Patent ID: 12203777

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following detailed description illustrates the invention by way of example and not by way of limitation. This description clearly enables one skilled in the art to make and use the invention, and describes several embodiments, adaptations, variations, alternatives and uses of the invention, including what is presently believed to be the best mode of carrying out the invention. Additionally, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it will be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.

In accordance with the present invention, a smart meter M utilizes the IEC 61968-9:2013 (hereinafter “Part-9”) schema standard as a neutral language. As such, the Part-9 standard supports operation of any smart meter M, regardless of its source of manufacture, including system control and data acquisition (i.e., SCADA) operations. The Part-9 standard can be extended as required and is used to define or “map” each meter in the original or “native” language with which the meter was programmed during its manufacture. An example of the use of the Part-9 schema for reading a meter, for example, is shown inFIGS.2-4.

In accordance with the invention, a translation protocol or device D converts the native language of a meter into the neutral language which, once implemented, provides a common semantic understanding between a message's sender, which is sometimes referred to as the “Head End” or “HE”, and the message's receiver, which is sometimes referred to as the “End Point” or “EP”. As previously noted, this neutral language is employed at the application layer of a protocol stack. Device D may be located at a substation S as shown inFIG.1or other convenient Head End location.

In operation, translating device D services one or more native languages including: ANSI C12, IEC-61850, DNP, SEP, DLMS/COSEM, other standard application-layer languages, and other proprietary application-layer languages.

Translating device D is installed outside of the equipment; e.g., meters M, which are issuing or receiving messages; and, it can be integrated into a communication module located at a Head End facility, substation S, for example, to provide translation within a communications channel. Further, each meter has a communications module programmable to communicate with meters programmed for a different native language.

InFIG.1, be bi-directional communications over a grid G of the utility are routed through a central controller located at the substation. In such a communications scheme, translation is also bi-directional. Accordingly, an end point or meter M is able to communicate back to a central controller located at substation S and can also route traffic to other devices connected via the same central controller. This is done using Internet Protocols versions 4 or 6 (IPv4, IPv6) or a Network Address Translation (NAT) protocol to communicate back to the central controller and be backhauled to a Head End. Data acquired by a meter M or other equipment is routed to a back office advanced metering interface (AMI) Head End as well as to a back office SCADA Head End or a centralized or back office energy management system (EMS).

An advantage of the above is that in addition to communications over the utility's grid G, it is now possible for communications within a localized area such as the micro-grid MG designated inFIG.1to be performed. Situations where communications within a micro-grid are desirable include those where network wide communications are halted due to a storm or other natural causes as well as manmade incidents. In such instances, the improvements of the invention now allow the facilities F1-F5 inFIG.1to communicate with each other, but not necessarily to substation S or other sections of the utility grid, so to determine the operational status at each facility, any configuration changes needed at a facility in order for continued functioning of equipment at the facility, and data acquisition. Since the meters or other equipment at one facility may not necessarily be the same as that at other facilities within micro-grid MG, the ability to go from a native language to a neutral language allows communications to timely occur locally without requiring communication backhaul to a central office such as substation S.

Within micro-grid MG, the local communications are point-to-point or peer-to-peer, and are routed through the micro-grid's communication infrastructure without reaching a Head End. The communications are routed through the meters M at the various facilities F1-F5 to, for example, consumer appliances, in-home displays, utility distribution automation including, for example:capacitor bank controllers, transformer tap changers, switch reclosers, micro-grid controllers, inverters, and distributed generation equipment;demand response applications for load control and price response, etc.;outage detection and power restoration management equipment including lineman diagnostic tools; and,health monitoring equipment.

A distributed micro-grid controller, for example, allows inputs for a locally determined action such as distribution-side voltage sag so to inform a storage battery array that it needs to begin to provide an output to meet load demands.

With regard to mapping, as previously noted, the IEC 61968-9 standard has been selected as the neutral language. Mappings created between the neutral language and the equipment's native language entail an equivalency between a “restful” architecture and the equipment's native architecture. On the restful side, a resource and a verb are identified to perform a particular action. On the equipment side, this involves a process workflow usually including “reading” or “writing” data elements, and possibly the creation and close-out of secure sessions. Further on the restful side, parameters are supplied to specify exactly what is to be done; i.e., acquire data, perform a function, etc. On the equipment side, specific neutral parameters are mapped to specific native parameters. The formats of both are specified, along with a conversion formula.

An example of a mapping from an end point's native language to and from the neutral language is provided below. Preferably, mappings are maintained in a tabular form but can be expressed in BPEL (Business Process Execution Language), OWL (Ontology Web Language), as well as other means.

Neutral LanguageNative LanguageReading Type IDReading Type DescriptionFormatANSI C12.19 Location0.0.0.1.1.1.12.0.0.0.0.0.bulkQuantity forwardDecimalTOTAL_DEL_KWH (MFG Table 19,0.0.0.3.72.0electricitySecondaryMetered energy (kWh)Length 4B, Offset 4B)0.0.0.1.20.1.12.0.0.0.0bulkQuantity total electricitySecondaryMeteredDecimalTOTAL_DEL_PLUS_RCVD_KWH (MFG0.0.0.0.3.72.0energy (kWh)Table 19, Length 4B, Offset 8B)0.0.0.1.4.1.12.0.0.0.0.0.bulkQuantity net electricitySecondaryMeteredDecimalTOTAL_DEL_MINUS_RCVD_KWH (MFG0.0.0.3.72.0energy (kWh)Table 19, Length 4B, Offset 12B)0.0.0.1.19.1.12.0.0.0.0.bulkQuantity reverse electricitySecondaryMeteredDecimalTOTAL_REC_KWH (MFG Table 19, Length0.0.0.0.3.72.0energy (kWh)4B, Offset 16B)

The following example is for a meter reading definition. A conversion formula is also supplied in Y56109FDS:

Ke=⁢Mp×Kh1000

Equation 1, The definition of Ke for Metered Usage (Secondary Reading)
EnergykWh=(Energypulses×Ke×Rp)+InitialOffsetkWhEquation 2, BulkQuantity Energy Pulses to kWh conversionWhere,EnergykWh=Energy in its finished form as a useable business value.Energypulses=Energy in a raw form from the meter

Mp, is the number of meter disk revolutions per pulse. (This value may be used to normalize pulses. For electromechanical meters it is customarily computed as the 1“the number of stripes on the disk”. For solid-state meters, this is ratio of normalized pulses to actual pulses).Kh, is the number of Watt-hours per disk revolution.Rp=AMR decompression scalar. (Normally, for usage calculations Rp=1).

InitialOffsetkWh=The value determined at time of integration which defines the difference between the dial reading and the corresponding register reading expressed in kWh.

Importantly, use of a neutral language to carry messages creates opportunities for an Internet of Things capability. To achieve this, adapters or translating devices D are built at each end of a communications network to convert the neutral language to the local or native language. An exception to this would be a utility's back office since the language chosen as the neutral language is the language of the back office. Future developments include developing an enclosure that contains a device D and a communications synergization module that allows almost any distribution automation (DA) device to be connected into the system. The DA devices would have autonomous analysis capabilities to communicate with meters M so to obtain field environment conditions such as voltage or demand.

In view of the above, it will be seen that the several objects and advantages of the present disclosure have been achieved and other advantageous results have been obtained.