JP6350847B2 - Status notification device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a state notification device that is connected to a distributed power source and notifies the state of the distributed power source.

  In recent years, distributed power sources such as solar power generation and fuel cells are becoming popular. Along with this, a status notification device for displaying the power generation status of a distributed power source has been developed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  The state notification device of Patent Literature 1 (measurement monitoring device in Patent Literature 1) is connected to a plurality of power conditioners, and a judgment value and a reference judgment value calculated based on the amount of generated power for each power conditioner. And a function to determine and display the operating state. Thereby, it is possible to confirm whether or not the power conditioner is operating normally by using the state notification device.

JP 2012-88260 A

  By the way, in the state notification device as described above, it is possible to check whether or not the power conditioner is operating normally. However, as a confirmation method thereof, it is necessary to check on the display unit of the state notification device. There is still room for improvement in terms of convenience.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a state notification device capable of improving convenience.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a status notification device is connected to a distributed power source device having a distributed power source and a converter that converts a DC voltage output from the distributed power source into a predetermined voltage via a communication line. The state information of at least the distributed power supply and the distributed power supply device can be acquired, the communication unit connected to an external network, and the state information of the distributed power supply device obtained through the communication line A transmission control unit that converts the electronic mail information to the predetermined monitoring terminal connected to the external network via the external network , the communication unit, the transmission control unit, Are included in the same device .

  In the above configuration, it is preferable that the transmission control unit transmits the e-mail information to the monitoring terminal via the external network when the state information changes from a normal state to an abnormal state.

  In the above configuration, when the state information changes from an abnormal state to a normal state, the transmission control unit transmits the electronic mail information including information indicating that the state is normal through the external network to the monitoring terminal. It is preferable.

  In the above configuration, a plurality of the distributed power supply devices are connected to the communication unit, and the transmission control unit detects an abnormality from the status information of the plurality of distributed power supply devices obtained via the communication unit. It is preferable that the distributed power supply apparatus in a state is specified, and the electronic mail information is transmitted to the monitoring terminal as the status information of the specified distributed power supply apparatus via the external network.

In the above configuration, it is preferable that the status information of the distributed power supply apparatus includes power information of the distributed power supply apparatus.
Further, in the above configuration, the transmission control unit receives at least one of a sunshine meter capable of outputting solar radiation data and a thermometer capable of outputting temperature data via the communication unit, and status information of the distributed power supply device The electronic mail information is preferably converted into electronic mail information, and the electronic mail information is preferably transmitted to the predetermined monitoring terminal connected to the external network via the external network.

  In the above configuration, it is preferable that the transmission control unit is configured to be able to display the status information on the external terminal via the external network after converting the status information into a format that can be displayed on the external terminal.

  In the above configuration, the external terminal is preferably an image display device including a television.

  According to the status notification device of the present invention, convenience can be improved.

It is a schematic block diagram of the energy monitor system in embodiment. It is a timing chart for demonstrating the transmission timing of mail. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating an example of the abnormal condition determination of a power conditioner. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating an example of the abnormal condition determination of a power conditioner.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of an energy monitor system will be described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the energy monitor system performs various measurements and information collection of a plurality of distributed power supply apparatuses 11, and includes a measurement unit 21 and a collection unit 31. The distributed power supply device 11 includes a solar panel 12 as a distributed power supply, a connection box 13, and a power conditioner 14. The power conditioner 14 includes a converter that converts DC power into AC power. The power conditioner 14 of the distributed power supply device 11 is connected to a cubicle (high voltage receiving / transforming equipment) 16 that converts (boosts) electric power to a high voltage and is linked to a commercial power source.

  The measurement unit 21 constituting the energy monitor system mainly measures the amount of energy such as electric power. A plurality of (for example, three) circuits are connected to one unit, and the current, voltage, power, and power in each circuit are connected. Measure the rate, accumulated power, etc. Examples of the circuit connected to the measurement unit 21 include a circuit including the distributed power supply device 11, a circuit including lighting equipment and a circuit including air conditioning equipment (not shown), and the like. In the case of measurement, a current transformer 22 is attached to these circuits, and the current transformer 22 and the measurement unit 21 are connected via a CT cable 23.

  The measurement unit 21 can also measure the amount of gas and water used by inputting pulses from, for example, a pulse transmission type gas meter 25 and a flow meter 26. That is, the gas meter 25 and the flow meter 26 output a pulse every time a predetermined usage amount is measured. Therefore, in the measurement unit 21, by inputting and counting pulses from the gas meter 25 and the flow meter 26, the gas / water usage in the gas meter 25 and the flow meter 26 can be integrated and measured. In the case of measurement, the gas meter 25 or the flow meter 26 and the measurement unit 21 are connected via a pulse input cable (not shown).

