CN114365369A

CN114365369A - Load monitoring device, load monitoring method, program product, and medium

Info

Publication number: CN114365369A
Application number: CN201980099942.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 邸楠; 刘臻; 杜峰; 别海罡; 傅玲
Original assignee: Siemens AG
Current assignee: Siemens AG
Priority date: 2019-09-25
Filing date: 2019-09-25
Publication date: 2022-04-15
Also published as: WO2021056281A1

Abstract

A load monitoring device (210), a method (500) of load monitoring, a computer program product and a computer readable storage medium. The load monitoring device (210) comprises a data acquisition apparatus (212) configured to acquire aggregated power data at a circuit breaker (110) of the power distribution system (102), the aggregated power data being indicative of a total power consumption of a plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) powered by the power distribution system (102), the load monitoring device (210) being a standalone device and communicatively coupled with the circuit breaker (110). The load monitoring device (210) further comprises a processing unit (214) configured to determine individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) based on the acquired aggregated power data. The independent load monitoring equipment (210) can be flexibly attached to existing and newly deployed power distribution systems (102), so that finer-grained and more efficient centralized load monitoring is realized, and the cost of load monitoring is saved.

Description

Load monitoring device, load monitoring method, program product, and medium

Technical Field

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of electrical circuits, and more particularly, to a load monitoring device, a method of load monitoring, a computer program product, and a computer readable medium.

Background

With the rapid development of the economic society, the conventional power distribution system is transformed to an intelligent power distribution system due to the fact that the power system faces a plurality of constraints in the aspects of power supply reliability, power supply safety, energy conservation, low carbon and the like. In this process, monitoring and analysis of the load electricity consumption in the power distribution system is an important task for realizing intellectualization. Therefore, load monitoring is becoming more and more of a concern in power supply areas such as homes, commercial buildings, campuses, industrial parks, and the like.

For power supply safety reasons, current power distribution systems are provided with circuit breakers at the main entrance. The circuit breaker monitors the total power consumption condition of the power distribution system, and performs circuit breaking protection when an abnormal state such as excessive current or voltage is detected. Conventional circuit breakers typically only monitor the total load of the power distribution system and also only enable system level power management using circuit breaking approaches. There are often multiple power consuming devices (e.g., multiple appliances, electronic devices, etc.) in a power distribution system, and it is desirable to enable finer-grained load monitoring, such as device-level load monitoring, in order to enable more flexible and intelligent power management. One possible solution to implement device-level load monitoring is to deploy dedicated monitoring circuits for multiple power supply devices in a distributed manner. Another possible approach is to perform load splitting on the real-time total load of the power distribution system to determine the individual loads of the devices that are consuming power.

Disclosure of Invention

The distributed monitoring circuit is utilized to realize the load monitoring at the equipment level, so that the complexity and the cost of monitoring deployment are increased, and the expansibility is poor. For example, each time a new power consuming device is added, a dedicated monitoring circuit needs to be deployed accordingly, and a complex communication network may be required to provide monitoring data of each monitoring circuit to the central management system. The scheme based on load decomposition can realize centralized control of a plurality of power consumption devices, reduces the complexity of deployment, is not influenced by increase or decrease of the power consumption devices, and is easy to expand. To achieve load splitting, a possible solution is to redesign the circuit breaker to enhance its computational power. However, the redesign of the circuit breaker is costly and also requires replacement of existing circuit breakers in the power distribution system during the application phase, increasing the complexity of the load splitting implementation and the end user cost.

To address, at least in part, one or more of the above issues and other potential issues, embodiments of the present disclosure propose a load monitoring device, a method of load monitoring, a computer program product, and a computer readable medium. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, device-level load monitoring is performed by a standalone load monitoring device. The load monitoring device is communicatively coupled with a circuit breaker of the power distribution system and obtains aggregated power data at the circuit breaker to learn a total power consumption of a plurality of power consuming devices powered by the power distribution system. The load monitoring device is further capable of determining individual power consumption states of the power consuming devices, such as power loads of the power consuming devices and/or power consumption events associated with the respective power consuming devices, based on the acquired aggregated power data. In this way, the stand-alone load monitoring devices can be flexibly attached to existing and newly deployed power distribution systems, more fine-grained and efficient centralized load monitoring is achieved, distributed monitoring of individual power consuming devices is avoided, and monitoring costs are not significantly increased and system deployment is not changed.

In a first aspect of the disclosure, a load monitoring device is provided. The load monitoring device comprises a data acquisition apparatus configured to acquire aggregated power data at a circuit breaker of a power distribution system, the aggregated power data being indicative of a total power consumption of a plurality of power consuming devices powered by the power distribution system, the load monitoring device being a standalone device and communicatively coupled with the circuit breaker. The load monitoring device further comprises a processing unit configured to determine individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices based on the acquired aggregated power data.

In some embodiments, the data acquisition device comprises: a communication module coupled to the communication module of the circuit breaker and configured to receive a first data portion of the aggregated power data from the communication module of the circuit breaker, the first data portion generated by a processing unit of the circuit breaker after processing raw data collected at the circuit breaker indicative of at least a portion of the total power consumption. Through the wired or wireless connection of the communication module, data available for load splitting can be obtained without changing the structure of the circuit breaker. In some embodiments, the first data portion received from the communication module of the circuit breaker includes data in a first frequency band, the first frequency band being less than 10 kHz. Such data in a relatively low frequency band is generally sufficient to detect abnormal loads of some power consuming devices, and to realize safe control of a power utilization area.

