Apparatuses including utility meter, power electronics, and communications circuitry, and related methods of operation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9829899-B2
Application number	US-201514870126-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Nov 10, 2014
Publication date	Nov 28, 2017
Grant date	Nov 28, 2017

Abstract

Apparatuses including utility meter, power electronics, and communications circuitry are provided. The utility meter circuitry is configured to measure usage of electricity supplied by an electric utility to a premise of a customer of the electric utility. The power electronics circuitry is configured to regulate a voltage level supplied to the premise of the customer. Moreover, the communications circuitry is configured to provide communications with a first electronic device of the customer at the premise of the customer and to provide communications with a second electronic device that is upstream from the apparatus. Related methods of operating an apparatus including utility meter, power electronics, and communications circuitry are also provided.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:
electric utility meter circuitry in the apparatus and configured to measure usage of electricity supplied by an electric utility to a premise of a customer of the electric utility, wherein the apparatus is configured to connect between a utility secondary service of the electric utility and a wiring connection of the customer at the premise;
power electronics circuitry in the apparatus and configured to regulate a voltage level supplied to the premise of the customer, wherein the voltage level that the power electronics circuitry is configured to regulate comprises 600 Volts or lower, wherein the power electronics circuitry is further configured to regulate Volt-Amperes Reactive (VARs) provided to the premise of the customer, and wherein the power electronics circuitry is configured to adjust the voltage level and the VARs for the premise of the customer independently of adjustments for any other premise of any other customer of the electric utility; and
communications circuitry in the apparatus and configured to provide communications with a first electronic device of the customer at the premise of the customer and to provide communications with a second electronic device that is upstream from the apparatus.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the voltage level that the power electronics circuitry is configured to regulate comprises 120 Volts and/or 240 Volts.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the electric utility meter circuitry is configured to operate with a load from the premise of the customer between 0 Volt-Amperes and 15,000 Volt-Amperes.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the power electronics circuitry comprises a Direct Current (DC) bus configured to interface with a DC load and/or a DC power source at the premise of the customer.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the power electronics circuitry comprises power inverter circuitry that is configured to convert DC power received from the DC power source via the DC bus into Alternating Current (AC) power.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the DC bus comprises a 400-Volt DC input port or higher.

7. The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the DC bus comprises a DC output port of a 400-Volt or higher DC power source that is configured to provide DC power to the DC load.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the power electronics circuitry comprises power inverter circuitry that is configured to convert Alternating Current (AC) power into DC power for the DC output port.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the communications circuitry comprises:
a first communications interface configured to provide first communications with the first electronic device of the customer; and
a second communications interface configured to provide second communications with the second electronic device that is upstream from the apparatus.

10. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the power electronics circuitry is configured to adjust the voltage level by up to +/−10% and to adjust the VARs by up to +/−5%.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 ,
wherein the apparatus is spaced apart from a distribution transformer that serves the premise of the customer, and
wherein the power electronics circuitry is configured to automatically hold the voltage level constant as long as the voltage level is within up to +1-10% of an incoming voltage from the distribution transformer.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 , wherein the voltage level is derived from a user input that is provided to the apparatus remotely via the communications circuitry.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is spaced apart from a circuit breaker box.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising bypass circuitry configured to bypass the power electronics circuitry and the communications circuitry.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the power electronics circuitry is configured to hold the voltage level within a predetermined voltage range.

16. A method of operating an apparatus connected between a utility secondary service of an electric utility and a wiring connection of a customer at a premise of the customer, the method comprising:
measuring, using electric utility meter circuitry of the apparatus, usage of electricity supplied by the electric utility to the premise of the customer of the electric utility;
regulating, using power electronics circuitry of the apparatus, Volt-Amperes Reactive (VARs) provided to the premise of the customer and a voltage level comprising 600 Volts or lower supplied to the premise of the customer, wherein regulating the VARS and the voltage level comprises adjusting the VARs and the voltage level for the premise of the customer independently of adjustments for any other premise of any other customer of the electric utility; and
providing communications, using communications circuitry of the apparatus, with a first electronic device of the customer that is at the premise of the customer and with a second electronic device that is upstream from the apparatus.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein providing the communications comprises:
providing first communications, via a first communications interface, with the first electronic device of the customer; and
providing second communications, via a second communications interface, with the second electronic device that is upstream from the apparatus.

18. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
receiving, via the communications circuitry, a user input providing a command to hold the voltage level constant,
wherein the apparatus is spaced apart from a distribution transformer that serves the premise of the customer, and
wherein regulating the voltage level comprises holding the voltage level constant as long as the voltage level is within up to +/−10% of an incoming voltage from the distribution transformer, in response to receiving the user input.

19. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
receiving, via the communications circuitry, a user input providing a command to hold the voltage level within a predetermined voltage range,
wherein the apparatus is spaced apart from a distribution transformer that serves the premise of the customer, and
wherein regulating the voltage level comprises holding the voltage level within the predetermined voltage range, in response to receiving the user input.

20. The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
receiving, via the communications circuitry, a user input providing a command to adjust the voltage level,
wherein regulating the voltage level comprises adjusting the voltage level in response to the user input.

21. The method of claim 16 , wherein measuring the usage of electricity comprises measuring the usage of electricity while bypassing use of the power electronics circuitry and/or the communications circuitry, in response to detecting an error, receiving a bypass command via the communications circuitry, and/or activation of a manual bypass switch of the apparatus.

Assignees

• Duke Energy Corp

Inventors

• Handley Jason
• Laval Stuart
• Vukojevic Aleksandar

Classifications

• G01D4/004

  Remote reading of utility meters to a fixed location · CPC title

• H02J3/00

  Circuit arrangements for AC mains or AC distribution networks · CPC title

• G01R22/10

  using digital techniques · CPC title

• G01R22/063

  related to remote communication · CPC title

• H02J13/1331

  using wireless data transmission · CPC title