board; Means to provide for the local serving Electric Power Utility Company to communicate and control large numbers of GTC units and each of their respective energy supply sources connected to a GTC and feeding electricity out to the Utility Power Grid or into the Home or Small Business using the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board connected to the Internet; Means to provide for the local serving Electric Power Utility Company to communicate using the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board contained in each GTC to control a number of the Remote Load Management Modules connected to each Electrical Appliance participating in the local serving Electric Power Utility Company's initiatives for an Intelligent Micro Distributed Load Management (IMDLM) effort to shave electric load and deal with demand response management; Means to provide for the Water Proof Cap to cover a hole in the top and bottom of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet when the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet is being used in conjunction with the Meter Jumper Plug and the Custom Wire Harness and not acting as the Meter Receiver Box where the Power Mast would normally connect if the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet were acting as the Meter Receiver Box on the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for mounting individual components that comprise the Meter Jumper Plug to a Plug Base; Means to provide for guiding the alignment of the Meter Jumper Plug during installation is accomplished by the Guide Blocks; Means to provide for securing a Neutral and Ground Block in a Ground Seat located on the Plug Base for proper alignment and attachment of a Neutral Wire and a Grounding Wire using a Neutral Block Screw; Means to provide for transitioning the Grounding Wire from the Meter Receiver Box to a Meter Base Socket located within the Meter Receiver Box by using a Neutral Clamp and a Clamp Screw to secure the Neutral Wire and the Grounding Wire to a Neutral and Ground Transfer Strap which is secured to the Plug Base by a Transfer Strap Screw; Means to provide for securing the Supply Power Wire No.1, the Supply Power Wire No.2, the Feed In Power Wire No.3 and the Feed In Power Wire No.4 to a Power Blade Blocks using a Block Screw and then inserted in Blade Seats located on the Plug Base within the Meter Jumper Plug; Means to provide for creating a weather tight seal for component elements contained inside the Meter Jumper Plug using a Double Seal on the Plug Base that interlocks with a Meter Plug Cover; Means to provide for attaching the Custom Wire Harness to the Meter Jumper Plug using a Wire Locking Ring which provides for a weather tight attachment and then inserts into a Main Wire Port of the Meter Plug Cover; Means to provide for securing the Meter Plug Cover to the Plug Base using a Cover Screw; Means to provide for illuminated visual demonstration, from the exterior of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet, the presence of electric energy from the Utility Power Grid to a Main Breaker contained inside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet and from the Main Breaker back to the Utility Power Grid; Means to provide for visually demonstrating from the exterior of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet the flow of electricity from the Energy Input Wiring Bus to the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business and back to the Utility Power Grid; Means to provide for illuminated visual demonstration, from exterior of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet, the presence of electric energy to and from a Charge/Discharge Controller for an Electric Car which is either plugged into an electric receptacle or permanently hardwired to an electric circuit powered from the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for illuminated visual demonstration, from the exterior of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet, the presence of electric energy to and from the Charge/Discharge Controller for the Storage Battery connected to the Energy Input Wiring Bus of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for illuminated visual demonstration, from the exterior of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet, the presence of electric energy at each of the Feed in Breakers located in the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for heating and venting moisture out of the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for isolating high voltage AC wiring from lower voltage or DC power wiring from the electric energy from the Electric Power Utility Company or other connected electric energy supply sources wired inside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for suppressing surge currents and spike voltages to protect each of the electric components of the GTC; Means to provide for grounding isolation of lighting strikes to protect each of the electric components of the GTC; Means to provide for a time delay in reconnecting the GTC to the Utility Power Grid after there has been a power outage of the Utility Power Grid power; Means to provide an electric power receptacle, with appropriate voltage and frequency for the geographic region in which the GTC is located, inside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet for use by GTC service personnel when providing service that requires powering any electric tool that maybe required; Means to provide for electric power to the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board located inside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for a terminal connection block to connect electrical wires to the Micro Processor Programmable Controller Board; Means to provide for an Electrical Power Supply that provides baseline voltage during a power outage of the Utility Power Grid permitting the Multi-Mode Inverter/Converter to synchronize voltage and frequency for continued operation during the Utility Power Grid power outage thereby providing continued electric power to the Main Service Panel of the Home or Small Business; Means to provide for charging batteries contained in the Electrical Power Supply using the Utility Power Grid power when available and power from the Multi-Mode Inverter/Converter during a power outage of the Utility Power Grid; Means to provide for illuminated, real time detection, from outside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet, the presence of electric energy that is flowing to or from the Main Breaker and to or from the New System Meter Socket located inside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for illuminated, real time detection, from outside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet, the presence of electric energy that is flowing to the Main Service Panel through the Feed In Power Wire No.3 and the Feed In Power Wire No.4 contained in the Custom Wiring Harness coming from the Energy Input Wiring Bus located in the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet; Means to provide for illuminated, real time detection, from outside the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet the Energy Input Wiring Bus contained in the Weather Tight Custom Cabinet back to the Meter Receiver Box; Means to provide for unattended, automated electric load reduction in the Home or Small Business down to match the amount of electric energy available from connected electric energy supply sources when a loss of the Utility Power Grid power occurs; Means to provide for unattended, automated detection of a loss of the Utility Power Grid power, and automatically start the Auxiliary Generator if connected to the GTC; Means to provide for the unattended, automated detection of the return of the Utility Power Grid power and automatically disengage the Auxiliary Generator and provide for a cool down period then turn off the Auxiliary Generator.