In some embodiments, the data acquisition device comprises: a first data acquisition module coupled to the current transformers of the circuit breaker and configured to acquire a second data portion of the aggregated power data from the current transformers of the circuit breaker. The second data portion is also obtained without excessive modification of the current transformers of the circuit breaker. In some examples, relevant data may be readily obtained by providing a port on the current transducer connected to the first data acquisition module. The first data acquisition module may be configured to capture more load-related raw data from the current transformer, facilitating analysis of the individual loads of the power consuming device. The frequency of such data is typically relatively high. In some embodiments, the second data portion includes data in a second frequency band, the second frequency band being greater than 10kHz and less than 1000 kHz.

In some embodiments, the data acquisition device comprises: a second data acquisition module coupled to a current transformer disposed external to the circuit breaker, the current transformer and the circuit breaker external to the circuit breaker connected to a main line of the power distribution system, wherein the second data acquisition module is configured to acquire a third data portion of the aggregated power data from the current transformer external to the circuit breaker. The second data acquisition module is responsible for collecting data from the current converter outside the circuit breaker to obtain data with higher frequency, and more accurate and finer-grained load monitoring is realized. In some examples, such an external current transformer coupled to the main line needs to be deployed exclusively. In some embodiments, the third data portion includes data in a third frequency band, the third frequency band being greater than 1000 kHz.

In some embodiments, the processing unit is configured to extract an electrical characteristic from the aggregated power data, the electrical characteristic comprising at least one of a transient electrical characteristic and a steady-state electrical characteristic; determining that the extracted electrical feature is associated with at least one of the plurality of electrical consumers based on a pre-stored match of the electrical features of the plurality of electrical consumers with the extracted electrical feature; and determining an individual power consumption state of the at least one power consuming device based on the extracted electrical features. Through the matching of the electrical characteristics, the load decomposition related to a plurality of power consumption devices can be more accurately and rapidly realized, and the power consumption state of the individual device is determined.

In some embodiments, the processing unit is configured to determine, based on the aggregated power data, at least one of: an individual power load of the plurality of power consuming devices, and an occurrence of at least one power consuming event associated with a respective power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices. Thus, various tasks based on load shedding can be determined as needed. The detection of individual power loads and/or specific power consumption events may facilitate aspects of subsequent power management, such as control of power consumption safety, detection of operational/abnormal states of power consuming devices, etc., for safety, energy conservation, reduction of power consumption costs, etc.

In some embodiments, the processing unit is further configured to: causing the obtained aggregated power data to be transmitted to a computing device external to the load monitoring device; and receiving information from the computing device indicating individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices. By transferring the load split calculations to an external computing device, such as an edge computing device, the demand on the computing power of the load monitoring device may be reduced, enabling faster, accurate data analysis.

In some embodiments, the data acquisition device is further configured to: obtaining auxiliary information related to at least one of the plurality of electrical consumers, the auxiliary information comprising at least user-defined auxiliary information; and determining an individual power consumption state of the at least one power consuming device based on the auxiliary information and the acquired aggregated power data. User-defined auxiliary information, such as brand, model, age, etc. of a power consuming device, may facilitate accurate determination of power consumption characteristics associated with a particular power consuming device from aggregated power data, thereby identifying individual power consumption states of the power consuming device.

In some embodiments, the data acquisition device comprises: a communication module coupled to the circuit breaker and a terminal device of a user and configured to: transmitting information indicative of an individual power consumption state of at least one power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices to the terminal device; receiving a control instruction for the circuit breaker from the terminal device; and transmitting the control command to the circuit breaker. The load monitoring device may provide an interface with a user and enable interaction between the user and the circuit breaker. Therefore, the user can more conveniently know the real-time power consumption state of the power consumption equipment and autonomously control the circuit breaker.

In some embodiments, the load monitoring device is included in an internet of things (IoT) system. Thereby, a finer load monitoring may be provided for the power consuming devices in the IoT system.

In a second aspect of the disclosure, a method of load monitoring is provided. The method comprises the following steps: at a load monitoring device, aggregated power data at a circuit breaker of a power distribution system is obtained, the aggregated power data indicating a total power consumption of a plurality of power consuming devices powered by the power distribution system, the load monitoring device being a standalone device and communicatively coupled with the circuit breaker. The method further comprises determining individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices based on the acquired aggregated power data.

In some embodiments, obtaining aggregated power data comprises at least one of: receiving a first data portion of aggregated power data from a communication module of a circuit breaker, the first data portion generated by a processing unit of the circuit breaker after processing raw data collected at the circuit breaker that is at least partially indicative of total power consumption; collecting a second data portion of aggregated power data from a current transformer of a circuit breaker; or collecting a third data portion of the aggregated power data from a current transformer external to the circuit breaker, the current transformer and the circuit breaker external to the circuit breaker being connected to a main line of the power distribution system.

In some embodiments, the first data portion comprises data in a first frequency band, the first frequency band being less than 10 kHz; the second data portion includes data in a second frequency band, the second frequency band being greater than 10kHz and less than 1000 kHz; or the third data portion comprises data in a third frequency band, the third frequency band being greater than 1000 kHz.

In some embodiments, determining the individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices comprises: determining, based on the aggregated power data, at least one of: an individual power load of the plurality of power consuming devices, and an occurrence of at least one power consuming event associated with a respective power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: causing the obtained aggregated power data to be transmitted to a computing device external to the load monitoring device; and receiving information from the computing device indicating individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices.

In some embodiments, determining the individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices comprises: obtaining auxiliary information related to at least one of the plurality of electrical consumers, the auxiliary information comprising at least user-defined auxiliary information; and determining an individual power consumption state of the at least one power consuming device based on the auxiliary information and the acquired aggregated power data.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises: transmitting information indicative of an individual power consumption state of at least one power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices to the terminal device; receiving a control instruction for the circuit breaker from the terminal device; and transmitting the control command to the circuit breaker.

In some embodiments, the load monitoring device is included in an internet of things system.

In a third aspect of the present disclosure, a power distribution system is provided. The power distribution system comprises the load monitoring device of the first aspect and a circuit breaker communicatively coupled to the load monitoring device.

