KR101999844B1 - A system and a method for remote metering - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a wireless communication system that is installed in a use place for measuring first energy use information of a use place, is provided with a first measurement system using a first communication method, a second measurement method using a second communication method And a converter provided to the second measurement system and converting the second communication method into the first communication method, wherein the first measurement system and the gateway are connected to the first measurement system, And the second measurement system communicates second energy use information with the gateway through the first communication method using a converter.
Through the present invention, it is possible to remotely monitor energy usage information of a plurality of usage destinations in real time from a management station.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a system and a method for remote metering,

The present invention relates to a remote meter reading system and method, and more particularly, to a remote meter reading system capable of checking energy usage information such as electric power, water, gas, hot water, System and method.

Generally, buildings using energy are provided with a meter reading system for checking energy usage information. The energy may include gas water, hot water or electric power.

The building may be a commercial building selling goods or services, or a residential space such as an apartment complex. Hereinafter, the building is referred to as a use place.

In addition, the management entity that manages the use area needs to collect the energy usage information used in one or more applications and confirm the total energy usage information by a specific period.

However, it is difficult for the above-mentioned management to confirm the whole energy use information used at each place of use from time to time, and it is difficult to obtain information about the amount of energy used or the charge for use until the bill about the energy use amount of each place of use is received.

Particularly, if the usage destination is a franchise company's branch office and the management office is the head office of a franchise company, the cost for the energy usage of the franchisee will be shared.

However, there is a problem that it is difficult to manage or control the energy use of the franchisee, because the management agency can not confirm energy usage information of a plurality of franchisees from time to time.

It is also difficult to collect and analyze energy usage information of a large number of franchisees distributed nationwide.

An object of the present invention is to provide an energy utilization information remote meter reading system capable of checking energy usage information of a usage place in real time at a management site without visiting a meter reading source.

The present invention also provides a method for remotely reading energy usage information using the above system.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a radio communication system comprising: a first measurement system installed in the use place to measure first energy use information of a use place, the first measure system using a first communication method; A second measurement system installed in the use place to measure the second energy use information of the use place and using the second communication method; A gateway capable of communicating through the first communication scheme; And a converter that is provided in the second measurement system and converts the second communication method into the first communication method, wherein the first measurement system and the gateway communicate the first energy usage information through the first communication method And the second measurement system communicates the second energy usage information with the gateway through the converter in the first communication method.

The converter is also coupled to a plurality of second measurement systems, wherein the converter communicates a plurality of second energy usage information measured by the plurality of second measurement systems with the plurality of second measurement systems in a polling manner .

Preferably, the converter includes a storage unit, and the converter stores the plurality of second energy usage information transmitted from the plurality of second measurement systems in the storage unit by each second measurement system.

In addition, the converter communicates with the plurality of second measurement systems at predetermined time intervals, and the converter sequentially transmits a plurality of second energy usage information transmitted from the plurality of second measurement systems, .

If there is a request for energy use information from the gateway to the converter, the converter stores a plurality of second energy usage information stored in the storage unit separately for each second measurement system into one data packet, To the gateway.

Also, the gateway includes a monitoring database (DB), the converter has an address, and the monitoring DB, if the address of the energy usage information required by the gateway and the address of the converter correspond to each other, It is desirable to request energy usage information from the converter.

Also, the gateway communicates with a plurality of converters, the plurality of converters have respective addresses, and the monitoring DB identifies addresses of the plurality of converters and polls the plurality of converters It is desirable to communicate energy usage information.

The gateway further comprises a remote meter-reading process, wherein the remote meter-reading process creates the first energy usage information and the data packet as predefined XML data To the data center.

In addition, the data center may include a remote reading unit, the transmitted XML data may be stored in the remote viewing unit, and the stored XML data may be browsed remotely from a management station.

It is preferable that the plurality of second measurement systems include respective facility meters for measuring water, gas, hot water, or heat quantity.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication system including a first measurement system using a first communication method, a second measurement system using a second communication method, a converter for converting the second communication method into the first communication method, 1. A method for remote meter reading using a remote metering system including a gateway for communicating with a gateway and a data center in wireless communication with the gateway, the method comprising the steps of: (a) Transmitting to the gateway, second usage information of the usage measured by the second measurement system is transmitted to the converter, converted, and transmitted to the gateway; (b) the gateway transmitting the transmitted first energy usage information and second energy usage information to a data center; And (c) remotely monitoring the first energy usage information and the second energy usage information transmitted to the data center from a management site.