  The collection unit 31 can collect energy amount measurement data obtained by the measurement unit 21 and obtain state information from the distributed power supply device 11. The collection unit 31 includes a communication unit 31a that performs communication when collecting and acquiring various types of information, and a control unit 31b that appropriately processes the acquired various types of information. The communication unit 31a performs communication using, for example, a Modbus standard serial communication protocol. The communication protocol during communication in the communication unit 31a is not limited to the Modbus standard, and may be changed as appropriate.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the communication unit 31a of the collection unit 31 and the measurement unit 21 are connected using, for example, a communication line of the RS-485 standard. Thereby, serial communication is performed between the collection unit 31 and the measurement unit 21, and the collection unit 31 collects measurement data obtained by the measurement unit 21. The communication line between the communication unit 31a and the measurement unit 21 is not limited to the RS-485 standard and may be changed as appropriate.

  The collection unit 31 converts the collected measurement data into a data format (for example, a CSV (Comma-Separated Values) format or an HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format) that can be browsed by the personal computer 41 or the like as a monitoring terminal. Store in a built-in memory (not shown).

  In addition, the communication unit 31a of the collection unit 31 is connected to the power conditioner 14 of the distributed power supply 11 using a communication line CL of the RS-485 standard. Thereby, the status information of the distributed power supply device 11 output from the power conditioner 14 can be acquired. The state information includes power information such as instantaneous power currently being generated by the distributed power supply device 11.

  Incidentally, the acquisition timing of the state information by the collection unit 31 is, for example, a request signal is output from the collection unit 31 side to the power conditioner 14 side regularly or irregularly, and the power conditioner 14 receiving the request signal is in a state. Acquired by sending information. The acquisition timing is not limited to this. For example, you may employ | adopt the method of acquiring whenever status information is transmitted from the power conditioner 14 for every predetermined timing. Further, a method may be adopted in which the request signal is output to the power conditioner 14 side based on the user's operation, and the power conditioner 14 that receives the request signal acquires the request information by transmitting the state information. Furthermore, you may combine each method.

  The collection unit 31 is connected via a conversion unit 34 and a sunshine meter 32 that measures the current amount of sunshine, a thermometer 33 that measures the current temperature. The conversion unit 34 converts the output signals of the sunshine meter 32 and the thermometer 33 into DC 4 to 20 mA that can be handled by the collection unit 31.

The communication unit 31a is connected to a local area network (hereinafter simply referred to as a LAN) 35 adopting the Ethernet (registered trademark) standard, which is an external network.
The control unit 31b of the collection unit 31 can transmit data in the HTML (HyperText Markup Language) format to the television 36, which is an example of an external terminal, via the communication unit 31a and the LAN 35. As a result, for example, if the personal computer 41 or the television 36 has a browser (such as a WEB browser) compatible with the HTML format, it can be browsed without installing software or the like later.

  The collection unit 31 is also connected to the Internet network N as an external network via the LAN 35. For this reason, the collection unit 31 uses a mail server MS connected to the Internet network N to send a mail to a mail address set so as to be received by the personal computer 41 or the smartphone 42 which is a predetermined monitoring terminal. It is possible. Here, the control unit 31b of the collection unit 31 sends, for example, information including the state information acquired from the power conditioner 14, the amount of sunlight obtained by the sunshine meter 32, and the temperature data obtained by the temperature meter 33. For example, the mail can be transmitted using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

  Moreover, the control part 31b has memorize | stored beforehand the threshold value S1 (refer FIG. 2) which determines whether the electric power value (state information) acquired from the power conditioner 14 is an abnormal state in the memory which is not shown in figure. The control unit 31b transmits a mail indicating that the state is abnormal when the threshold value S1 is exceeded and the threshold value S1 is not exceeded. Furthermore, the control part 31b will transmit the mail to the effect of a normal state, if the electric power value (status information) acquired from the power conditioner 14 exceeds threshold value S1 from the state below threshold value S1.

  The collection unit 31 has a slot into which a portable memory card such as an SD memory card (registered trademark) can be inserted, and data can be added to or deleted from the portable memory card. As a result, for example, hourly logging data and daily logging data can be carried by a memory card and browsed or analyzed by various computers. In addition, the collection unit 31 has a connector corresponding to the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard, and can move, copy, and browse data with respect to a device connected to the connector. Thereby, for example, it is possible to browse or analyze data by various computers, for example, hourly logging data or daily logging data.

