OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to an energy management device. More
particularly, the invention relates to energy management via a smart energy monitoring and
control device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Electricity is one of the most wonderful discoveries done by human so far. This
can be realized from the fact that electricity has now become a necessity in everyday life, we
require electricity for most of the daily activities performed. Apart from electricity production
and its usage another important aspect is energy management. Energy management can be
broadly classified as process of monitoring, controlling, and conserving energy. For the purpose
of energy management every house, small factory, business establishment, shops, offices etc.
need at least one energy meter to register their power consumption. On the basis of the power
consumption registered by the energy meter the electricity suppliers raise the bill.
[0003] Further, in order to perform energy management one has to find opportunities to
save energy, and estimate how much energy each opportunity could save. For this we need to
analyze our meter data to find and quantify routine energy waste, and might also investigate the
energy savings that can be made by replacing equipment (e.g. lighting) or by upgrading our
building's insulation. So in order to monitor, control, and conserve energy one need to have
energy meters with smart enough hardware to perform energy management. To fulfill the
requirement of energy meter for better energy management the technology of energy meters has
been rapidly changing, starting from electromechanical meters to the programmable electronic
meters present nowadays. Despite of the rapid advancement in the technology in energy meters
many new electronic meters provide limited diagnostic and/ or power quality testing.
[0004] Thus, there exists a need for smart energy monitoring and control device that
includes user authentication, communication facilities with the server and control panels all
equipped under a single hardware.
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SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
[0005] In an aspect the present invention relates to, a smart energy monitoring and
control device including a distribution plug configured with a unique ID tag. The unique ID tag
may be configured to communicate with a distribution socket. The distribution socket may
further include a user authentication hardware, wherein the user authentication hardware may be
configured to read the unique ID tag associated to the distribution plug. The distribution socket
further includes a communication hardware to communicate wirelessly to a remote server and a
display unit, an energy metering hardware designed to read and record energy consumption and a
power disconnection hardware.
[0006] In yet an aspect the present invention relates to, the distribution socket that may
include a RFID reader for reading the unique ID tag associated to the distribution plug.
[0007] In still an aspect the present invention relates to, the communication hardware
wherein the communication hardware may be configured to communicate with remote server and
display unit via one of GPRS and CDMA network.
[0008] In yet another aspect the present invention relates to, the energy metering
hardware configured to communicate with the server and display unit at the user premises.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
[0009] The features of the present invention are set forth with particularity in the
appended claims. The invention itself, together with further features and attended advantages,
will become apparent from consideration of the following detailed description, taken in
conjunction with the accompanying drawings. One or more embodiments of the present
invention are now described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanied
drawings wherein like reference numerals represent like elements and in which:
[0010] Figure 1, illustrates an overview of a smart energy monitoring and control device,
according to various embodiments.
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[0011] Figure 2, illustrates a hardware block diagram of a distribution socket assembly,
according to various embodiments.
[0012] Figure 3(a) illustrates the front view of a distribution socket in a closed position,
according to various embodiments.
[0013] Figure 3(b) illustrates the front view of a distribution socket in an open position,
according to various embodiments.
[0014] Figure 4 illustrates side view of a distribution socket, according to various
embodiments.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:
[0015] While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms,
specific embodiment thereof has been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be
described in detail below. It should be understood, however that it is not intended to limit the
invention to the particular forms disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all
modifications, equivalents, and alternative falling within the spirit and the scope of the invention
as defined by the appended claims.
[0019] Before describing in detail embodiments it may be observed that the novelty and
inventive step that are in accordance with the present invention reside in the construction of the
structure of smart energy monitoring and control device accordingly, the drawings are showing
only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present
invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of
ordinary skill in the art having benefit of the description herein.
[0020] The terms “comprises”, “comprising”, or any other variations thereof, are
intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a setup, device that comprises a list of
components does not include only those components but may include other components not
expressly listed or inherent to such setup or device. In other words, one or more elements in a
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system or apparatus proceeded by “comprises… a” does not, without more constraints, preclude
the existence of other elements or additional elements in the system or apparatus.