As described above, it is possible for the management office to grasp real-time status of energy use information of a plurality of usage destinations.

In addition, data collection is easy, and a variety of analyzes such as a comparison between a plurality of places of use and a comparison with a past usage amount can be performed, thereby enabling the management site to efficiently manage the use of energy.

1 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an automatic meter reading system according to an example of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a configuration diagram showing in detail A of Fig.
3 is a block diagram illustrating a data center 500 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention in detail.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a remote meter reading method according to an example of the present invention in a time-series manner.

Explanation of the configuration of the remote meter reading system

Hereinafter, a remote meter reading system according to an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The remote meter reading system according to an example of the present invention includes a first measurement system 100, a second measurement system 200, a converter 300, a gateway 400, and a data center 500 as shown in FIG. can do.

Prior to the explanation, the energy use information can be understood as a concept including the energy usage amount, the fee based on the energy usage amount, and the like.

The first measurement system 100 and the second measurement system 200 may be a meter reading system for measuring energy usage. The first measuring system 100 and the second measuring system 200 are distinguished from each other by measuring energy usage of different kinds.

The first measurement system 100 is installed in the use place 10 to measure the first energy use information of the use place 10. As an example, the first measurement system 100 is a watt hour meter. In this case, the first energy becomes electric power.

The first measurement system 100 uses the first communication method 1000. As an example, the first communication method 1000 is RS485. RS485 is an extended version of RS 232 and RS422, and is a kind of serial communication protocol standard supporting home network.

The second measurement system 200 is installed in the use place 10 so as to measure the second energy use amount of the use place 10. As an example, the second measurement system 200 is a variety of facility meters. Various facility meters may be, for example, facility meters capable of measuring water, gas, hot water, and calorie consumption.

That is, it is preferable that the number of the second measuring system 200 is plural. 2, the second measurement system 200 may be a water supply meter 200a, a gas facility meter 200b, a hot water facility meter 200c and a calorie facility meter 200d. In this case, 10) can be monitored individually, which is advantageous in terms of energy management.

The second measurement system 200 uses the second communication method 2000. As an example, the second communication method 2000 is a PLC (Power Line Communication). Power line communication is understood as a method of transmitting and receiving data using a power line.

The first communication method (1000) and the second communication method (2000) are different communication methods and are limited to be compatible. That is, the first communication method 1000 of the RS485 communication and the second communication method 2000 of the power line communication are not compatible.

The converter 300 may convert the second communication method 2000 to the first communication method 1000 or the first communication method 1000 to the second communication method 2000. [ The communication method to be converted may correspond to the communication method of the gateway 400 to be described later.

The converter 300 may include an address identification unit 310, a second communication unit 320, a conversion unit 330, a storage unit 340, and a first communication unit 350 as shown in FIG. 2 have.

The address identifying unit 310 can identify the address of the converter 300 in which the converter 300 is installed and recognize the address of the converter 300 in the gateway 400 to be described later. In other words, the monitoring DB (data base) 420 of the gateway 400 determines whether the address of the converter 300 identified through the address identification unit 310 corresponds to the address requiring energy use information And determines whether or not the energy use information is communicated.

The address may be an address of the use place 10, but is not limited thereto, and may be a unique serial number of the converter 300 or the like.

The second communication unit 320 communicates second energy use information through the second communication system 2000 with the second measurement system 200.

When the second communication unit 320 is connected to the plurality of second measurement systems 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d and communicates with each other, the second communication unit 320 may include a plurality of second measurement systems 200a and 200b , 200c, and 200d.

Here, the polling method refers to a method in which the second communication unit 320 is a subject of communication with a plurality of second measurement systems 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d using a branching method as one of the data link establishment methods . In other words, the plurality of second measuring systems 200a, 200b, 200c, and 200d request energy usage information only when there is a request for the energy usage information of the second communication unit 320. [

The converting unit 330 converts the second energy usage information suitable for the second communication method 2000 to conform to the first communication method 1000.

As an example, the conversion unit 330 converts the power line communication method into the RS485 communication method. In this case, even when the second measuring device 200 is a facility meter using a power line communication method and the gateway 400 described later can use only the RS485 method, the second measuring device 200 and the gateway 400 ) Can be communicated.

The storage unit 340 stores the second energy usage information transmitted from the second measurement system 200. At this time, if there are a plurality of second measurement systems 200, a plurality of second energy usage information to be transmitted is divided and stored for each second measurement system 200.

