Electricity meter primary energy holdup management
AssigneeLandis+Gyr Innovations, Inc.
InventorAnibal Ramirez
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A utility meter includes: a rectifier configured to rectify AC voltage from a power grid to generate a primary DC voltage supply; and a primary holdup circuitry, including: first capacitors coupled to a primary DC voltage rail and configured to store energy from the primary voltage supply; a switch coupled to the first capacitors; and a control circuit configured to control the primary holdup circuitry, wherein the control circuit is configured to: determine that a secondary DC voltage of a secondary voltage supply is approximately equal to a first specified threshold voltage; and generate a control signal to causes the switch to turn on and cause the one or more first capacitors to release a portion of the energy stored in the one or more first capacitors to the primary DC voltage rail.
Claims20
A utility meter, comprising:
- a rectifier configured to rectify alternating current (AC) voltage from a power grid to generate a primary direct current (DC) voltage supply;
- and
- primary holdup circuitry, including:
- one or more first capacitors coupled to a primary DC voltage rail and configured to store energy from the primary DC voltage supply;
- a switch coupled to the one or more first capacitors;
- and
- a control circuit configured to control the primary holdup circuitry, wherein the control circuit is configured to:
- determine that a secondary DC voltage of a secondary voltage supply derived from the primary DC voltage supply is approximately equal to a first specified threshold voltage;
- and
- generate a control signal to cause the switch to turn on and cause the one or more first capacitors to release a portion of the energy stored in the one or more first capacitors to the primary DC voltage rail.
A primary holdup circuit, comprising:
- one or more first capacitors coupled to a primary direct current (DC) voltage rail and configured to store energy from a primary DC voltage supply;
- a switch coupled to the one or more first capacitors;
- and
- a control circuit configured to control the primary holdup circuit, wherein the control circuit is configured to:
- determine that a secondary DC voltage derived from the primary DC voltage supply is approximately equal to a first specified threshold voltage;
- and
- generate a control signal to cause the switch to turn on and cause the one or more first capacitors to release a portion of the energy stored in the one or more first capacitors to the primary DC voltage rail.
A method of operating a utility meter during a power outage, the method comprising:
- determining, by a control circuit, that a power outage occurred on an alternating current (AC) power grid based on sensing a secondary direct current (DC) voltage derived from the AC power grid approximately equal to a first specified threshold DC voltage;
- generating, by the control circuit, a control signal to a primary holdup circuit comprising one or more first capacitors coupled to a primary DC voltage rail and configured to store energy from a primary voltage supply, and a switch coupled to the one or more first capacitors,
- wherein the control signal causes the switch to discharge energy from the one or more first capacitors coupled to the primary DC voltage rail, and
- wherein the energy discharged to the primary DC voltage rail causes a secondary voltage to be generated.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.