[0021] As shown in the figure 1, a smart energy monitoring and control device 100 may
be configured to include a distribution box 102. The distribution box 102 may be designed using
embedded electronic circuits 104, wherein the embedded electronic unit 104 may be configured
to perform at least one of metering, user authentication, bidirectional communication, control
and like functions. In order to perform metering, user authentication, bidirectional
communication, control and like functions the embedded electronic circuit 104 is designed to
accompany incoming line 108 from an electric pole. Further the distribution box 102 may
include a plurality of distributed socket 106, wherein the socket 106 may be designed to support
a plurality of outgoing lines 110. The plurality of outgoing lines 110 may be attached to the
distribution socket 106 to carry regulated voltage to a consumer.
[0022] In accordance with fig 1, the smart energy monitoring and control device 100 is
designed using the embedded electronic system configured with GPRS & ZigBee facility to
carry out at least one of communication with the server, control and like function . In an
embodiment, the smart energy monitoring and control device 100 may be used for one of single
phase and 3 phase supply. For the distribution of single phase and three phase supply the
distribution socket 106 may include a unique ID reader (not shown in the fig.). The unique ID
reader may be designed to read a 64 bit unique ID. In an example, the distribution socket 106
may be referred as intelligent distribution socket. Further the smart energy monitoring and
control device 100 may include a plurality of distribution plug (not shown in the fig.). The
distribution plug (not shown) may be configured to be connected to the distribution socket 106.
In order to maintain the user authentication each distribution plug (not shown) may contain a
unique electronic ID which may be read by the distribution socket 106 when connected to each
other. Each distribution plug (not shown) may contain a unique 64 bit ID that may be read by
the distribution socket 106 when connected. Once the unique ID is read by the distribution
socket 106 it communicates the unique ID to a server (not shown) to validate the distribution
plug thus keeping a record of user consumption. Once validated and allowed by the server,
power may than be connected to the distribution plug through a relay (not shown in the fig.) by
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the distribution socket 106. In an example, without distribution plug (not shown), the power may
not be available in the distribution socket 106 as the relay may be set as default off.
[0023] In particular, the relay will be ON only after the server validation of the
distribution plug (not shown). The distribution plug may be issued by the utility and crimped on
to the distribution cable going to the consumer. The distribution plug may act as a unique
identifier of each consumer and the consumption record is maintained by the ID.
[0024] Fig 2 illustrates a distribution socket assembly 200 in combination with a
distribution plug 212 Further the distribution socket assembly 200 may be configured to include
an energy metering hardware 202, a user authentication hardware 204, a communication
hardware 206, a power disconnection hardware 208 and a wireless display hardware 210.
[0025] The distribution socket assembly 200 comprises a plurality of programmable
hardware’s, one of such is energy metering hardware 202. The energy metering hardware 202
includes an energy metering circuit designed using ASIC/microcontroller to record the energy
consumption in a memory. The energy metering hardware 202 may be composed of ADE5169
with 8052 Microcontroller Unit (MCU) along with Real Time Clock (RTC), and Liquid Crystal
Display (LCD), wherein LCD is an electronic display module used to display the output. The
ADE5169 used inside the energy metering hardware 202 is the single phase energy measurement
integrated circuit (IC). The IC used in the energy metering hardware may be configured to
calculate active, reactive and apparent energy, further it may be configured to measure voltage
and current RMS (root mean square) measurements. In an embodiment, the energy metering
hardware 202 is configured to read and record energy consumptions.
[0026] The distribution socket assembly 200 may include the user authentication
hardware 204 to reduce incidents of theft through electric meters. The user authentication
hardware 204 may be designed incorporating RFID (radio frequency identification device)
technology. Radio-frequency identification is the wireless non-contact use of radio-frequency
electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking
tags attached to the objects. The distribution socket 106 of the distribution socket assembly 200
may be configured to include RFID readers, wherein the RFID readers may be designed to
transmit electromagnetic waves to the distribution plug 212. The electromagnetic waves
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transmitted by the RFID reader of the distribution socket 106 may be used to energize and read
the unique passive ID tag located inside the distribution plug 212. The distribution plug 212may
be an outlet through which power is transmitted to the user. The distribution plug 212 includes
the RFID passive tag/ 1-wire ID inside it to give it a unique identity. In an embodiment, the
distribution plug 212 is connected to the distribution socket 106, wherein the distribution socket
106 may read the tag ID associated to with distribution plug 112 via RFID reader. Once, the
unique ID associated with the distribution plug 212 is read it may be communicated to the
microcontroller in the user authentication system 204. In an embodiment, the user
authentication hardware 204 may be configured to read the unique ID tag associated to the
distribution plug 212. Specifically in an embodiment, the distribution socket 106 may include an
RFID reader for reading the unique ID tag associated to the distribution plug 212.
