Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
  • H02J—CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
  • H02J13/00—Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
  • H02J13/00032—Systems characterised by the controlled or operated power network elements or equipment, the power network elements or equipment not otherwise provided for
  • H02J13/00034—Systems characterised by the controlled or operated power network elements or equipment, the power network elements or equipment not otherwise provided for the elements or equipment being or involving an electric power substation
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
  • H02J—CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
  • H02J13/00—Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
  • H02J13/00002—Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network characterised by monitoring
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H02—GENERATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER
  • H02J—CIRCUIT ARRANGEMENTS OR SYSTEMS FOR SUPPLYING OR DISTRIBUTING ELECTRIC POWER; SYSTEMS FOR STORING ELECTRIC ENERGY
  • H02J13/00—Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network
  • H02J13/00006—Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network characterised by information or instructions transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated power network element or electrical equipment
  • H02J13/00007—Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network characterised by information or instructions transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated power network element or electrical equipment using the power network as support for the transmission
  • H02J13/00009—Circuit arrangements for providing remote indication of network conditions, e.g. an instantaneous record of the open or closed condition of each circuitbreaker in the network; Circuit arrangements for providing remote control of switching means in a power distribution network, e.g. switching in and out of current consumers by using a pulse code signal carried by the network characterised by information or instructions transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated power network element or electrical equipment using the power network as support for the transmission using pulsed signals
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
  • Y02B90/00—Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
  • Y02B90/20—Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
  • Y02E60/00—Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y04—INFORMATION OR COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES HAVING AN IMPACT ON OTHER TECHNOLOGY AREAS
  • Y04S—SYSTEMS INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO POWER NETWORK OPERATION, COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT OR USAGE, i.e. SMART GRIDS
  • Y04S10/00—Systems supporting electrical power generation, transmission or distribution
  • Y04S10/30—State monitoring, e.g. fault, temperature monitoring, insulator monitoring, corona discharge
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y04—INFORMATION OR COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES HAVING AN IMPACT ON OTHER TECHNOLOGY AREAS
  • Y04S—SYSTEMS INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO POWER NETWORK OPERATION, COMMUNICATION OR INFORMATION TECHNOLOGIES FOR IMPROVING THE ELECTRICAL POWER GENERATION, TRANSMISSION, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT OR USAGE, i.e. SMART GRIDS
  • Y04S40/00—Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them
  • Y04S40/12—Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them characterised by data transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated electrical equipment
  • Y04S40/121—Systems for electrical power generation, transmission, distribution or end-user application management characterised by the use of communication or information technologies, or communication or information technology specific aspects supporting them characterised by data transport means between the monitoring, controlling or managing units and monitored, controlled or operated electrical equipment using the power network as support for the transmission