In a fourth aspect of the disclosure, a computer program product is provided. A computer program product is tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium and includes computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform various embodiments of a method according to the second aspect.

In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium is provided having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform various embodiments of the method according to the second aspect.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the disclosure.

Drawings

The above features, technical features, advantages and modes of realisation of the present disclosure will be further explained in a clear and understandable manner by the description of preferred embodiments thereof in conjunction with the attached drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a power consumption environment in which some embodiments according to the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a load monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present disclosure;

3A-3C illustrate block diagrams of some examples of the load monitoring system of FIG. 2, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

4A-4E illustrate examples of electrical characteristics detected during data analysis according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows a flow diagram of a process of load monitoring according to one embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example device that can be used to implement embodiments of the present disclosure.

List of reference numerals:

102: a power distribution system;

104: a utility pole;

106: a meter;

110: a circuit breaker;

122. 124: a power strip;

131. 132, 133, 134: a power consuming device;

210: a load monitoring device;

212: a data acquisition device;

214: a processing unit;

312: a communication module;

314: a first data acquisition module;

315: a port;

316: a second data acquisition module;

319: a current transformer;

320: a power source;

330: a communication module;

332: a processing unit;

334: a data acquisition module;

340: a current transformer;

338: a voltage sensor;

336: a power source;

350: a user;

352: a terminal device;

360: a computing device;

601：CPU；

602：ROM；

603：RAM；

604: a bus;

605: an I/O interface;

606: an input unit;

607: an output unit;

608: a storage unit;

609: a communication unit.

Detailed Description

The principles of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to a number of example embodiments shown in the drawings. While the preferred embodiments of the present disclosure have been illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that these embodiments are described merely for the purpose of enabling those skilled in the art to better understand and to practice the present disclosure, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

The term "include" and variations thereof as used herein is meant to be inclusive in an open-ended manner, i.e., "including but not limited to". Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "or" means "and/or". The term "based on" means "based at least in part on". The terms "one example embodiment" and "one embodiment" mean "at least one example embodiment". The term "another embodiment" means "at least one additional embodiment". The terms "first," "second," and the like may refer to different or the same object. Other explicit and implicit definitions are also possible below.

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of a powered environment 100 in which an embodiment according to the present disclosure can be implemented. As shown in fig. 1, the power distribution system 102 obtains power from a power source via a main line and supplies power to a plurality of power consuming devices, such as

power consuming devices

131, 132, 133, 134, and the like. The source of electrical power to provide electrical power is, for example, a utility grid to which is connected a main line carried by, for example, a utility pole 104 as shown in fig. 1. The power source may also be a local power generator, a solar power source, or any other power source. The power distribution system 102 refers to a power grid in a power utilization area or space, such as a residence, a room, a building, a campus, an industrial park, etc., and in which a plurality of power consuming devices are typically present. The power consuming devices 131 to 134 may be any power consuming device or means, for example, household appliances such as a water heater, a microwave oven, a refrigerator, a washing machine, electronic devices such as a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a charger, and any other device.

To achieve power safety, the power distribution system 102 typically includes a circuit breaker 102. The circuit breaker 102 is typically disposed at the general power inlet of the power distribution system 102. In the event of an anomaly in the overall load of the power distribution system 102 (e.g., excessive current or voltage), the circuit breaker 102 may perform power-off protection on the circuits of the power distribution system 102. The power distribution system 102 may be configured with a meter 106 that is connected to the bus of the power distribution system 102 and measures a total load, such as a total voltage, a total current, or a total power, etc. The circuit breaker 102 may perform power outage protection based on measurements of the meter 106. The individual power consumers 131 to 134 are connected to the circuit breaker 102 via respective electrical lines, for example by means of the plug and socket bank 122 and by means of the main plug and socket bank 124, in order to obtain a respective power supply. When the circuit breaker 102 performs power-off protection, the respective power consuming devices 131 to 134 will no longer get supplied with power.

It should be understood that the arrangement of the power usage environment and devices therein shown in fig. 1 is merely one example, and in other examples, there may be other numbers of devices (e.g., more or less power consuming devices), other types of devices, and so forth. Embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited in this respect.

As mentioned above, it is desirable to achieve finer granularity load monitoring. According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a stand-alone load monitoring device is proposed, which may be used as an additional device for monitoring individual power consumption states of individual power consuming devices in a power distribution system. The independent load monitoring equipment can realize centralized low-granularity real-time load monitoring, avoids the complex and high-cost transformation of the circuit breaker, and can be flexibly applied to various types of power distribution systems. Furthermore, by load splitting of aggregated power data, the standalone load monitoring device is able to determine individual power consumption states of the power consuming devices without employing complex distributed load monitoring.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 2 illustrates a block diagram of a load monitoring system 200 according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. For ease of discussion, the load monitoring system 200 will be described with reference to the power consumption environment 100 of FIG. 1.

As shown in fig. 2, the load monitoring system 200 includes a load monitoring device 210 and the circuit breakers 110 of the power distribution system 102. The load monitoring device 210 is a standalone device. In this context, "standalone device" means that the load monitoring device 210 may serve as an additional device for monitoring individual power consumption states of a plurality of power consuming devices powered by the power distribution system 102. Meanwhile, the load monitoring device 210 is communicatively coupled with the circuit breaker 110 of the power distribution system 102. In some embodiments, the load monitoring device 210 may be included in an internet of things (IoT) system. In some embodiments, the IoT system may also include one or more devices in the power distribution system 102, such as the circuit breaker 110, the power consuming devices 131-134, and the like.