Next, an operation example (action) of the energy monitoring system configured as described above will be described.
The solar panel 12 as a distributed power source generates DC power mainly from light energy from the sun. The DC power generated by the solar panel 12 is input to the power conditioner 14 via the connection box 13. In the power conditioner 14, the input DC power is converted into AC power and output to the cubicle 16. The cubicle 16 transforms (boosts) part or all of AC power input from the power conditioner 14 to a high voltage, and supplies part or all of the transformed power to an electric power company. Then, the electric power company purchases the electric power supplied from the cubicle 16.

  Here, the measurement unit 21 measures the amount of energy such as the power generated by the distributed power supply device 11, the amount of gas used obtained by the gas meter 25, and the amount of water obtained by the flow meter 26.

  Further, the collection unit 31 collects the energy amount measured by the measurement unit 21. Furthermore, the collection unit 31 acquires the power value at each power conditioner 14 as an example of the state information of the distributed power supply device 11 including the power conditioner 14 output from the power conditioner 14.

  The control unit 31b converts the information including the electric power value obtained by the power conditioner 14, the sunshine amount data obtained by the sunshine meter 32, and the temperature data obtained by the temperature meter 33 into a mail format and converts the information into a personal computer 41. Or to the smartphone 42.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the control unit 31b, when any one of the power values obtained by each power conditioner 14 becomes equal to or less than the threshold value S1 (t1 in FIG. 2), mail information indicating an abnormal state. Is transmitted to a predetermined personal computer 41 or the smartphone 42. In addition, when any of the power values obtained by each power conditioner 14 exceeds the threshold value S1 (t2 in FIG. 2), the control unit 31b sends e-mail information indicating that it is in a normal state to a predetermined personal computer 41 or smartphone. 42.

Next, the effect of this embodiment will be described.
(1) The control unit 31b of the collection unit 31 converts the status information of the distributed power supply device 11 into electronic mail information. Then, the control unit 31b transmits e-mail information to the personal computer 41 and the smartphone 42 which are predetermined monitoring terminals connected to the Internet network N via the Internet network N. Thereby, since it is possible to check the status information of the distributed power supply device 11 with the personal computer 41 or the smartphone 42 which is a monitoring terminal without checking the collection unit 31 or the like, the convenience can be improved.

  (2) When the state information changes from the normal state to the abnormal state, the control unit 31b transmits e-mail information to the personal computer 41 or the smartphone 42, and thus can notify that the abnormal state has occurred.

  (3) When the state information changes from the abnormal state to the normal state, the control unit 31b transmits e-mail information to the personal computer 41 or the smartphone 42, so that the control unit 31b can notify that the abnormal state has changed to the normal state. .

(4) Since the state information of the distributed power supply device 11 includes the power information of the distributed power supply device 11, the power information can be transmitted in the email information.
(5) The control unit 31b sends the data of the sunshine meter 32 capable of outputting solar radiation amount data and the temperature meter 33 capable of outputting temperature data via the communication unit 31a together with the status information of the distributed power supply device 11 to e-mail information. Convert to Then, the control unit 31b transmits the e-mail information to the predetermined personal computer 41 or the smartphone 42 connected to the Internet network N via the Internet network N. For this reason, it is possible to confirm information on solar radiation data and temperature data.

  (6) The control unit 31b is configured to convert the status information (for example, power information) into a format (for example, HTML format) that can be displayed on the television 36 as an external terminal, and to display the status information on the television 36 via the LAN 35. The For this reason, for example, even the user who has installed the distributed power supply device 11 and the energy monitor system can easily check the state information.

In addition, you may change the said embodiment as follows.
For example, the control unit 31b converts the status information of the distributed power supply device 11 in an abnormal state from the status information of the plurality of distributed power supply devices 11 into electronic mail information (electronic mail format), and sends it to a predetermined monitoring terminal. You may make it transmit via the internet network N. FIG. In addition, the following method is mentioned as a method of specifying the distributed power supply device 11 which became the abnormal state from the status information of the plurality of distributed power supply devices 11. However, it may be specified by a method other than the following method.

(Method 1)
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 3, the control unit 31 b acquires the power value generated by each distributed power supply device 11 for each power conditioner 14 as state information of the plurality of distributed power supply devices 11, for example. In FIG. 3, for the convenience of explanation, “A1”, “B1”, and “C1” are used to identify each of the three power conditioners 14.

  And the control part 31b compares the electric power value acquired for every power conditioner 14 shown as "A1", "B1", and "C1" mutually. The control unit 31b compares the difference d1 between the power value of the power conditioner 14 indicated as “A1” and the power value of the power conditioner 14 indicated as “B1” with a predetermined power range dt. The control unit 31b compares the difference d2 between the power value of the power conditioner 14 indicated as “B1” and the power value of the power conditioner 14 indicated as “C1” with a predetermined power range dt. Further, the control unit 31b compares the difference d3 between the power value of the power conditioner 14 indicated as “A1” and the power value of the power conditioner 14 indicated as “C1” with a predetermined power range dt.

