250 results about "Power utility" patented technology

A vehicle battery charger and a vehicle battery charging system are described and illustrated, and can include a controller enabling a user to enter a time of day at which the vehicle battery charger or system begins and / or ends charging of the vehicle battery. The vehicle battery charger can be separate from the vehicle, can be at least partially integrated into the vehicle, can include a transmitter and / or a receiver capable of communication with a controller that is remote from the vehicle and vehicle charger, and can be controlled by a user or another party (e.g., a power utility) to control battery charging based upon a time of day, cost of power, or other factors.

An interruptible power supply module, located at a customer's premise, functions to reduce the demand on a power utility company. As a power utility senses a critical power supply demand situation, it sends an “interrupt power” control signal through an alternative communications network (a telecommunications network, for example), to each subscribing customer. Upon receipt of the “interrupt” control signal, a switch is activated in the customer's interruptible power supply module to remove a pre-defined “interruptible” load for a predetermined period of time (perhaps not to exceed 15 minutes in any hour). The module may also be used to “gracefully” add interruptible loads back onto the system after a complete power outage.

A system for the control of a set of powered utilities is disclosed. The system comprises a first device which in turn comprises a processor capable of altering a state of a first powered utility. This first device further comprises a data port configured to transmit a set of messages. These messages include a transmitted message delivered from the processor. The system additionally comprises a second device which in turn comprises a second processor capable of altering a state of a second powered utility. The second processor is configured to selectively alter the state of the second powered utility based on the transmitted message.

Energy services business methods gather up many small pieces of renewable energy generation, energy efficiency, and controllable energy demand reductions en a grid, and present all that in a unified interface to a power utility. The individual constituents benefit from collective bargaining with, a large utility, and can receive energy discounts, rebates, and bonuses for their participation.

A system measures electrical energy usage and combines the measured energy usage with other utility commodity usage for communication and data collection. The system is capable of metering electrical power utility services to residential homes and apartments or other users and combining electrical usage and other utility metering functions for utilities for multiple utility end users. The system thus integrates and communicates the results of utility usage, and eliminates the need for an individual electric metering device for each end user. The system serves as a single metering data collection point for multiple utilities and facilitates interactive communication technologies between the utility service delivery points and utility consumers or consumer devices. The system also includes a plurality of meter ports and a memory for storing meter data from each metered user. The UCI provides for injection of broadband signals onto the service conductors from multiple broadband sources.

A modular reconfigurable appliance receptacle having an array of connectors to accommodate to hold a plurality of different appliance units is provided. The modular reconfigurable appliance unit receptacle comprises a frame for holding various appliance units in different spatial configuration, generally horizontal and vertical, and connectors to quickly connect and / or disconnect the appliance units to the type of power utility necessary, such as gas for a stove, and electricity for a microwave oven. The appliance units are removably attached within the frame, and are interchangeable such that they are configurable as desired and can be removed for repair or replacement, with ease. To add to the configurablity of the receptacle, the frame permits one or more appliance units in both vertical and horizontal spaces within and on the frame. The appliance units can be modified to change their appearance with removably attachable decorative covers, such that interchangeability and modification are made quick, easy and affordable.

An organizer serving as a safeguard for electrical cords during charging intervals of electrically-operated consumer products provided by a compartment having internally a strip of uniformly spaced apart female sockets electrically connected to a power company wall socket and externally the consumer products' charging components similarly uniformly spaced apart, wherein the correlation of the uniform spacing maintains the electrical cords in neatly coiled conditions without entanglement with each other within the compartment.

The degrees of exhaust emission suppression and contribution to the environment are evaluated, and a point is added according to the degree of contribution. A system is configured by including an electric vehicle (100), an electric power company (110), a management center (120), a network (130) that connects these, and the like. A battery of the electric vehicle (100) is charged with electric power supplied mainly by the electric power company (110), and various kinds of charge-related information are transmitted to and received from the management center (120) or the like via the network (130) or the like. At the time of charging, the electric vehicle (100) uses wireless communications, for example, to transmit and receive various kinds of data to and from a server (121) via a radio base station (131) and the network (130).