In some examples, the load monitoring device 210 may be mounted with respect to the circuit breaker 110, or the load monitoring device 210 may be a mobile device. For example, the load monitoring device 210 may be designed and manufactured as a stand-alone component and may be fixedly or removably attached to the circuit breaker 110 or any other location of the power distribution system 102. As another example, the functionality of the load monitoring device 210 described herein may be by a single or multiple mobile computing devices, and may be connected to the circuit breaker 110 wirelessly or by wireline when in use. It should be appreciated that the load monitoring device 210 may be a modular device and may be implemented in any other manner.

In particular, the load monitoring device 210 comprises a data acquisition means 212 and a processing unit 214. The data acquisition device 212 is configured to acquire aggregated power data at the circuit breaker 110. Since the circuit breaker 110 is arranged at the total power entrance of the power distribution system 102, the aggregated power data at the circuit breaker 110 is indicative of the total power/energy consumption of a plurality of power consuming devices (e.g., power consuming devices 131-134) powered by the power distribution system 102. The aggregated power data may include various electrical signals, such as a total voltage signal, a total current signal, a total power signal, etc. with the power distribution system 102. In some embodiments, data acquisition device 212 may acquire a sequence of aggregated power data collected at multiple points in time. The data acquisition device 212 collects aggregate power data through one or more data acquisition means, which will be described in more detail below.

The data obtaining means 212 provides the obtained aggregated power data to the processing unit 214, the processing unit 214 being configured to determine individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices 131 to 134 based on the aggregated power data. Since the aggregated power data represents the total load status of the power distribution system 102, the individual power consumption status of the plurality of power consuming devices 131 to 134 may be determined by means of one or more load splitting algorithms. The individual power consumption state of a power consuming device may comprise an individual power load (also referred to as "individual load") of the power consuming device. Alternatively or additionally, the individual power consumption state of one power consuming device may also comprise the occurrence of at least one power consuming event associated with the power consuming device. The electricity consuming events include, for example, turning on, turning off, operating gear, operating duration, whether electricity is leaking, sudden failure, etc. of the electricity consuming device.

In some embodiments, one or more statistical algorithms and/or one or more classification algorithms may be applied to perform a load split analysis on the aggregated power data to identify individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices 131 to 134. The load monitoring device 210 may perform specific data analysis and calculations locally or may utilize the computing power of a remote computing device to perform data analysis and calculations to determine the power consumption state at the device level. Some example ways of determining the individual power consumption state will be described in more detail below.

Fig. 3A-3C illustrate block diagrams of some examples of the load monitoring system 200 of fig. 2. The various modules of the load monitoring device 210 and the circuit breaker 110 for implementing different functions, as well as some example application scenarios of the load monitoring system 200, are detailed in fig. 3A-3C. Fig. 3A to 3C are different in data acquisition means of the data acquisition device 212.

Referring first to fig. 3A, it is shown that the data acquisition arrangement 212 of the load monitoring device 210 includes a communication module 312. The communication module 312 is coupled with the communication module 330 of the circuit breaker 110 to provide a communication connection at least from the communication module 330 to the communication module 312. In some embodiments, the communication module 312 of the load monitoring device 210 and the communication module 330 of the circuit breaker 110 may implement a bi-directional communication connection. A wireless connection and/or a wired connection may be established between the communication module 312 and the communication module 330, which may conform to a corresponding communication protocol. The communication module 312 and/or the communication module 330 may include, for example, a wireless communication transceiver, a network card, or any component that may implement communication functionality. A dedicated port of the communication module 330 may be utilized to establish a communication connection with the communication module 312.

Via the communication module 312, the data acquisition device 212 may receive some or all of the aggregated power data from the communication module 330 of the circuit breaker 110 and provide the acquired data to the processing unit 214 for subsequent processing. Such data acquisition need not require modification of the circuit breaker 110. Herein, for ease of description, the aggregated power data portion received from the communication module 330 of the circuit breaker 110 is referred to as a first data portion of the aggregated power data. In the circuit breaker 110, the communication module 330 may be connected to the processing unit 332 of the circuit breaker 110 to transmit data processed by the processing unit 332.

The processing unit 332 of the circuit breaker 110 can be configured to process raw data collected at the circuit breaker 110 that is indicative, at least in part, of the total power consumption of the power distribution system 102 and generate a first data portion. The processing unit 332 is connected to the data acquisition unit 334 of the circuit breaker 110 to acquire the data acquired by the data acquisition unit 334. The data acquisition unit 334 may acquire current signals and/or voltage signals from, for example, a Current Transformer (CT)340 and/or a voltage sensor 338.

The resulting first data portion may be data of a lower frequency band, analyzed and processed by the processing unit 332. For example, the frequency of the first data portion is about several kilohertz (Hz). In some embodiments, the frequency band of the first data portion (also sometimes referred to herein as the "first frequency band") is less than 10kHz (10 kilohertz). The first data portion, which is in a relatively lower frequency band, is also suitable for transmission via a wireless communication channel, such as a wireless transceiver. The first data portion at the relatively low frequency band is also suitable for analyzing steady-state electrical characteristics of the electrical consumer, which can help to monitor abnormal loads of the electrical consumer for electricity safety control.

In addition to or as an alternative to obtaining aggregated power data via the communication module 312, the data acquisition arrangement 212 of the load monitoring device 210 may also include a data acquisition module 314, as shown in fig. 3B. The data collection module 314 is also sometimes referred to herein as a first data collection module of the load monitoring device 210. The data acquisition module 314 is coupled to the current transformers 340 of the circuit breaker 310 to acquire some or all of the aggregated power data from the current transformers 340 and provide the acquired data to the processing unit 214 for subsequent processing. The aggregated power data portion received from the current transformers 340 inside the circuit breaker 320 is referred to herein as a second data portion of the aggregated power data.

The data acquisition module 314 may include devices suitable for acquiring current, voltage, or other electrical signals at the current transducer. To acquire signals at the internal current transformer 340 from outside the circuit breaker 110, in one embodiment, a port 315 connectable to the data acquisition module 314 may be installed at the current transformer 340 (if such a port would not otherwise exist for the current transformer 340).

