When a poor meter to socket connection occurs, there is the potential for arcing to develop which can result in a hot socket and a fire. Disclosed herein are methods for a meter to detect the occurrence of an arc condition in the socket by analyzing the RF noise on the channels of the communication spectrum used by the meter to communicate within its metering system. For example, by keeping a record of the normal background noise and looking for a broadband increase in the noise on all channels, arc detection can be achieved. Meter quantities such as temperature, current, voltage, and harmonic content may also be used in a standalone manner or in combination with broadband RF noise to detect an arc condition. A disconnect switch within the meter can be opened to remove the arc fault.

The invention relates to an electric meter (1) for measuring the electric consumption of an electric load (R.sub.LOAD), in particular while charging an electric vehicle. The electric meter according to the invention has a current measuring device (11) in order to measure a charging current (I.sub.LOAD) which flows through a charging cable (7) to a transfer point (9, 10) for the load (R.sub.LOAD), wherein the transfer point (9, 10) is preferably located in a plug (8) of the charging cable (7). Furthermore, the electric meter (1) according to the invention includes a voltage measuring device (12) for measuring a voltage. According to the invention, the voltage measuring device (12) measures the voltage directly at the transfer point (9, 10) of the charging cable (7) in order to determine line losses in the charging cable (7), in particular in order to take into consideration the line losses when calculating the consumption.

The present invention provides a method for obtaining information from a utility meter, the method comprising steps of directing emitted radiation on to a rotating element of the utility meter, receiving incident radiation, the incident radiation comprising reflected radiation from a reflective surface of the rotating element, the reflective surface having a marker, determining an instant value of intensity of the incident radiation, determining a reference value from earlier ones of the determined values of the intensity of the incident radiation and detecting passing of the marker, as a function of the reference value and the instant value.

A system that detects temperature and current events in a power grid is provided. The system includes at least one sensor associated with an electric meter; a plurality of bus bars connected to the electric meter; at least one temperature sensor uniquely associated with each of the plurality of bus bars; and at least one current sensor uniquely associated with each of the plurality of bus bars. The system detects a plurality of temperatures and/or currents and compares the detected plurality of temperatures and/or currents to expected thresholds or threshold ranges for temperatures and/or currents in the system to provide a comparison result and determines if a notification related to temperature and/or current events in the system should be sent based on the comparison result.

An abnormality prompting method and an intelligent socket (30) are provided. Prompting is performed when a home appliance runs abnormally by means of the intelligent socket (30). The method includes: the intelligent socket (30) receives a state message from a first home appliance (S202), and the state message includes indication information used for indicating a current working mode of the first home appliance; the intelligent socket (30) obtains an actual value of a working parameter of the first home appliance (S203); the intelligent socket (30) determines a working state of the first home appliance according to the actual value of the working parameter and a maximum value of the working parameter allowed by the working mode (S204); when determining that the working state of the first home appliance is an abnormal state, the intelligent socket (30) outputs a prompt message (S205).

An electric energy meter includes a plurality of first terminals for receiving a measure of current of each of one or more phases of power and a plurality of second terminals for receiving a measure of voltage of each of one or more phases of power. A controller is configured to analyze the measure of current and the measure of voltage of each of the one or more phases of power in order to detect power quality issues in one or more of the one or more phases of power. For each of the detected power quality issues, the controller is configured to determine whether the detected power quality issue is caused by a utility generating the power or a consumer consuming the power and to communicate a message indicating the detected power quality issues via a communications port operably coupled to the controller.

A utility meter includes: a rectifier configured to rectify AC voltage from a power grid to generate a primary DC voltage supply; and a primary holdup circuitry, including: first capacitors coupled to a primary DC voltage rail and configured to store energy from the primary voltage supply; a switch coupled to the first capacitors; and a control circuit configured to control the primary holdup circuitry, wherein the control circuit is configured to: determine that a secondary DC voltage of a secondary voltage supply is approximately equal to a first specified threshold voltage; and generate a control signal to causes the switch to turn on and cause the one or more first capacitors to release a portion of the energy stored in the one or more first capacitors to the primary DC voltage rail.

Provided is a missing data correction method and apparatus, and more particularly, a missing data correction method that estimates missing power and energy from an electricity meter in consideration of a case in which power data and energy data collected from the electricity meter are missing and generates continuous power data according to the estimated power and energy.

A power monitoring device (PMD) can perform real-time remote managing, status reporting and analysis on the health/condition of equipment connected to the PMD. For example, a PMD provides data such as whether the equipment connected is idling, fully operating, malfunctioning, etc. The PMD can turn the power on/off, trigger system alert, and perform time-delayed or special profile programming to manage and monitor equipment usage. A power signature identification capability can identify what equipment such as monitor, laptop, lighting equipment, etc., are being connected. A configuration can be used by the power management device based at least in part on the waveform information (e.g., device model, activity status, etc.). Real-time diagnosis and collection of energy consumption and usage pattern can be aggregated for planning and management. Asset management can be enabled by discovering which models of devices are active and connected to a predetermined power management device.

A method identifies a duration of power interruptions in an electrical monitoring system. The method includes receiving, with an external monitoring system, a load profile from an electric meter that includes at least one of an accumulated frequency measurement and an accumulated number of zero crossing events that the electric meter records in an AC power signal during a predetermined monitoring period, and identifying a total duration of at least one power interruption during the predetermined monitoring period based on at least one of a deviation of the accumulated frequency measurement in the load profile from a predetermined accumulated frequency value or a deviation of the accumulated number of zero crossing events in the load profile from a predetermined number of zero crossing events during the predetermined monitoring period.