Operating smart sensors using distributed ledgers
AssigneeItron, Inc.
InventorsTim Patterson, Lucas Scheidler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A distributed ledger based utility system architecture may be configured to enable secure payments, data transmission, and meter configuration of smart sensors. The utility system architecture may be a tiered architecture including multiple nodes at different levels of the architecture where each level may contain a different portion of the distributed ledger. As information is added to the distributed ledger, each portion of the distributed ledger may be updated based on whether the information is relevant to that node. The information may include rate contract transactions, meter configuration data transactions, payment transactions, or the like.
Claims20
A utility network system comprising:
- a master node including a master node distributed ledger, the master node configured to receive a customer transaction and to update an instance of the master node distributed ledger indicating occurrence of the customer transaction;
- a plurality of broker nodes configured to receive an activity instruction including a demand response instruction and meter configuration data for a plurality of smart utility meters located within an autonomous routing area, each broker node comprising an edge node of the autonomous routing area and including a broker node distributed ledger that is applicable to the respective broker node;
- and
- the plurality of smart utility meters located within the autonomous routing area configured to:
- receive the activity instruction including the demand response instruction and the meter configuration data,
- wherein the demand response instruction includes an indication of which loads of a plurality of loads are needed to be altered in order to fulfill an amount of a resource indicated in the demand response instruction;
- alter an amount of resource provided to at least one load of the plurality of loads;
- and
- set a signal strength used by at least one smart utility meter of the plurality of smart utility meters based at least in part on the meter configuration data.
A method implemented by a utility network system, the method comprising:
- receiving, at a master node of the utility network system, a customer transaction and updating an instance of a master node distributed ledger indicating occurrence of the customer transaction;
- receiving, at a broker node of a plurality of broker nodes of the utility network system, an activity instruction including a demand response instruction and meter configuration data for a plurality of smart utility meters located within an autonomous routing area, each broker node comprising an edge node of the autonomous routing area and including a broker node distributed ledger that is applicable to the respective broker node;
- receiving, by the plurality of smart utility meters, the activity instruction including the demand response instruction and the meter configuration data, wherein the demand response instruction includes an indication of which loads of a plurality of loads are needed to be altered in order to fulfill an amount of a resource indicated in the demand response instruction;
- altering, by the plurality of smart utility meters, an amount of resource provided to at least one load of the plurality of loads;
- and
- changing metrology channels collected by at least one smart utility meter of the plurality of smart utility meters based at least in part on the meter configuration data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.