The second data portion acquired directly from the current transducer 340 typically has a relatively high frequency. The frequency of the second data portion is, for example, approximately a few kilohertz. In some embodiments, the frequency band of the second data portion (also sometimes referred to herein as the "second frequency band") is in the range of a few kilohertz to hundreds of kilohertz. In some examples, the second frequency band is greater than 10kHz (10 kilohertz) and less than 1000kHz (100 kilohertz). The second data portion in the relatively high frequency band is suitable for analyzing transient electrical characteristics of the electrical consumers, which can help to monitor the electrical load of the individual electrical consumers, in particular in complex electrical usage environments (e.g. residential buildings, office buildings, etc.). The determination of the individual power loads contributes to the energy savings and cost savings of the candidates.

In some embodiments, the data acquisition arrangement 212 of the load monitoring device 210 may include a data acquisition module 316 in addition to, or as an alternative to, the communication module 312 and/or the data acquisition module 314, as shown in fig. 3C. The data acquisition module 316 is also sometimes referred to herein as a second data acquisition module of the load monitoring device 210. In the example of fig. 3C, the load monitoring system 200 also provides a current transformer 319 external to the circuit breaker 110. The current transformer 319 is connected to a main line of the power distribution system 102, and the circuit breaker 110 is also connected to the main line.

The data acquisition module 316 is coupled to an external current transducer 319 to acquire some or all of the aggregate power data from the current transducer 319 and provide the acquired data to the processing unit 214 for subsequent processing. The aggregated power data portion received from the current transformers 319 external to the circuit breaker 320 is referred to herein as a third data portion of the aggregated power data. The data acquisition module 316 may include devices suitable for acquiring current, voltage, or other electrical signals at the current transducer. The current transformer 319 may be designed with a corresponding port to connect with the data acquisition module 316 to transmit data.

The current transformer 319 can provide higher frequency data due to the direct connection to the main line. For example, the frequency of the third data portion is about several hundred kilohertz. In some embodiments, the frequency band of the third data portion (also sometimes referred to herein as the "third frequency band") is in a range greater than several hundred kilohertz. In some examples, the third frequency band is greater than 1000kHz (100 kilohertz). The third data portion in the relatively high frequency band is suitable for analyzing transient electrical characteristics of the power consuming device, in particular for identifying transient electrical characteristics of a low power consuming device in the presence of a high power consuming device.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 3A, 3B, or 3C, the load monitoring device 210 further includes a power source 320 for powering the load monitoring device 210. The power source 320 may be connected to a main line of the power distribution system 102, a current transformer 340 of the circuit breaker 110, or other line of the power distribution system 102 to obtain power for powering. The circuit breaker 110 also includes a power source 336 that can be connected to the main line of the power distribution system 102 to provide power for powering the circuit breaker 110.

It should be understood that while fig. 3B illustrates both the communication module 312 and the data acquisition module 314, and fig. 3C illustrates both the communication module 312 and the two

data acquisition modules

314, 316, in other embodiments, the data acquisition arrangement 212 of the load monitoring device 210 may include only the communication module 312, only the data acquisition module 314, only the data acquisition module 316, or other combinations of the three.

Some or all of the aggregated power data acquired by one or more of the communication module 312, the data acquisition module 314 and the data acquisition module 316 may be provided to the processing unit 214 for determining, by the processing unit 214, individual power consumption states, e.g. individual power loads and/or associated power consumption event detections, of the respective power consuming devices 131 to 134. As mentioned above, the analysis of the aggregated power data may be performed locally at the load monitoring device 210 (e.g., by the processing unit 214), or may be performed remotely. The local or remote execution may depend on the actual needs and available computing power of the load monitoring device 210.

In one embodiment executed remotely, the load monitoring device 210 (e.g., processing unit 214) may cause the aggregated power data to be transmitted to an external computing device 360 via the communication module 312. The computing device 360 may perform analysis and processing tasks on the aggregated power data and feed back the determined individual power consumption states of the individual power consuming devices 131 to 134 to the load monitoring device 210 via the communication module 312. Some specific embodiments of determining a device-level power consumption state from aggregated power data will be discussed below.

Whether local or remote data analysis, in some embodiments, electrical characteristics may be extracted from the aggregated power data and the individual power consumption states of the individual power consuming devices 131 to 134 determined based on the electrical characteristics. In some embodiments, pre-processing, such as noise reduction, contrast enhancement, etc., may be performed on the aggregated power data first. The pre-processed aggregated power data may be used to determine individual power consumption states, for example to extract electrical characteristics. In some embodiments of remote data analysis, the pre-processing may first be performed locally by the load monitoring device 210, and then the pre-processed aggregated power data is communicated to the computing device 360 via the communication module 312 to perform subsequent processing.

In some embodiments, the electrical features extracted from the aggregated power data may include transient electrical features, steady-state electrical features, and/or other distinguishing features. The processing unit 214 or an external computing device 360 may identify electrical characteristics associated with one or more power consuming devices 131 to 134 from the extracted electrical characteristics. For example, it may be determined that the extracted electrical characteristics belong to a certain electrical consumer by comparing the extracted electrical characteristics with the previously stored nominal electrical characteristics of the respective electrical consumers 131 to 134 and according to the matching of the electrical characteristics. For example, if it is determined that one or more of the extracted electrical features match electrical features stored for the power consuming device 131, the matched electrical features may be considered as electrical features of the power consuming device 131. Thereby, the power consumption state of the power consuming device may be specifically determined based on the matched electrical characteristics.

