Apparatus for detecting possible defeat of systems for remote metering of utilities
AssigneeMotorola, Inc.
InventorsEugene J. Bruckert, Morgan H. Cooper
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Abstract
In remotely readable utility metering systems of the type including a plurality of rates and apparatus for indicating the amount of the utility consumed at each rate and shed controlled appliances with shed commands and rate change commands being issued from a remote central reading station, apparatus and method for monitoring the metering of the utility which includes monitoring a variety of events, e.g., counting the number of rate change and/or shed commands received by the metering system, to determine whether the metering system is operating correctly.
Claims11
In a remotely readable, automatic utility metering system of the type including a plurality of rates and apparatus for indicating the amount of the utility consumed at each rate, and shed controlled appliances with shed commands and rate change commands being issued from a remote central reading station, apparatus for monitoring the metering of the utility comprising a plurality of event registers each connected for storing the number of occurrences of a different event in a predetermined period of time and means for determining the stored number of occurrences at the central reading station.
In a remotely readable, automatic utility metering system of the type including a plurality of rates and apparatus for indicating the amount of the utility consumed at each rate, and shed controlled appliances with shed commands and rate change commands being issued from a remote central reading station, apparatus for monitoring the metering of the utility comprising:
- (a) a first register connected to receive the rate change commands and store the number of rate change commands received;
- (b) a second register connected to receive the shed commands and store the number of shed commands received;
- (c) shed indication means including a timer, first and second counters, a comparator and a shed indication register connected for measuring the amount of the utility consumed for a predetermined period during and after a shed mode and storing a count in the shed indication register each time the measured amount increases a predetermined amount after the shed mode;
- and
- (d) means for communicating the stored numbers in the first, second and shed indication registers to the central reading station.
In a remotely readable, automatic utility metering system of the type including a plurality of rates and apparatus for indicating the amount of the utility consumed at each rate, and shed controlled appliances with shed commands and rate change commands being issued from a remote central reading station, a method of monitoring the metering of the utility comprising the steps of:
- (a) counting the number of shed commands received;
- (b) counting the number of rate change commands received;
- and
- (c) comparing the number of shed commands and rate change commands received with the number issued.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.