Patent ID: 8570023

Claim:
A method of monitoring a load on a three-phase power supply that provides power to a plurality of load meters each connected to one of three supply lines of the power distribution system, wherein each of the supply lines carries a different one of the three voltage phases, the method comprising the steps of: connecting a feeder meter to each of the three supply lines, wherein each of the feeder meters is positioned between the power supply and the load meters and wherein the phase of the supply line to which each of the three feeder meters is connected is known; transmitting a timing pulse; receiving the timing pulse at each of the three feeder meters; determining a feeder time delay at each of the feeder meters, the feeder time delay being the delay from the receipt of the timing pulse until a landmark value of the single phase voltage received by the feeder meter; designating each of the feeder time delays as one of three reference time delays based upon the known phase of the feeder meter receiving the timing pulse at each of the plurality of load meters; determining a time delay at each of the load meters, the time delay being a measured time from the receipt of the timing pulse until a landmark value of the single phase voltage received by the load meter; comparing the determined time delay from each of the plurality of load meters to the three reference time delays, each of the three reference time delays being associated with one of the three phases; and assigning one of the three phases to each load meter based upon the closest reference time delay to the determined time delay for the load meter.