[0027] The unique ID tag may than be communicated to a remote server through the
communication hardware 206. The communication hardware 206 may be configured to
communicate bi-directionally between the distribution socket 106, remote server (not shown) and
display unit 210. In an embodiment, the communication hardware 206 may be configured to
communicate the unique ID from the individual distribution socket 106 present in the
distribution box 102 to the remote server (not shown). Specifically in an embodiment, the
communication hardware 206 may include one of long range GPRS and CDMA network to
communicate unique ID from distribution socket 206 to remote server (not shown) wirelessly.
Further the communication hardware 206 may be configured to transmit energy consumption
information wirelessly to wireless display hardware 210. In an example, the energy consumption
information may be transmitted wirelessly to the wireless display hardware 210 via low power
radio frequency signals. To record energy consumption, the distribution socket assembly 200
may be configured to be in online contact with the remote server (not shown). In an
embodiment, the communication hardware 206 is in direct communication on TCP/IP port with
the remote server (not shown) through GPRS modem. Specifically in an embodiment, the
communication hardware 206 may include GPRS modem communicating with microcontroller
on USART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter). A Universal Asynchronous
Receiver/Transmitter is a piece of computer hardware that translates data between parallel
and serial forms.
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[0028] In addition the distribution socket assembly 200 may be configured to avoid
unnecessary wastage of energy through the power disconnection hardware 208. The power
disconnection hardware 208 may be configured with artificial intelligence, wherein the power
may be disconnected from the distribution socket 106 when not in use. In an embodiment, the
power disconnection hardware 208 uses a solid state electromagnetic relay to disconnect power.
Specifically in an embodiment, the solid state electromagnetic relay in combination with a
current driver circuit may be used for the purpose of power disconnection. Further the current
driver circuit is to be controlled by the microcontroller installed in the embedded electronic unit
104.
[0029] Fig. 3(a) -3(b). represents perspective view of distribution socket 300.
Specifically in an embodiment, fig 3(a) discloses a distribution socket 300 in closed position and
fig 3(b) discloses distribution socket 300 in open position. The distribution socket 300 may be
configured to include a main body 302 and a covering plate 304. The main body 302 may
remain attached to the distribution box 102, wherein the covering plate 304 may be configured to
cover the main body 302 when not in use. In an example, the distribution socket 300 may
configured to engage the distribution plug 212.
[0030] Fig. 4 discloses a perspective view of a distribution plug 400. The distribution
plug 400 may be configured to deliver power to the end user. In an embodiment, the distribution
plug 400 may include an RFID tag or a 1-wire ID inside it to give it a unique identity.
Specifically in an embodiment, the unique identity of the distribution plug 400 may be related
with the user identification and the power consumption associated to it at the server end (not
shown). The distribution plug 400 may be configured to include 5-pin, in order to carry 230V,
25-40A pin current. The distribution plug 400 may carry DS2433 as unique ID, single phase and
neutral connections. The distribution plug 400 once plugged in socket 300 may allow the MCU
to read the unique ID and validate the same from server before connecting power supply to the
outlet pins.

WE CLAIM:
1. A smart energy monitoring and control device comprising:
a distribution plug configured with a unique ID tag to communicate with;
a distribution socket, wherein the distribution socket further comprising:
a user authentication hardware configured to read the unique ID tag
associated to the distribution plug;
a communication hardware configured to wirelessly communicate to a
remote server and a display unit;
an energy metering hardware designed to read and record energy
consumption and;
a power disconnection hardware.
2. The smart energy monitoring and control device of claim 1, wherein the distribution
socket includes a RFID reader for reading the unique ID tag associated to the distribution
plug.
3. The smart energy monitoring and control device of claim 1, wherein the communication
hardware is configured to communicate with remote server and display unit via one of
GPRS and CDMA network.
4. The smart energy monitoring and control device of claim 1, wherein the energy metering
hardware is configured to communicate with the server and display unit at the user
premises.