A power system and method make highly efficient use of power supplied from a utility to a facility. A 110-volt line will commonly supply between 107 to 120 volts. A power system couples energy from the utility to a load circuit and may interface with further sources to supply the load circuit. The power system limits output voltage circuit to a preselected nominal level, e.g., 107 volts. Energy provided by the utility which is embodied in voltage above the nominal level is diverted to a charging circuit to charge a storage circuit. On command, the storage circuit delivers input power coupled to a waveform generator which produces a mirror of the waveform of the utility voltage as a supplemental AC voltage. The supplemental voltage is provided to the facility circuit either in response to a user-generated control signal, an output level from the storage circuit or in response to load requirements.

Disclosed is a technique using an electric vehicle. The technique enables a user to set the operation plan of the electric vehicle and the price of electricity used to charge / discharge an electric vehicle battery. The electric vehicle battery is charged, or the electric energy charged in the electric vehicle battery is collected, according to the set information. Accordingly, it is possible to charge the electric vehicle battery at the price approved by the user under variable pricing of electric energy. When the price of electricity increases or there is no operation plan of the electric vehicle, the electric energy stored in the battery is collected to operate electric devices or resell the stored electric energy to an electric power company, thereby obtaining economic benefit. As the spread of electric vehicles are extended, it can be expected to save a considerable amount of electric energy throughout the whole society.

A safety device can provide electrical shock protection for an electrical appliance. Voltage sensors can monitor voltage levels among a power conductor, a neutral conductor, and a ground conductor. When sensed voltages indicate that these conductors are properly wired to an electrical power utility, inline switches can close to allow power to pass through the safety device to the appliance. When one or more of the sensed voltages indicates that the power level is too low to operate the appliance, one or more switches of the safety device can open to block power from passing through to the appliance. When one or more of the sensed voltages indicates that an electrical problem posing a shock hazard exists in the electrical appliance, one or more switches of the safety device can open to interrupt power from transmitting to the appliance.

A fuel cell stand-by energy supply system is provided for supplying electrical power to a device operated by power from an electrical utility in the event of a power failure. The system is comprised of a microcontroller which is connected to a detector capable of detecting power failure. The microcontroller monitors this detector and one or more conditions of the device to which electrical power is fed. The microcontroller operates a fuel cell switch to connect the fuel cell d.c. supply directly to the d.c. device or to a voltage conditioning circuit to produce an operative a.c. supply which is connected to the device to continue operation thereof during the power failure. The microcontroller monitors and manages the load in relation to the fuel cell power. The microcontroller also performs an autodiagnostic of the fuel cell.

An electronic electric meter for use in a networked automatic meter reading environment. The electric meter retrofits into existing meter sockets and is available for new meter installations for both single phase and three phase electric power connections. The electric meter utilizes a modular design which allows the interface modules to be changed depending upon the desired communication network interface. The meter measures electricity usage and monitors power quality parameters for transmission to the utility. The gateway node transmits this data to the utility over a commercially available fixed wide area network (WAN). The meter also provides direct communication to the utility over a commercially available network interface that plugs into the meter's backplane or bus system bypassing the local area network communication link and gateway node.

A system and method are provided for calculating power using a voltage waveform shape measurement from a contactless sensor. An electrically conductive medium carries alternating current (AC) electrical current, associated with an AC voltage, from a source node to a destination node. AC current is measured through the electrically conductive medium. Using a contactless sensor, an AC voltage waveform shape is measured. The power usage at the destination node is calculated in response to the AC current measurement, the measurement of the AC voltage waveform shape, and an AC voltage potential. For simplicity, the AC current and AC voltage waveform shape may both be measured at a first node located between the source node and the destination node. The AC voltage potential used in the power usage calculation may be an estimate, an actual measurement, or a value supplied by an external source (e.g., the power utility).

