Communications architecture for intelligent electronic devices

An electrical power management architecture comprising:

• at least one intelligent electronic device (“IED”) coupled with a portion of an electrical power system and further coupled with an internal network;
• the at least one IED further comprising at least one sensor coupled with said electrical power system and further operative to sense at least one electric parameter in said portion of said electrical power system and to generate power management data related thereto;
• a firewall operative to couple an external network with the internal network;
• a mail server coupled with the internal network and operative to facilitate communications of electronic mail messages between the external network and the internal network;
• a network interface operative to couple the at least one IED with the internal network and further operative to communicate with the mail server, the mail server being operative to communicate through the firewall, and further wherein the mail server is operative to initiate communications of at least one of the electronic mail messages comprising the power management data from the internal network to the external network.

An electrical power management architecture for managing an electrical power distribution system comprising:

• a network;
• at least one intelligent electronic device (“IED”) coupled with a portion of said electrical power distribution system and further coupled with said network, each of said at least one IED operative to implement a power management function in conjunction with said portion of said electrical power distribution system, said power management function operative to respond to at least one power management command and generate power management data, each of said at least one IED comprising:
• a first network interface operative to couple said at least one IED with said network and facilitate transmission of said power management data and receipt of said at least one power management command over said network;
• a security module coupled with said first network interface and operative to prevent unauthorized access to said power management data;
• and
• a protocol stack, said protocol stack including an application layer comprising at least one application operative to punch through a firewall to facilitate said transmission of said power management data;
• at least one sensor coupled with said portion of said electrical power system and further operative to sense at least one electrical parameter in said portion of said electrical power distribution system, said IED being operative to generate said power management data related thereto;
• said architecture further comprising:
• a power management application coupled with said network and operative to receive and process said power management data from said at least one IED and generate said at least one power management command to said at least one IED to implement said power management function.

A method of communicating power management data in an electrical power management architecture between an internal network and an external network, the internal network being coupled with the external network by a firewall, the method comprising:

• (a) monitoring a portion of an electrical power distribution system with at least one intelligent electronic device (“IED”), the at least one IED further being coupled with the internal network, the at least one IED further comprising at least one sensor coupled with said portion of said electrical power distribution system and further operative to sense at least one electrical parameter in said portion of said electrical power distribution system and to generate at least one signal indicative thereof;
• (b) generating power management data by the at least one IED based on said at least one signal;
• (c) initiating a first communications of the power management data by the at least one IED to a receiver, the receiver being coupled with the external network;
• and
• (d) facilitating the initiated first communications through the firewall to the external network for delivery to the receiver.

A method of communicating power management data in an electrical power management architecture between an internal network and an external network, the internal network being coupled with the external network by a firewall through which communications between the internal network and external network must travel, the method comprising:

• (a) monitoring a portion of an electrical power distribution system with at least one intelligent electronic device (“IED”), the at least one IED further being coupled with the internal network, the at least one IED further comprising at least one sensor coupled with an electric power system and further operative to sense at least one electrical parameter in said electric power system and to generate at least one signal indicative thereof;
• (b) generating power management data by the at least one IED based on the at least one signal;
• (c) initiating a first communications of the power management data by the at least one IED to a receiver, the receiver being coupled with the external network;
• (d) configuring the internal network to allow the first communications to be transmitted to the external network via the firewall;
• and
• (e) transmitting the initiated first communications through the firewall to the external network for delivery to the receiver.