Prepaid Utility Meter Control via Server-Generated Usage Limits
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Solution Overview
Problem
Prepaid utility delivery systems face challenges with meter-based financial transactions increasing costs and time for rate changes, and network-based solutions are vulnerable to congestion or failure.
Innovation Solution
A system comprising a utility meter connected to a data network and a control server that manages prepaid utility delivery by generating usage limits and sending commands to interrupt or resume utility supply, allowing for local and remote control of utility delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the meter itself tracks the balance and implements financial transactions, then prepaid delivery control is achieved at the meter location, but the cost and time required to alter billing rates and tariffs significantly increases as each meter must be updated individually
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the financial transaction and rate management functions from the meter itself and relocates them to a remote server. The meter only retains the essential function of tracking usage and comparing against limits, while all complex rate calculations and updates are performed centrally, eliminating the need for individual meter updates when rates change.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a server as an intermediary between the utility billing system and the meters. This server acts as a mediator that receives rate information, calculates usage limits, and communicates them to meters, thereby decoupling the meters from direct financial transaction processing and simplifying their functionality.
2Device complexity
If a network-based component is used to implement charging and delivery control, then meter complexity is reduced, but the system becomes vulnerable to network congestion or failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by having the server calculate and send usage limits to the meter in advance, before the actual utility consumption occurs. The meter stores these limits locally and uses them autonomously to control delivery, ensuring that prepaid constraints are enforced even when the network is unavailable.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by enabling the meter to perform autonomous local control of utility delivery based on pre-received usage limits. The meter compares actual usage against stored limits and interrupts delivery locally when limits are reached, without requiring real-time network communication, thus making the system reliable during network outages.
3Speed
If the meter autonomously interrupts utility delivery upon balance exhaustion, then immediate control is achieved, but the system requires the meter to be capable of financial transactions which increases cost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the financial transaction processing capability from the meter and relocates it to the server. The meter only performs simple comparisons between usage and pre-calculated limits, while all financial calculations, rate applications, and balance management are handled by the server, reducing meter complexity while maintaining fast local control.
Solution Approach 2:
The server performs preliminary financial calculations and determines usage limits before communicating with the meter. This allows the meter to autonomously enforce delivery control based on pre-determined limits without needing to perform complex financial transactions locally, achieving fast control with simplified meter functionality.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for controlling prepaid delivery of utilities includes a utility meter with a cutoff device for enabling or disabling delivery of a utility; and a server connected to the utility meter via a network. The utility meter receives a usage limit from the server, measures usage of the utility by the load, and when the usage limit is exceeded, activates the cutoff device. The utility meter transmits the measured usage to the server at configurable intervals. The server maintains an account balance associated with the load, receives the measured usage from the utility meter, and decrements the account balance based on the measured usage. When the account balance is exhausted, the server sends a command to activate the cutoff device to the utility meter. Otherwise, the server generates a further usage limit based on the account balance, and sends the further usage limit to the utility meter.