A method and a system for the optimal allocation of investment funds to construct an investment portfolio by using a two-segment, risk-averse utility function, where the first segment is a log-utility function indicative of the portfolio holder's utility for positive rates of return and reflects the portfolio holder's desire for maximizing portfolio growth, and the second segment is a power-utility function with a zero or negative power indicative of the degree to which the portfolio holder is averse to losses. An optimization algorithm determines the optimal investment weights for the assets in the investment portfolio to maximize the portfolio's expected utility, which is based on the two-segment utility function. A computer software includes modules for carrying out the optimization to determine the optimal investment weights for the assets and to thereby construct the investment portfolio. The computer software is in the form of codes executed by a processor.

An auxiliary drive / brake system for a wind turbine includes an impulse, high torque motor, a gearbox transmission, a drive shaft, and a transfer gearbox that connects to either the wind turbine low-speed shaft or to the wind turbine gearbox. Control of the auxiliary drive / brake system is performed by a programmable computer-based motor drive control system in combination with instrumentation and sensors fitted to the rotating wind turbine components. Torque and horsepower created by the present auxiliary drive / brake system is transferred into the wind turbine low-speed shaft where it combines with the torque and horsepower created by the wind acting on the wind turbine rotor blades, the combined torque and horsepower is transferred from the wind turbine low-speed shaft into the wind turbine gearbox and the wind turbine generator, causing the wind turbine generator to operate and produce electricity which is supplied to the power company.

A method is provided for efficiently managing energy consumption using stored energy. The method accepts input energy (e.g., from a power utility) and maintains a record of energy consumption. An energy consumption peak is predicted in response to analyzing the record of energy consumption, and the input energy is augmented with stored energy during the predicted energy consumption peaks. More explicitly, a peak shaving value is selected based on a fraction of the predicted energy consumption peak, and the stored energy is used when energy consumption exceeds the peak shaving value. In one aspect, after a determination is made to use stored energy, it is simply used while it is available. Otherwise, it is supplied based upon an analysis of a predicted value of the stored energy.

A method, system and apparatus for controlling a pulse width modulator (PMW) converter for direct AC / AC conversion and / or AC voltage regulation. According to some embodiments of the invention, an output voltage may be provided, independent of the input voltage quality, thereby avoiding or minimizing power company irregularities, brownouts and the like. Embodiments of the present invention may be useful, for example, for use in connection with motors and motored devices or other applications.

The invention discloses an intelligent power utilization cell system, which comprises an electric power company master station, wherein the electric power company master station is at least connected with a power supply part working station; each power supply part working station is at least connected with an intelligent cell power supply system; the electric power company master station comprises a power utilization information acquisition system server, and the power utilization information acquisition system server is connected with an intermediate database server and a website server by a backbone network arranged in the electric power company master station, and the intermediate database server and the website server are arranged in the master station; and the intermediate database server is connected with at least one intelligent cell power supply system through a network I, and the intelligent cell power supply system is connected with a website server through a network II. The intelligent power utilization cell system disclosed by the invention has the beneficial effects that: the satisfaction degree of clients on a company is promoted; the power supply reliability and the fault processing timeliness are improved; the high-quality power utilization service is met; the requirements of clients on environment-friendly power utilization, energy-saving power utilization, planning power utilization and reasonable power utilization are met.

An electrical connector assembly includes a main conductive member and a tap conductive member separately fabricated from one another. Each of the main and tap conductive members including at least one conductor receiving channel, wherein the main and tap conductive members together include at least three channels configured to receive conductors therein and extending along three different channel axes. The channel(s) of the main conductive member is configured to receive a main power line conductor, and the channel(s) of the tap conductive member is configured to receive a tap power line conductor. The main and tap conductive members are joined to one another such that the main conductive member and the tap conductive member cooperate to capture the main power line conductor therebetween when the main and tap conductive members are joined, and the tap conductive member and the main conductive member cooperate to capture the tap power line conductor therebetween when the main and tap conductive members are joined.

This disclosure describes systems, methods, and apparatus for a combined LED driver and emergency backup battery system. The LED driver can include current regulation circuitry as well as a bus enabling charging and discharging of an energy storage device from and to the bus. A master controller can control charging and discharging of the energy storage device via a controller of an energy storage management system, and also communicate with the current regulation circuitry to control a balance of power between an AC mains, the energy storage device, and driving of an LED light source. Accessories may be coupled to the bus and receive low voltage power from the bus and optionally receive commands from the master controller and provide sensed data back to the controller. A wireless network interface to the master controller can enable system states based on electrical power company indications and instructions.