In some embodiments, one or more statistical algorithms may be applied in extracting the electrical features, such as difference calculations, variances, standard deviations, mean statistics, Generalized Likelihood Ratios (GLR), chi-square goodness of fit (X)²GOF), etc. to determine statistical parameters such as degree of change in power, degree of change in power variation, power factor, etc. from the aggregated power data to extract corresponding electrical characteristics, particularly various transient electrical characteristics and steady-state electrical characteristics.

For example, fig. 4A shows a plot of total power at the circuit breaker 110 of the power distribution system 102 over time. By analyzing the curve, multiple changes in power (significant increases or decreases in power) may be determined, such as significant changes in power at the locations indicated by TS1, TS2, and TS 3. These changes may be determined as transient power characteristics. The occurrence of transient power characteristics may generally indicate a power consuming event such as the turning on, turning off, a shift of an operating range of one or more power consuming devices. Furthermore, by analyzing the curve of fig. 4A, it can also be determined that the power tends to stabilize over a certain period of time, i.e., the portion of the curve as indicated by SS. From this, the steady state power characteristic can be determined. The steady state power characteristic may indicate that no opening or closing of power consuming devices is occurring in the power distribution system 102.

As another example, in fig. 4B, by analyzing the total power at the circuit breaker 110 over time (the upper graph of fig. 4B), multiple changes in power may be determined, such as significant power changes at the locations indicated by E1 through E7, including significant increases or decreases in power. Further, by determining the degree of change of the respective power changes, such as the degree of change shown by the lower graph of fig. 4B, the change values C1 to C7 corresponding to the respective power changes E1 to E7 can be determined. By comparison with the change values that may be generated by the individual power consumers, the respective power change caused by which power consumer, and the specific power consumption event that caused the power change (e.g. the device is turned on, turned off, switched to a specific gear, etc.) can be determined.

In still other examples, the current signal may also be analyzed to detect one or more electrical characteristics related to the current, such as a spike current exhibited by the current signal, such as spike current R1 shown in fig. 4C. Similarly, the voltage signal may also be analyzed to detect voltage-related electrical characteristics, such as spike voltage. In some examples, a time-frequency transform, such as a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), or the like, may be performed on some or all of the time-sequenced aggregated power data to observe possible electrical characteristics in the frequency domain. For example, fig. 4D shows a plot in the frequency domain after performing an FFT on the aggregated power data, and a relatively low amplitude frequency domain signal R2 around 150Hz may be observed. In some examples, a voltage-current (V-I) curve may also be constructed based on the aggregated power data, as shown in fig. 4E, to analyze the relationship between the voltage and current of the power distribution system during consumption of power by the power consuming devices 131-134. From the V-I curve of fig. 4E, it can be determined that a significant increase in voltage occurs around the 0A current. The various electrical characteristics observed may be used to determine the power consumption status of the plurality of power consuming devices 131 to 134, detecting whether one or more power consuming events associated with the power consuming devices have occurred.

In some embodiments, one or more classification algorithms, such as classification models based on supervised and/or unsupervised machine learning, may also be applied to analyze the aggregated power data. Such classification models may include, for example, combinatorial optimization models, bayesian models, Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), K-nearest neighbor algorithms, support vector machines, neural networks, and so forth. The classification algorithm may analyze data belonging to different power consuming devices from the aggregated power data and may determine the respective power consuming state of each power consuming device on the basis of the different aggregated power data.

It should be appreciated that although some algorithms for data analysis are presented above, to identify device-level power consumption states from aggregated power data, one or more other suitable algorithms may also be employed to implement load shedding and state identification.

In some embodiments, in addition to the aggregated power data, the power consumption status of one or more power consuming devices may be determined based on auxiliary information associated with these power consuming devices, in particular user-defined auxiliary information. For example, as shown in fig. 3A, 3B, or 3C, a user 350 may interact with the load monitoring device 210 via a terminal device 352. The user 350 may define the assistance information by means of the terminal device 352. The auxiliary information may comprise, for example, identification information of the electrical consumer, such as the brand, model, age, etc. of the particular electrical consumer. Since electrical consumers of different brands, models or different ages may exhibit different electrical characteristics, such auxiliary information may determine the nominal electrical characteristics of the individual electrical consumers, thereby facilitating more accurate identification of the power consumption status of a particular electrical consumer from the aggregated power data. The auxiliary information may be stored locally by the load monitoring device 210 or to a storage or database (not shown) accessible by the load monitoring device 210 and/or the remote computing device 360, for example. The user 350 may also directly upload the auxiliary information corresponding to the power consuming device to the storage device or the database through the terminal device 352. During local or remote data analysis, the load monitoring device 210 or the remote computing device 360 may obtain auxiliary information for assisting in the analysis of the aggregated power data.

After determining the individual power consumption states of the power consuming devices, the load monitoring device 210 may control the circuit breaker 110 to perform power-off protection on the circuit when an abnormal load is detected, thereby improving power supply safety. In some embodiments, the determined individual power consumption states of the power consuming devices may be provided to the user 350, e.g. may be communicated to the terminal device 352 of the user 350 via the communication module 312. The terminal device 352 can present the individual power consumption states to the user 350 via the output device, so that the user 350 can more conveniently know the real-time states of the power consumption devices in the power distribution system 102, thereby performing energy management as needed. In some embodiments, the user 350 may also provide control instructions to the circuit breaker 110 via the terminal device 352, e.g., the control instructions are provided by the terminal device 352 to the load monitoring device 210 via the communication module 312. The load monitoring device 210 may provide such control instructions to the circuit breaker 110 via the communication module 312 to enable user autonomous control of the circuit breaker. In this manner, the load monitoring device 210 may implement closed-loop communication between the terminal device, the external computing device, and the circuit breaker, facilitating more efficient and accurate energy management.

It should be understood that while fig. 3A-3C illustrate some components of the load monitoring device 210 and the circuit breaker 110, in other embodiments, one or more of the illustrated components may be omitted, or the device 210 and the circuit breaker 110 may include more other components. For example, although not shown, the load monitoring device 210 may also include a memory for storing data to be processed and intermediate processing results for the processing unit 214.