Also, when a plurality of second measurement systems 200 communicate with each other at predetermined time intervals, they are sequentially stored according to the order of the second energy usage information transmitted by the second measurement system 200. Here, the predetermined time may be, for example, one minute, but is not limited thereto.

The storage unit 340 may store the second energy usage information transmitted in the second communication method 2000 as it is and may store the second energy usage information in the state converted into the first communication method 1000 through the conversion unit 330. [ 2 energy usage information.

The first communication unit 350 communicates with the gateway 400 the second energy usage information converted by the conversion unit 330 so that the first communication method 1000 can be used.

If the second measurement system 200 stores a plurality of second energy usage information in the storage unit 340, the first communication unit 350 transmits a plurality of second energy usage information to one data packet Data Packet), and can transmit the packet to the gateway 400. Here, the data packet refers to a unit of information transmitted from one apparatus to another apparatus in a block through a communication network.

That is, the first communication unit 350 integrates a plurality of second energy usage information as one information unit and transmits the information. Further, when there is missing usage information, a null value is input and transmitted. This facilitates the collection of energy usage information and facilitates comparison.

The gateway 400 may communicate with the first metering system 100 using the first communication method 1000 and may communicate with the second metering system 200 via the converter 300 as noted.

That is, the first energy usage information measured through the first measurement system 100 and the second energy usage information measured through the second measurement system 200 may be transmitted to the gateway 400.

The gateway 400 may include a first communication unit 410, a monitoring DB 420, a remote meter reading process 430, and a wireless communication unit 440.

The first communication unit 410 can communicate with an external device through the first communication method 1000. As an example, the first communication unit 410 can communicate with an external device through an RS485 communication method.

The monitoring DB 420 determines whether the address of the energy usage information required by the gateway 400 and the address of the address identification unit 310 of the converter 300 correspond to each other as briefly mentioned above. Then, only in the corresponding case, it requests energy use information from the converter 300. [

In this case, if there are a plurality of the converters 300, it is preferable that the communication method between the converter 300 and the gateway 400 is a polling method in which the gateway 400 is the main body, Only the converter 300 that is requested to transmit energy usage information to the gateway 400 can transmit energy usage information.

The remote meter reading processor 430 generates the first energy usage information and the second energy usage information transmitted to the gateway 400 as predefined XML data and transmits the XML data to the data center 500 to be described later.

Where the second energy usage information may be in the form of a data packet as described above.

In addition, the pre-defined XML data (XML-Data) includes, for example, the first energy use information and the second energy use information are classified into elements such as electric power, water, gas, hot water, .

The wireless communication unit 440 enables the gateway 400 to perform wireless communication with an external device. Wireless communication with the wireless communication unit 510 of the data center 500 to be described later is possible.

The data center 500 wirelessly communicates with the gateway 400 to store data including the first energy usage amount and the second energy usage amount transmitted from the gateway 400 and to remotely access and monitor the data from the management site 20 .

The data center 500 may include a wireless communication unit 510 and a remote viewing unit 520 as shown in FIG.

The wireless communication unit 510 can wirelessly communicate with the gateway 400 and can access the remote viewing unit 520 of the data center 500 through the wireless communication in the management unit 20.

Data including the first energy use information and the second energy use information transmitted from the gateway 400 are accumulated and stored in the remote viewer 520. Preferably, the energy usage information transmitted in the XML data format is stored in the XML data format. The management office 20 or the administrator can view or monitor the energy usage information stored remotely in real time.

Explanation of remote meter reading method

Hereinafter, the remote meter reading method according to an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The remote meter reading method according to an example of the present invention starts when the first measurement system 100 measures the first energy use information of the use place 10 (S100).

Thereafter, the first measurement system 100 transmits the first energy usage information to the gateway 400 through the first communication system 1000 (S200).

Further, the second measurement system 200 measures the second energy usage amount of the use place 10 (S100 '). The time series of steps S100 and S100 'are irrelevant.

Thereafter, the second measurement system 200 transmits the measured second energy usage information to the converter 300 through the second communication system 2000 (S210 '). In this case, if there are a plurality of second measuring systems 200, it is preferable that the communication method between the plurality of second measuring systems 200 and the converter 300 is a polling method. That is, the converter 300 may be a main body, and transmission may be performed by a method of requesting the plurality of second measurement systems 200 for the second energy use information at regular intervals.