Definitions

• the present invention relates to apparatus for receiving ripple signals, converting the signal to a digital signal and use of these signals by the apparatus.
• the invention relates to a receiving unit that is capable of decoding received specific ripple signals which cause the unit to operate in the traditional manner of a ripple receiver, but also permit the apparatus to operate in a number of other capacities additionally.
• ripple control has been used to transmit information from a power source to a load via the power transmission system to afford remote control of that load.
• the most common use is in the control of the heating of hot water.
• ripple signal receivers are limited to direct control applications wherein they recognise a predetermined signal and execute a predetermined function. They are not capable of recognising more than one input or executing more than one function or set of functions based on the information contained in the inputs. Furthermore, the signal recognition and output function parameters are either limited or set at the time of manufacture so that each receiver is designed and manufactured for a specific purpose.
• Currently available receivers are also traditionally associated or attached to the main switchboard of a building or dwelling, from which a dedicated circuit is wired to the electrical appliance which the receiver is the control. The currently available receivers are also unable to decode the ripple signal and transmit the information contained in the signal to other devices.
• EP 0159896 discloses a ripple control system wherein the receiver uses a pair of synchronous filters driven 90" out of phase with each other to reject unwanted signals.
• the emphasis of the invention is on obtaining narrow bandwidth analogue filtering to enable the recognition of a predetermined code which may incorporate more than one frequency.
• the receiver then executes a predetermined function.
• ripple receivers include Aust 26102/71 and Aust 45281/79. However those are dedicated to receiving a particular ripple signal and executing a predetermined function or set of functions in response to that code.
• NZ 211797, NZ 216945, and NZ 172898 disclose inventions relating to analogue or digital filtering of a wanted ripple signal in a ripple receiver.
• the inventions emphasise the filtering of a wanted ripple signal and do not disclose a selection of output functions which are dependent on one or more received ripple signals.
• An object of the present invention is the provision of digital ripple receiver apparatus which can be used in conjunction with individual items of electrical equipment or electrical loads, at the point of consumption of the electricity.
• a further object of the present invention is the provision of apparatus that can be programmed to recognise any known coding system for ripple signals.
• a still further object of the invention is the provision of apparatus that can perform a variety of output functions in response to the receipt of any given input message in a ripple signal.
• a ripple signal is defined to include information transmitted via the electricity network of a supply authority or within a building or within an industrial, domestic or commercial complex in a frequency different from the mains power frequency.
• Such information may be in the form of "telegrams" (information or commands of a specific length e.g. 50 bit systems) and/or may incorporate commands to the signal receiving apparatus, information for control of the circuit in the ripple receiver or any other information capable of being sent or received in a ripple signal.
• the present invention provides an apparatus for receiving one or more inputs including ripple signals, and operating on the information contained therein, said apparatus including: means for receipt of said ripple signal; means to convert said signal from analogue form to a digital form; micro-controller means which is capable of operating on one or more of a plurality of output ports in a manner which can be selected from a range of programmable options, said selection being dependent on the information contained in said received inputs, wherein each output port is capable of acting as an interface with other peripheral devices; one or more serial communications ports.
• said means for receipt of the ripple signal include an input capacitor, an attenuator, a mains notch filter and a low pass filter.
• the analogue to digital converter converts the analogue voltage of the signal to an eight bit digital signal.
• the other peripheral devices to which said apparatus can be connected include any item of electrical equipment, another electrical or electronic circuit, a circuit which returns the ripple signal or some other signal to the source of the ripple signal, or any other item of equipment which can be controlled from an electrical input.
• the apparatus incorporates a real time clock and a power storage device to maintain the operation of the clock if the external power supply is interrupted or disconnected.
• Fig.l is a schematic plan of the electrical circuit of the apparatus of the present invention.
• the ripple apparatus 2 incorporated in or attached to, for example a hot water cylinder, detects the presence of a ripple signal impressed on the normal mains signal.
• this signal is at 50 Hertz.
• the normal, nominal voltage level of the ripple signal is 0.55 % of the mains voltage (1.2 volts r s) .
• An input capacitor 14 provides a low loss voltage drop from the mains input signal voltage to an appropriate working voltage.
• An attenuator 13 reduces this input signal further so that the level is suitable for the signal to be used by a mains notch filter 3.
• This filter 3 provides high attenuation of the 50 Hz mains frequency so that the output signal from the filter 3 of the 50 Hz signal is of the same order as the level of the ripple signal carried thereon.
• the signal passes to a low pass filter 4 which attenuates the signal frequencies which are above the highest wanted ripple frequency. This provides an anti-aliasing function (to reduce any effect from sampling the signal too slowly and thus obtaining a false result in an analogue to digital converter 5) .
• the filter 4 concentrates on the removal of high order harmonics of the mains frequency.
• the signal from the low pass filter 4 is fed to the converter 5.
• the converter 5 is controlled by a micro-controller 8.
• the converter 5 measures the level of the analogue signal and converts it to a 8 bit digital signal.
• a detecting circuit 7 monitors the supply voltage fed to the input of a voltage regulator in the power supply 6. The failure circuit 7 sends a signal to the micro-controller 8 if the voltage in the circuit falls below a predetermined, pre-set voltage. If the micro-controller 8 receives such a signal it executes a pre-set operation to store the then state of the apparatus 2 in a non-volatile storage area 10.
• Input/output ports 9 interface the apparatus 2 to peripheral equipment (not shown) via relays and switches of known type.
• a real time clock 11 can be incorporated into said apparatus 2, if so desired.
• the clock 11 is capable of interrogation by the micro-controller 8 to determine if certain or any time dependent functions should be performed.
