Disconnect switch status in a power distribution system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10811876-B2
Application number	US-201715581326-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 28, 2017
Priority date	Apr 28, 2017
Publication date	Oct 20, 2020
Grant date	Oct 20, 2020

Abstract

An energy management system receives voltage and current data from each of a plurality of fault indicators. Each fault indicator is positioned on a powerline of a power distribution system immediately upstream of a respective one of a plurality of disconnect switches. The energy management system also determines a status of each disconnect switch based on the voltage and current from the plurality of fault indicators.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A server comprising:
a non-transitory machine readable medium having machine readable instructions; and
one or more processors that access the non-transitory machine readable medium and execute the machine readable instructions, the machine readable instructions comprising:
an energy management system that receives voltage and current data from each of a plurality of fault indicators, wherein a power distribution system comprises a plurality of powerlines retrofitted with at least one of the plurality of fault indicators, wherein each fault indicator is positioned on and inductively coupled to a respective powerline of the plurality of powerlines of the power distribution system immediately upstream or downstream of a respective one of a plurality of disconnect switches at a feeder tie that couples two feeders of the power distribution system together, wherein each of the plurality of disconnect switches is coupled to two nodes of the respective powerline at the feeder tie, each fault indicator being configured to measure a current of the respective powerline via the inductive coupling, wherein each disconnect switch is a passive device, and the energy management system determines a status of each disconnect switch based on the received voltage and current data from a corresponding one of the plurality of fault indicators, wherein a determined status of each disconnect switch is one of open, closed, and a fault, wherein the fault status corresponding to a detected voltage and a detected current at a corresponding one of the plurality of fault indicators being below a respective threshold voltage level and threshold current level, wherein the energy management system provides a graphical user interface (GUI) that outputs a visual representation of the power grid, wherein the visual representation includes visual indicia characterizing the determined status of each of the plurality of disconnect switches.

2. The server of claim 1 , wherein each disconnect switch is a manual mechanical switch.

3. The server of claim 2 , wherein each fault indicator comprises a current transformer that is electrically coupled to a corresponding powerline of the power grid via mutual inductance.

4. The server of claim 1 , further comprising a network interface that communicates with a utility network, and each of the plurality of fault indicators is assigned a network address on the utility network.

5. The server of claim 4 , wherein the utility network is an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) network.

6. The server of claim 4 , wherein the utility network is a meshed communication system.

7. The server of claim 4 , wherein each fault indicator comprises an antenna for wirelessly communicating on the utility network.

8. The server of claim 1 , wherein the status of a given disconnect switch of the plurality of disconnect switches is determined to be open in response to a corresponding fault indicator providing data indicating that the detected voltage meets the threshold voltage level and that the detected current is below the threshold current level.

9. The server of claim 1 , wherein the status of a given disconnect switch of the plurality of disconnect switches is determined to be closed in response to a corresponding fault indicator providing data indicating that the detected voltage meets the threshold voltage level and that the detected current meets the threshold current level.

10. The server of claim 1 , wherein each fault indicator comprises:
a current transformer configured to inductively couple a given fault indicators to the powerline immediately upstream of a given one of the plurality of disconnect switches, wherein the current transformer is further configured to provide current to the given fault indicator via mutual inductance;
an internal power supply to provides power to the given fault indicator when no current is flowing on the powerline; and
an antenna configured to wirelessly provide voltage and current data from the given fault indicator to the energy management system at a predetermined time and/or in response to detecting a change in the status of the given one of the plurality of disconnect switches.

11. A system comprising:
a power distribution system comprising a plurality of feeders is retrofitted with at least one of a plurality of fault indicators, wherein each fault indicator is positioned on and inductively coupled to a respective feeder of the plurality of feeders of the power distribution system immediately upstream or downstream from a respective one of a plurality of disconnect switches via the inductive coupling at a feeder tie that couples at least two of the plurality of feeds together, wherein each disconnect switch is a passive device, wherein each of the plurality of fault indicators provides data on a utility network characterizing a detected voltage and a detected current;
a utility server coupled to the utility network, the utility server comprising:
an energy management system that determines a status of each of the plurality of disconnect switches based on the data from each of the plurality of fault indicators, wherein the determined status for each of the plurality of disconnect switches is one of open, closed, and a fault, wherein the fault status corresponding to a detected voltage and a detected current at a corresponding one of the plurality of fault indicators being below a respective threshold voltage level and threshold current level; and

a graphical user interface (GUI) that outputs a visual representation of the power grid, wherein the visual representation includes visual indicia indicating the determined status of each of the plurality of disconnect switches.

12. The server of claim 11 , wherein each fault indicator comprises an antenna for wirelessly communicating on the utility network.

13. The system of claim 11 , wherein each fault indicator comprises:
a current transformer configured to inductively couple a given fault indicators to the powerline immediately upstream of a given one of the plurality of disconnect switches, wherein the current transformer is further configured to provide current to the given fault indicator via mutual inductance;
an internal power supply to provides power to the given fault indicator when no current is flowing on the powerline; and
an antenna configured to provide wirelessly voltage and current data from the given fault indicator to the energy management system at a predetermined time and/or in response to detecting a change in the status of the given one of the plurality of disconnect switches.

14. A method comprising:
receiving data characterizing a detected voltage and a detected current at each of a plurality of fault indicators installed on powerlines of a power distribution system, wherein the power distribution system is retrofitted with the plurality of fault indicators positioned on and inductively coupled to the powerlines of the power distribution system at a feeder tie that couples two feeders of the of the power distribution system together, wherein the detected voltage and the detected current at each of the plurality of fault indicators is measured via the inductive coupling;
determining a status for each of a plurality of disconnect switches installed on the powerlines of the power distribution system based on the received data, wherein each of the plurality of disconnect switches are passive devices installed via a coupling to two nodes of the powerline, wherein the status is one of open, closed and a fault, wherein the fault status corresponding to a detected voltage and a detected current at a corresponding one

Assignees

• Florida Power & Light Co

Inventors

• Klocman Justin D

Classifications

• H02J13/10

  characterised by displaying of information or by user interaction, e.g. supervisory control and data acquisition [SCADA] systems · CPC title

• H02J13/36

  specially adapted for protection systems · CPC title

• H02J13/12

  Monitoring network conditions, e.g. electrical magnitudes or operational status · CPC title

• H02J3/0012

  characterised by the contingency detection means in AC networks, e.g. using phasor measurement units [PMU], synchrophasors or contingency analysis · CPC title

• H02H7/261 Primary

  involving signal transmission between at least two stations (transmission of signals in general H02H1/0061) · CPC title