Determining Electric Grid Endpoint Phase Connectivity
AssigneeSilver Spring Networks, Inc.
InventorsRaj Vaswani, Jana van Greunen, Alexander Gostrer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The service phase of the electrical connection to a customer endpoint device located within a power distribution system is determined by various techniques. At the feeder level, the system may be programmed to induce momentary power interruptions, thereby causing missed zero crossings at the customer endpoint devices. The pattern of these interruptions is a controlled one, designed specifically to avoid causing noticeable disruption even to sensitive devices, but to be unusual enough that it is statistically unlikely to be naturally occurring. The monitoring of the zero crossing information is used to determine the phase of the service line to the customer endpoint devices.
Claims26
A method of determining a service phase of an endpoint device in a power distribution system, the method comprising:
- sending a message to a point in the power distribution system requesting a temporary power interruption on one of a plurality of phases of a feeder line to customer sites;
- receiving a report from at least one of a plurality of endpoint devices at respective customer sites indicating whether the power interruption was detected by the endpoint device;
- and
- mapping an endpoint device that reported the detection of the power interruption to the respective phase on which the power interruption was created.
A method of determining a service phase of an endpoint device in a power distribution system, the method comprising:
- identifying a plurality of endpoint devices that communicate with a host device;
- synchronizing the plurality of endpoint devices temporarily with the host device;
- detecting last zero-crossings in alternating current power within a predetermined time period at each endpoint device;
- measuring the relative phase difference of the plurality of endpoint devices based on timestamps of the detected last zero-crossings;
- and
- determining the service phase of each endpoint device based on the measured relative phase difference.
A method of determining a service phase of an endpoint device in a power distribution system, the method comprising:
- sending, from a host, a request to the endpoint device requesting zero-crossing delta data detected at the endpoint device;
- receiving, at the host, a response message from the endpoint device including zero-crossing delta data detected at the endpoint device indicating the difference between the time when a last zero-crossing was detected at the endpoint device and when the response message was created by the endpoint device;
- calculating zero-crossing delta data detected at the host, the zero-crossing delta detected at the host indicating the difference between the time when a last zero-crossing was detected at the host and the time when the response message was received by the host;
- calculating a phase shift from the endpoint device based on the zero-crossing delta data detected at the endpoint device, the calculated zero-crossing delta data detected at the host, a message latency time, and a frequency period of a feeder line electrically connected to the endpoint device;
- and
- determining the service phase of the endpoint device based on the calculated phase shift.
A method of determining a service phase of an endpoint device in a power distribution system, the method comprising:
- sending a request from a first endpoint device to a neighboring endpoint device requesting zero-crossing delta data detected at the neighboring device;
- receiving, at the first endpoint device, a response message from the neighboring device including the zero-crossing delta data detected at the neighboring device, the zero-crossing delta data detected at the neighboring device indicating the difference between the time when a last zero-crossing was detected at the neighboring device and when the response message was created by the neighboring device;
- calculating, at the first endpoint device, zero-crossing delta data detected at the first endpoint device, the zero-crossing delta data detected at the first endpoint device indicating the difference between the time when a last zero-crossing was detected at the first endpoint device and the time when the response message was received by the first endpoint device;
- calculating a phase shift from the neighboring device based on the zero-crossing delta data detected at the neighboring device, the calculated zero-crossing delta data detected at the first endpoint device, a message latency time, and a frequency period of a feeder line electrically connected to the neighboring device;
- and
- determining the service phase of the neighboring device based on the calculated phase shift.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.