In a method, operation of an electric power system which has a power utility automation system (1981-1984, 1991-1994) is monitored. The power utility automation system (1981-1984, 1991-1994) comprises a plurality of intelligent electronic devices (IEDs) (1981-1984, 1991-1994) communicating via a communication network. During operation of the electric power system, properties of the electric power system are monitored, the monitored properties comprising monitored data messages which are transmitted by the plurality of IEDs (1981-1984, 1991-1994) over the communication network. The monitored data messages are evaluated based on configuration information for the power utility automation system (1981-1984, 1991-1994) to detect a critical event. An alert signal is generated in response to detection of the critical event.

The invention discloses a power customer online grouping method based on mass measurement data. The power customer online grouping method includes step1 extracting historical sample data of power customers; step2 preprocessing extracted sample data; step3 conducting initial customer grouping on the historical sample data of the power customer; step4 extracting user information of online power customers in real time from a metering automatic system and reflecting real-time power utilization data reflecting power utility characteristics of the online power customers and conducting preprocessing; step5 acquiring preprocessed online power customer data and utilizing generated cluster center points to conduct online real-time grouping on newly increased online customer user data on the base of the generated customer groups. The method is capable of conducting dynamic grouping calculation of all the power customers.

A secondary battery and charging system are provided within an electric car or other electric drive vehicle. The secondary battery may, e.g., be owned by the electric utility. The battery is removeable and can be charged and discharged independently of the primary car battery system. The utility can use the secondary battery to implement vehicle-to-grid functionality.

An electrical connector assembly includes a bail, a first conductive member having a first hook portion extending from a first wedge portion, wherein the first hook portion adapted to engage a main conductor, and a second conductive member having a second hook portion extending from a second wedge portion. The second hook portion is adapted to engage the bail. The first wedge portion and the second wedge portion are adapted to nest with one another and be secured to one another to capture and electrically connect the main conductor and the bail.

A method is provided for efficiently managing energy consumption using stored energy. The method accepts input energy (e.g., from a power utility) and maintains a record of energy consumption. An energy consumption peak is predicted in response to analyzing the record of energy consumption, and the input energy is augmented with stored energy during the predicted energy consumption peaks. More explicitly, a peak shaving value is selected based on a fraction of the predicted energy consumption peak, and the stored energy is used when energy consumption exceeds the peak shaving value. In one aspect, after a determination is made to use stored energy, it is simply used while it is available. Otherwise, it is supplied based upon an analysis of a predicted value of the stored energy.

Systems and methods for synchronizing switching within a power distribution network are provided. A switch plan for restoring electrical power to a power distribution network following a power outage may be identified by a control system. The control system may be associated with a power utility and may include one or more computers. A plurality of switching operations associated with the switch plan may be identified by the control system. The plurality of switching operations may include at least one automatic switching operation and at least one manual switching operation. A synchronized execution of the plurality of switching operations may be coordinated by the control system.

A line of kitchen and / or food service-type appliances that have decorative covers that are interchangeable. Each interchangeable cover may be a form fitting cover or a façade panel. The appliance units may be modified to change their appearance with interchangeable decorative covers, such that interchangeability and modification are made quick, easy and affordable. Preferably, the appliances are within their own modular reconfigurable appliance receptacle having an array of connectors to accommodate to hold a plurality of different appliance units. Each receptacle has a frame for holding various appliance units in different spatial configuration, generally horizontal and vertical, and connectors to quickly connect and / or disconnect the appliance units to the type of power utility necessary, such as gas for a stove, and electricity for a microwave oven. The appliance units are removably attached within the frame, and are interchangeable such that they are configurable as desired and may be removed for repair or replacement, with ease. To add to the configurablity of the receptacle, the frame permits one or more appliance units in both vertical and horizontal spaces within and on the frame.