Fig. 5 shows a flow diagram of a process 500 of load monitoring according to one embodiment of the present disclosure. The process 500 may be performed by the load monitoring device 210 described above with reference to fig. 2. For ease of discussion, process 500 will be described with reference to fig. 2.

At block 510, the load monitoring device 210 obtains aggregated power data at a circuit breaker of the power distribution system, the aggregated power data indicating a total power consumption of a plurality of power consuming devices powered by the power distribution system, the load monitoring device being a standalone device and communicatively coupled with the circuit breaker. At block 520, the load monitoring device 210 determines individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices based on the acquired aggregated power data.

In some embodiments, determining the individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices comprises: extracting electrical characteristics from the aggregated power data, the electrical characteristics including at least one of transient electrical characteristics and steady-state electrical characteristics; determining that the extracted electrical feature is associated with at least one of the plurality of electrical consumers based on a pre-stored match of the electrical features of the plurality of electrical consumers with the extracted electrical feature; and determining an individual power consumption state of the at least one power consuming device based on the extracted electrical features.

In some embodiments, process 500 further includes: causing the obtained aggregated power data to be transmitted to a computing device external to the load monitoring device; and receiving information from the computing device indicating individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices.

In some embodiments, process 500 further includes: transmitting information indicative of an individual power consumption state of at least one power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices to the terminal device; receiving a control instruction for the circuit breaker from the terminal device; and transmitting the control command to the circuit breaker.

Fig. 6 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an example device 600 that can be used to implement embodiments of the present disclosure. Device 600 may be used to implement process 500 of fig. 5. The device 600 may be implemented as the load monitoring device 210 described above.

As shown, device 600 includes a Central Processing Unit (CPU)601 that may perform various appropriate actions and processes in accordance with computer program instructions stored in a Read Only Memory (ROM)602 or loaded from a storage unit 608 into a Random Access Memory (RAM) 603. In the RAM 603, various programs and data required for the operation of the device 600 can also be stored. The CPU 601, ROM 602, and RAM 603 are connected to each other via a bus 604. An input/output (I/O) interface 605 is also connected to bus 604.

A number of components in the device 600 are connected to the I/O interface 605, including: an input unit 606 such as a keyboard, a mouse, or the like; an output unit 607 such as various types of displays, speakers, and the like; a storage unit 608, such as a magnetic disk, optical disk, or the like; and a communication unit 609 such as a network card, modem, wireless communication transceiver, etc. The communication unit 609 allows the device 600 to exchange information/data with other devices via a computer network such as the internet and/or various telecommunication networks.

The processing unit 601 performs the various methods and processes described above, such as the process 500. For example, in certain embodiments, process 500 may be implemented as a computer software program or computer program product that is tangibly embodied in a computer-readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer-readable medium (e.g., storage unit 608). In some embodiments, part or all of the computer program may be loaded and/or installed onto the device 600 via the ROM 602 and/or the communication unit 609. When the computer program is loaded into RAM 603 and executed by CPU 601, one or more steps of process 500 described above may be performed. Alternatively, in other embodiments, CPU 601 may be configured to perform process 500 in any other suitable manner (e.g., by way of firmware).

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the steps of the method of the present disclosure described above may be implemented by a general purpose computing device, centralized on a single computing device or distributed over a network of computing devices, or alternatively, may be implemented by program code executable by a computing device, such that the program code may be stored in a memory device and executed by a computing device, or may be implemented by individual or multiple modules or steps of the program code as a single integrated circuit module. As such, the present disclosure is not limited to any specific combination of hardware and software. For example, certain embodiments of the present disclosure also include various program modules and/or integrated circuit modules for performing one or more steps of process 500 and/or one or more other steps described in other embodiments of the present disclosure. These program modules may be included or embodied in a device, such as device 600 of FIG. 6.

It should be understood that although several means or sub-means of the apparatus have been referred to in the detailed description above, such division is exemplary only and not mandatory. Indeed, the features and functions of two or more of the devices described above may be embodied in one device in accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Conversely, the features and functions of one apparatus described above may be further divided into embodiments by a plurality of apparatuses.

The above description is intended only as an alternative embodiment of the present disclosure and is not intended to limit the present disclosure, which may be modified and varied by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, improvement, etc. made within the spirit and principle of the present disclosure should be included in the protection scope of the present disclosure.

Claims

Load monitoring device (210), comprising:

a data acquisition apparatus (212) configured to acquire aggregated power data at a circuit breaker (110) of a power distribution system (102), the aggregated power data being indicative of a total power consumption of a plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) powered by the power distribution system (102), the load monitoring device (210) being a standalone device and communicatively coupled with the circuit breaker (110); and

a processing unit (214) configured to determine individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) based on the acquired aggregated power data.
The load monitoring device (210) according to claim 1, wherein the data acquisition means (212) comprises:

a communication module (312) coupled to a communication module (330) of the circuit breaker (110) and configured to receive a first data portion of the aggregated power data from the communication module (330) of the circuit breaker (110), the first data portion generated by a processing unit (332) of the circuit breaker (110) after processing raw data collected at the circuit breaker (110) that is at least partially indicative of the total power consumption.
The load monitoring device (210) of claim 2, wherein the first data portion comprises data in a first frequency band, the first frequency band being less than 10 kHz.
The load monitoring device (210) according to claim 1, wherein the data acquisition means (212) comprises:

a first data acquisition module (314) coupled to a current transformer (340) of the circuit breaker (110) and configured to acquire a second data portion of the aggregated power data from the current transformer (340) of the circuit breaker (110).
The load monitoring device (210) of claim 4, wherein the second data portion comprises data in a second frequency band, the second frequency band being greater than 10kHz and less than 1000 kHz.
The load monitoring device (210) according to claim 1, wherein the data acquisition means (212) comprises:

a second data acquisition module (316) coupled to a current transformer (319) disposed external to the circuit breaker (110), the current transformer (319) external to the circuit breaker (110) and the circuit breaker (110) connected to a main line of the power distribution system (102), wherein the second data acquisition module (316) is configured to acquire a third data portion of the aggregated power data from the current transformer (319) external to the circuit breaker (110).
The load monitoring device (210) of claim 6, wherein the third data portion comprises data in a third frequency band, the third frequency band being greater than 1000 kHz.
The load monitoring device (210) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the processing unit (214) is configured to:

extracting an electrical characteristic from the aggregated power data, the electrical characteristic comprising at least one of a transient electrical characteristic and a steady-state electrical characteristic;

determining that the extracted electrical feature is associated with at least one of the plurality of electrical consumers based on a pre-stored match of the electrical features of the plurality of electrical consumers with the extracted electrical feature; and

determining the individual power consumption state of the at least one power consuming device based on the extracted electrical features.
The load monitoring device (210) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the processing unit (214) is configured to determine, based on the aggregated power data, at least one of:

individual electrical loads of the plurality of electrical consumers (131, 132, 133, 134), an

An occurrence of at least one power consuming event associated with a respective power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134).
The load monitoring device (210) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the processing unit (214) is further configured to:

causing the obtained aggregated power data to be transmitted to a computing device (360) external to the load monitoring device; and

receiving information from the computing device (360) indicating the individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134).
The load monitoring device (210) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the data acquisition arrangement (212) is configured to:

obtaining assistance information related to at least one power consumer of the plurality of power consumers (131, 132, 133, 134), the assistance information comprising at least user-defined assistance information; and

determining the individual power consumption state of the at least one power consuming device based on the auxiliary information and the acquired aggregated power data.
The load monitoring device (210) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the data acquisition means (212) comprises:

a communication module (312) coupled to the circuit breaker (110) and a terminal device (352) of a user (350) and configured to:

transmitting information indicative of the individual power consumption state of at least one power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices to the terminal device (352);

receiving control instructions for the circuit breaker (110) from the terminal device (352); and

transmitting the control command to the circuit breaker (110).
The load monitoring device (210) according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the load monitoring device (210) is comprised in an Internet of things (IoT) system.
A method (500) of load monitoring, comprising:

at a load monitoring device (210), obtaining (510) aggregated power data at a circuit breaker (110) of a power distribution system (102), the aggregated power data being indicative of a total power consumption of a plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) powered by the power distribution system (102), the load monitoring device (210) being a standalone device and communicatively coupled with the circuit breaker (110); and

determining (520) individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) based on the acquired aggregated power data.
The method (500) of claim 14, wherein obtaining (510) the aggregated power data comprises at least one of:

receiving a first data portion of the aggregated power data from a communication module (330) of the circuit breaker (110), the first data portion generated by a processing unit (332) of the circuit breaker (110) after processing raw data collected at the circuit breaker (110) indicative of at least part of the total power consumption;

collecting a second data portion of the aggregated power data from the current transformer (340) of the circuit breaker (110); or

Collecting a third data portion of the aggregated power data from a current transformer (319) external to the circuit breaker (110), the current transformer (319) external to the circuit breaker (110) and the circuit breaker (110) being connected to a main line of the power distribution system (102).
The method (500) of claim 15, wherein said first data portion includes data in a first frequency band, said first frequency band being less than 10 kHz;

wherein the second data portion comprises data in a second frequency band, the second frequency band being greater than 10kHz and less than 1000 kHz; or

Wherein the third data portion comprises data in a third frequency band, the third frequency band being greater than 1000 kHz.
The method (500) according to any one of claims 13-15, wherein determining (520) the individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) comprises:

extracting an electrical characteristic from the aggregated power data, the electrical characteristic comprising at least one of a transient electrical characteristic and a steady-state electrical characteristic;

determining that the extracted electrical feature is associated with at least one of the plurality of electrical consumers based on a pre-stored match of the electrical features of the plurality of electrical consumers with the extracted electrical feature; and

determining the individual power consumption state of the at least one power consuming device based on the extracted electrical features.
The method (500) according to any one of claims 14-16, wherein determining (520) the individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) comprises: determining, based on the aggregated power data, at least one of:

individual electrical loads of the plurality of electrical consumers (131, 132, 133, 134), an

An occurrence of at least one power consuming event associated with a respective power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134).
The method (500) according to any one of claims 14-16, further including:

causing the obtained aggregated power data to be transmitted to a computing device (360) external to the load monitoring device; and

receiving information from the computing device (360) indicating the individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134).
The method (500) according to any of claims 14-16, wherein determining (520) the individual power consumption states of the plurality of power consuming devices (131, 132, 133, 134) comprises:

obtaining assistance information related to at least one power consumer of the plurality of power consumers (131, 132, 133, 134), the assistance information comprising at least user-defined assistance information; and

determining the individual power consumption state of the at least one power consuming device based on the auxiliary information and the acquired aggregated power data.
The method (500) of any of claims 14-16, further comprising:

transmitting information indicative of the individual power consumption state of at least one power consuming device of the plurality of power consuming devices to the terminal device (352);

receiving control instructions for the circuit breaker (110) from the terminal device (352); and

transmitting the control command to the circuit breaker (110).
The method of any of claims 14 to 16, wherein the load monitoring device (210) is comprised in an internet of things (IoT) system.
An electrical distribution system (102), comprising:

the load monitoring device (210) according to any one of claims 1 to 13; and

a circuit breaker (110) communicatively coupled with the load monitoring device (210).
A computer program product tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium and comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform the method of any of claims 14 to 22.
A computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor (901) to perform the method according to any one of claims 14 to 22.