The second energy use information transmitted to the converter 300 is converted to conform to the first communication method 1000 (S220 '). The second energy use information transmitted to the converter 300 is in a form suitable for the second communication method 2000 and can not be compatible with the first communication method 1000 as it is.

The converted second energy usage information is transmitted to the gateway 400 through the first communication method 1000 (S230 '). At this time, if there are a plurality of second energy usage information, they may be transmitted in a packet format.

Thereafter, the gateway 400 transmits the transmitted first energy use information and the second energy use information to the data center 500 using a wireless communication method (S300). The gateway 400 may transmit the transmitted first energy usage information and the second energy usage information as XML data, but the present invention is not limited thereto.

Thereafter, the first energy use information and the second energy use information transmitted to the data center 500 are remotely monitored by the management station 20 (S400). The first energy use information and the second energy use information stored in the data center 500, as well as real time monitoring.

The management office 20 can browse the energy use information divided for each use place 10. [ As a result, energy use information can be easily compared for each use place 10. [

Further, it is also possible to browse the energy use information from the past for one use place 10.

It is also possible to separately view usage information on electric power, water, gas, hot water, and heat quantity for one use place 10.

In this way, since the energy usage information of the use place 10 can be browsed in the management site 20 in various forms, the management site 20 can estimate the fee according to the energy usage amount of the use place 10 in advance, It is also easy to manage the energy use of the battery 10.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that numerous modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the appended claims. And equivalents should also be considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

10: Where to use
20: Administration
100: first measuring system
200: second measuring system
300: Converter
310: address identification unit
320: second communication section
330:
340:
350: first communication section
400: Gateway
410: first communication section
420: Monitoring DB
430: Remote meter reading process
440:
500: The data center
510:
520: Remote Viewer
1000: First communication method
2000: Second communication method

Claims (11)

A first measurement system installed in the use place to measure first energy use information of a use place and using a first communication method;
A second measurement system installed in the use place to measure the second energy use information of the use place and using the second communication method;
A gateway capable of communicating through the first communication scheme; And
And a converter provided to the second measurement system for converting the second communication method into the first communication method,
Wherein the first metering system and the gateway communicate the first energy usage information via the first communication scheme and the second metering system transmits the second energy usage information via the converter to the gateway in the first communication scheme Communication,
The converter has an address, and the gateway includes a monitoring database (DB)
Wherein the monitoring DB requests energy usage information from the converter if the address of the energy usage information required by the gateway corresponds to the address of the converter.
Remote meter reading system.
The method according to claim 1,
The converter is connected to a plurality of second measurement systems,
Wherein the converter communicates with the plurality of second measurement systems in a polling manner with a plurality of second energy usage information measured by the plurality of second measurement systems.
Remote meter reading system.
3. The method of claim 2,
The converter includes a reservoir,
Wherein the converter stores the plurality of second energy usage information transmitted from the plurality of second measurement systems in the storage unit by each second measurement system,
Remote meter reading system.
The method of claim 3,
Wherein the converter communicates with the plurality of second measurement systems at predetermined time intervals,
Wherein the converter sequentially stores a plurality of second energy usage information transmitted from the plurality of second measurement systems according to an order transmitted to the storage unit,
Remote meter reading system.
5. The method of claim 4,
If there is an energy usage information request from the gateway to the converter,
Wherein the converter transmits a plurality of second energy usage information stored in the storage unit separately for each second measurement system to the gateway as one data packet.
Remote meter reading system.
6. The method of claim 5,
Further comprising a data center in wireless communication with the gateway,
The gateway further comprises a remote meter reading process,
Wherein the remote meter-reading process comprises: preparing the first energy use information and the data packet as predefined XML data and transmitting the created XML data to the data center.
Remote meter reading system.
The method according to claim 6,
The data center includes a remote viewing unit,
Wherein the transmitted XML data is stored in the remote viewing unit, and the stored XML data can be viewed remotely from a management unit.
Remote meter reading system.
delete The method according to claim 1,
The gateway communicates with a plurality of converters,
The plurality of converters having respective addresses,
Wherein the monitoring DB communicates energy usage information in a polling manner to the plurality of converters by discriminating each address of the plurality of converters.
Remote meter reading system.
3. The method of claim 2,
Wherein the plurality of second measurement systems comprise:
Characterized in that it comprises a respective facility meter for measuring water, gas, hot water,
Remote meter reading system.
delete

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