  The control unit 31b includes a power conditioner 14 indicated as “C1” from the results of the differences d2 and d3 in which the differences d1, d2, and d3 exceed a predetermined power range dt, and the distributed power supply device 11 including the power conditioner 14. Is determined (identified) to be in an abnormal state.

(Method 2)
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 4, the control unit 31 b acquires, for example, the power value generated by each distributed power supply device 11 as the state information of the plurality of distributed power supply devices 11 for each power conditioner 14. In FIG. 4, for the convenience of explanation, “A2”, “B2”, and “C2” are used to identify each of the three power conditioners 14.

  Then, the control unit 31b determines the abnormal state set in advance in the control unit 31b with the power values Da, Db, and Dc acquired for each power conditioner 14 indicated as “A2”, “B2”, and “C2”. To the threshold value S2.

  Since the power value Dc is equal to or less than the threshold value S2, the control unit 31b determines that the power conditioner 14 indicated as “C2” and the distributed power supply 11 including the power conditioner 14 are in an abnormal state (specific). To do.

  -In above-mentioned embodiment, although the control part 31b was set as the structure which converts into e-mail information including solar radiation amount data and temperature data, it is not restricted to this. For example, the control unit 31b may include only one of the solar radiation amount data and the temperature data and convert it into electronic mail information, or may convert it into electronic mail information without including both the solar radiation amount data and the temperature data. That is, it is not always necessary to send the solar radiation amount data and the temperature data by e-mail.

  In the above embodiment, the television 36 is employed as the external terminal and the image display device. However, the present invention is not limited to the television 36, and for example, an image display device that cannot view television broadcasts may be employed.

  In the above embodiment, the control unit 31b adopts the HTML format as a format that can be displayed on the external terminal, but other formats may be used.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... Distributed type power supply device, 12 ... Solar panel (distributed type power supply), 14 ... Power conditioner (converter), 31 ... Collection unit (status notification apparatus), 31a ... Communication part, 31b ... Control part (transmission control part) ), 32 ... sunshine meter, 33 ... thermometer, 35 ... LAN (external network), 36 ... television (external terminal and image display device), 41 ... personal computer (monitoring terminal), 42 ... smartphone (monitoring terminal), CL: Communication line, N: Internet network (external network).

Claims (7)

The DC voltage output from the distributed power source are connected to each other via a communication line and distributed power supply having a converter for converting the predetermined voltage, the state information before the SL-sharing power supplies can get A communication unit connected to an external network;
The status information of the distributed power supply device obtained via the communication line is converted into e-mail information, and the e-mail information is transmitted to the predetermined monitoring terminal connected to the external network via the external network. A transmission control unit for
The communication unit and the transmission control unit are included in the same device, the communication unit and the transmission control unit are connected in the device , and
When the state information changes from a normal state to an abnormal state, the transmission control unit includes the information indicating that the state is abnormal via the communication unit connected to the external network to the monitoring terminal. A status notification device characterized by transmitting . In the status notification device according to claim 1,
When the state information changes from an abnormal state to a normal state, the transmission control unit transmits the electronic mail information including information indicating that the monitoring terminal is in a normal state via the communication unit connected to the external network. A state notification device. In the status notification device according to any one of claims 1 and 2,
A plurality of the distributed power supply devices are respectively connected to the communication unit,
The transmission control unit identifies a distributed power supply device that has entered an abnormal state from the plurality of distributed power supply devices, based on the state information of the plurality of distributed power supply devices obtained via the communication unit. Then, the status notification device transmits the electronic mail information to the monitoring terminal via the communication unit that connects the status information of the specified distributed power supply device to the external network . In the status notification device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The status notification device , wherein the status information of the distributed power supply includes power information of the distributed power supply . In the state alerting device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
The transmission control unit converts at least one of a sunshine meter capable of outputting solar radiation data and a thermometer capable of outputting temperature data via the communication unit into e-mail information together with status information of the distributed power supply device. A status notification device that converts and transmits the e-mail information to the predetermined monitoring terminal connected to the external network via the communication unit connected to the external network . In the status notification device according to any one of claims 1 to 5,
The transmission control unit converts the state information into a format that can be displayed on an external terminal, and transmits the state information to the external terminal via the communication unit connected to the external network . In the status notification device according to claim 6,
The status notification device , wherein the external terminal is an image display device including a television .