• a serial port 12 can be used to transfer data to the non-volatile storage device 10 and/or can be used to output data functions from the apparatus 2.
• the micro-controller 8 includes a program code for a ripple receiver algorithm for control of the converter 5 and for reading a sample of the incoming signal to the converter 5 at a precise time.
• the micro-controller 8 also includes the instructions for the operation of a map which defines the operation of the peripheral equipment attached to the apparatus 2 via the ports 9, subject to the triggers which are determined from or contained in the ripple signals.
• the map (not shown) contains a list of up to 16 triggers, a list of up to 16 functions and a matrix.
• the matrix lists triggers along the y axis and eight ports 9 along the x axis and cells.
• a function can be chosen from a pre-determined list of functions and placed at any cell or cells within the matrix provided the function and the port type 9 are compatible. Thus the action to be taken for a given trigger signal is defined. Not all cells need be filled. An empty cell indicates that no change is to be made to the current function operating at the corresponding port 9 from the trigger event associated with that row (or port 9) .
• the triggers can be any of the following, or a combination thereof:
• ripple telegram in digital form which can be compared with any incoming ripple signal or telegram;
• time trigger which trigger may include a time in the form of a day of the week, an hour a minute or second, or any combination. This can only be used if the clock 11 is present in the apparatus 2;
• time range trigger which may define an inclusive time range between two times including daily, weekly, hourly. This option can only be used if the clock 11 is present in the apparatus 2;
• a timer can be defined to count down a programmable time and upon reaching zero will generate a trigger event. There can only be one such trigger per port 9;
• This action may include a delay time which is also programmable.
• This function may only be associated with an output port 9; - a cyclic function which puts the associated port 9 through a cycle of on and off and repeats the cycle for a programmable number of times. This function may also be delayed from starting programmably, or operate for a set period of time which again can be programmable; - a repeat function to generate a data packet containing a received ripple telegram through an output port 9;
• the apparatus 2 can be preprogrammed to operated an item of electrical equipment (not shown) on receipt of a specific signal from the micro-controller 8.
• the apparatus 2 can also act as a multiple logic unit i.e. it can be used as a programmable unit for specific functions without the need for a ripple signal input as a command.
• the program code (in the micro-controller 8) for a ripple receiver algorithm for control of the converter 5 and for reading a sample of the incoming signal at a precise time is based on an algorithm which uses a discrete Fourier transform.
• the transform implements a bandpass filter with a sin (x)/x response at a fixed frequency. This frequency is dependent on the sampling rate of the converter 5.
• the algorithm uses two accumulators (real and imaginary) .
• the real accumulator is the sum of the individual samples multiplied by the sine of the angle of the sampled frequency.
• the imaginary accumulator is the sum of the individual samples multiplied by the cosine of the phase of the sampled frequency. If a sampling rate of 4 times the wanted frequency (4dft) is used then the samples are made at 0, 90, 180 and 270°.
• the sine and cosine of theses angles are either 1, 0 or -1.
• the 8dft sampling has a better response in respect of the alias frequencies occurring in a 50 Hz mains signal, but has other disadvantages.
• the total time over which the samples are taken determines the bandwidth of the filter - the more samples taken the narrower the filter. In practice it has been found that the most useful filter samples at 4dft above 500 Hz and at 8dft below 500 Hz. This maximises the reduction in the aliasing problems.
• the sampled data is stored in a 'first in first out' queue of accumulators (not shown) .
• a measure of the wanted signal power can be obtained by summing the queue of accumulators and processing the sum of the squares as normal.
• the total sampling time a multiple of the reciprocal of the mains frequency.
• the mains frequency is 50 Hz the sampling time must be a multiple of 20msec.
• the number of times the signal can be sampled will depend on the ability of the timer in the micro-controller 8. In practice it has been found that a timer operating in increments of 2 ⁇ secs is appropriate.
• the time between samples is chosen to be t and t+2 ⁇ seconds, in as regular pattern as possible, over the four or eight samples, depending on whether a four or eight point dft is being performed, such that frequencies can be chosen in increments of 2 ⁇ seconds for a micro-controller, which operates in increments of 2 ⁇ seconds.
• variables of the algorithm are all capable of being programmed into an eight bit micro-controller 8. Also, all variables can be reprogrammable, if so desired. Thus the variables can be determined once the nature of the installation of the apparatus 2 is determined, or after installation. A sixteen bit micro-controller may be used, if so desired.
• the above described apparatus 2 has been described with reference to operation by an incoming trigger signal in a ripple signal. This trigger can be in the form of a ripple telegram.
• the information contained in the telegram can be of any type capable of being inserted in such a telegram. For example, such information may be power tariff rates.
• the trigger may be programmed to operate the apparatus 2 attached to the associated output port 9 only when the tariff falls below a certain, pre-set value.
• the information in the telegram may be a time against which a pre-set time is to be compared.
• the information may be prices of other commodities (e.g. gas) , triggering the apparatus 2 to operate other equipment or systems e.g. systems or equipment which are/is gas powered (etc) .
• the trigger could also include a random factor so that some types of equipment are always switched on or off at random.
• the apparatus 2 or a plurality of devices 2 can be used for indirect load control of an energy network of any size. Whilst the apparatus 2 has been described with reference to a 50 Hz mains power system, it will be appreciated that with appropriate modification the apparatus 2 can be used on systems with alternate frequencies.
• the serial port 12 can be used to output data from the apparatus 2 to another device.
• the apparatus 2 can also be used as a repeater.

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

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• 1995
  • 1995-07-27 CN CN95192106A patent/CN1044185C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 1995-07-27 WO PCT/NZ1995/000068 patent/WO1996003792A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1995-07-27 EP EP95926041A patent/EP0775379A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1995-07-27 AU AU29928/95A patent/AU675192B2/en not_active Ceased

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