Detecting hot socket conditions in utility electricity meters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12224584-B2
Application number	US-202217735457-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 3, 2022
Priority date	May 7, 2020
Publication date	Feb 11, 2025
Grant date	Feb 11, 2025

Abstract

Techniques for detecting hot socket conditions in utility electricity meters include acquiring, by an electricity meter, first signal readings of one or more first signals associated with a first type of communications between the electricity meter and one or more first devices; acquiring, by the electricity meter, second signal readings for one or more second signals associated with a second type of communications between the electricity meter and one or more second devices, the second type of communications being different from the first type of communications; performing, by the electricity meter, one or more operations on the first signal readings and the second signal readings to determine whether a hot socket condition is present; and performing, by the electricity meter, a remedial operation in response to determining that the one or more operations indicate that the hot socket condition is present.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
acquiring, by an electricity meter, first signal readings of one or more first noise signals associated with a first type of network communications between the electricity meter and one or more first devices;
acquiring, by the electricity meter, second signal readings for one or more second noise signals associated with a second type of network communications between the electricity meter and one or more second devices, the second type of network communications being different from the first type of network communications;
performing, by the electricity meter, one or more operations on the first signal readings and the second signal readings to determine whether a hot socket condition is present; and
performing, by the electricity meter, a remedial operation in response to determining that the one or more operations indicate that the hot socket condition is present.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein:
the first type of network communications is power line communications (PLC); and
the second type of network communications is radio frequency (RF) communications.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein a first frequency range of the first type of network communications is lower than a second frequency range of the second type of network communications.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more operations comprise determining that a correlation between the first signal readings and the second signal readings is above a threshold.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more operations comprise determining that a correlation between the first signal readings and the second signal readings is above a threshold over multiple power cycles.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remedial operation comprises disconnecting one or more electrical circuits from an electrical utility via a service disconnect.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remedial operation comprises transmitting at least one of the first signal readings or the second signal readings to a central office, an edge device, or another utility electricity meter.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the remedial operation comprises one or more of:
transmitting a first message to a central office, an edge device, or another utility electricity meter indicating that the hot socket condition has been detected;
generating an alert to inform a user of the hot socket condition; or
illuminating an indicator on the electricity meter.

9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:
receiving first samples of one or more first noise signals processed by a first network communications device coupling an electricity meter to one or more first devices;
receiving second samples of one or more second noise signals processed by a second network communications device coupling the electricity meter to one or more second devices, wherein the one or more second noise signals are sampled on a different type of network communications than the one or more first noise signals;
comparing the first samples and the second samples to determine whether a hot socket condition is present; and
executing one or more remedial operations in response to determining that the comparing indicates that the hot socket condition is present.

10. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein:
the one or more first noise signals are sampled from power line communications (PLC) signals; and
the one or more second noise signals are sampled from radio frequency (RF) signals.

11. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein comparing the first samples to the second samples to determine whether a hot socket condition is present comprises determining that a correlation between the first samples and the second samples is above a threshold.

12. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein comparing the first samples to the second samples to determine whether a hot socket condition is present comprises determining that a pattern of correlations between the first samples and the second samples that are above a correlation threshold occurs over a plurality of power cycles.

13. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12 , wherein the pattern includes a correlation above the correlation threshold occurring in a configurable number of consecutive power cycles.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 12 , wherein the pattern includes a correlation above the correlation threshold occurring in more than a configurable percentage of power cycles.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 9 , wherein the one or more remedial operations comprises one or more of:
disconnecting one or more electrical circuits from an electrical utility via a service disconnect;
transmitting at least one of the first samples or the second samples to a central office, an edge device, or another utility electricity meter; or
alerting a user.

16. An electricity meter comprising:
one or more transceivers for transmitting and receiving messages;
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors causes the electricity meter to perform operations comprising:
receiving first signal data for one or more first noise signals associated with a first network communications mode;
receiving second signal data for one or more second noise signals associated with a second network communications mode;
determining, based on a comparison between the first signal data and the second signal data, that a hot socket condition is present near the electricity meter; and
performing a remedial action in response to determining that the hot socket condition is present.

17. The electricity meter of claim 16 , wherein the one or more transceivers include a power line communications (PLC) module and a radio frequency (RF) transceiver.

18. The electricity meter of claim 16 , wherein determining, based on the comparison between the first signal data and the second signal data, that the hot socket condition is present comprises determining that a correlation between the first signal data and the second signal data exceeds a threshold value.

19. The electricity meter of claim 16 , wherein determining, based on the comparison between the first signal data and the second signal data, that the hot socket condition is present comprises determining that a pattern of correlations between the first signal data and the second signal data exceeding a threshold value occurs over multiple power cycles.

20. The electricity meter of claim 16 , wherein the remedial action is selected from a group consisting of:
disconnecting one or more electrical circuits from an electrical utility via a service disconnect;
transmitting at least one of the first signal data or the second signal data to a central office, an edge device, or another electricity meter; or
notifying a user.

Assignees

• Itron Inc

Inventors

• Borisov Vladimir
• Pichot Matthieu

Classifications

• H02J13/12

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

• H02J13/333 Primary

  the equipment forming part of substations · CPC title

• G01R19/2513

  Arrangements for monitoring electric power systems, e.g. power lines or loads; Logging · CPC title

• G06Q50/06 Primary

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• G01R31/69

  of terminals at the end of a cable or a wire harness; of plugs; of sockets, e.g. wall sockets or power sockets in appliances · CPC title