In accordance with an embodiment, a circuit includes: a supply pin and an output pin for connecting a load, and a configuration pin; a semiconductor switch connected between the supply pin and the output pin and configured to establish or to block a current path between the supply pin and the output pin depending on a control signal; and a control circuit configured to generate the control signal for the semiconductor switch taking account of a first parameter, and set the first parameter depending on a component parameter of an external component connected to the configuration pin. The first parameter is set to a first standard value when the component parameter is less than a first threshold value, and the first parameter is set to a second standard value when the component parameter is greater than a second threshold value.

Method for monitoring and controlling current distribution in load circuits of an installation control system of a technical installation, wherein a predetermined and constant output voltage is provided by a clocked power supply and distributed to the load circuits, where load circuits are protected by a switch actuated by a controller, a variation of the current in each load circuit is measured during a learning phase, a significant current profile with an associated tolerance range is derived and associated with the respective load circuit from the measured current variation which is continuously monitored by the control unit and a check is performed to determine whether a power capacity limit is reached by the clocked power supply while operate the installation, and the current consumed load circuits is reduced and/or switched off by actuating switches in load circuits in which a current variation exceeds an upper limit of the tolerance range.

Methods and apparatus to implement safety applications associated with process control systems are disclosed. An apparatus includes a configuration controller to: provide a plurality of available safety applications for implementation by a safety trip device to a user for selection, a first one of the safety applications associated with a first set of I/O signals, a second one of the safety applications associated with a second set of I/O signals, the first safety application implemented based on first pre-programmed instructions stored in memory of the safety trip device, the second safety application implemented based on second pre-programmed instructions stored in the memory; and, in response to a user selection of the first safety application, prompt the user to specify values for configuration settings associated with the first safety application. The apparatus also includes an I/O analyzer to implement the first safety application.

An example computing system may include computer module bays, a power subsystem to supply power to computer modules installed in the computer module bays, and a system controller. The power subsystem may also implement overcurrent protection (OCP) based on an OCP threshold parameter. The system controller may include dynamic OCP adjustment logic that repeatedly updates the OCP threshold parameter during normal operation of the computing system. The dynamic OCP adjustment logic may update the OCP threshold parameter by determining a power requirement of the computing system based on a current configuration of the computing system, determining a new OCP threshold based on the power requirement, and instructing the power subsystem to change a value of the OCP threshold parameter to a new value based on the new OCP threshold.

An electrical wiring device including: a plurality of line terminals comprising a line-side phase terminal and a line-side neutral terminal; a plurality of load terminals comprising a load-side phase terminal and a load-side neutral terminal; a line conductor electrically coupling the line-side phase terminal to the load-side phase terminal; a neutral conductor electrically coupling the line-side neutral terminal to the load-side neutral terminal; and a controller configured to trigger a trip mechanism to electrically decouple the at least one of the plurality of line terminals from at least one of the plurality of load terminals based, at least in part, on comparing a magnitude of the current differential to a threshold, wherein the threshold is a function of the frequency of the current differential.

A system and method for protecting an electric power distribution system integrated with a hybrid machine-learning model includes a plurality of field protection systems, a plurality of electrical switching circuits, and a local area network. Data from each of the plurality of field protection systems that is connected to the electrical switching circuits that are configured for protecting the electric power distribution system, is transmitted to the cloud. The received data is processed to identify a change in patterns and compute an error related to the HMLM in comparison with the processed data. The HMLM that is implemented in the plurality of FPS is calibrated to minimize the error and send updates to develop a new decision making firmware thereby to control actuation of the plurality of the electrical switching circuits.

Embodiments provide an Energy Reduction Maintenance Setting (ERMS) key that includes a data connector configured to communicatively couple to a data port of a target device. The ERMS key further includes an illumination device and an actuator mechanism having a base positional state and an actuated positional state. The ERMS key includes logic configured to, upon detecting the actuator mechanism has moved from the base positional state to the actuated positional state, generate and transmit a first data message to the target device through the data connector instructing the target device to enter a protected mode. The logic is further configured to, upon receiving a second data message from the target device over the data connector acknowledging that the target device as successfully entered the protected mode, cause the illumination device to illuminate.

Systems and methods are described herein to accommodate different settings associated with a converter-based electric power generator and an inverter-based electric power generator for electric power generation within an electric power delivery system. The electric power delivery system may provide electric power generated by a bulk electric system to the loads via distributed substations using a first operating frequency. Moreover, the distributed substations may include inverter-based electric power generators to supply the electric power demand of downstream loads in an islanded configuration. That said, the inverter-based electric power generators may supply the electric power using a second frequency that is higher than the first frequency. Protective systems, positioned downstream from the distributed substations, may use different settings associated with the bulk electric system or the inverter-based electric power generators based on detecting the frequency of the supplied electric power.

A photovoltaic array of photovoltaic solar cells; a smart dynamic programmable circuit breaker for electrically providing a pulsed 100 microseconds duration short circuit to the photovoltaic array electrical outputs, wherein a response time for the smart dynamic programmable circuit breaker is more than 1 millisecond when responding to a short circuit; a computer program comprising instructions that when executed by the processor perform functions that control the smart dynamic programmable circuit breaker, the computer program comprising: instructions to command the smart dynamic programmable circuit breaker to initiate the 100 microsecond pulsed short circuit; instructions to measure a current magnitude and current rise time of the smart photovoltaic system outputs during the 100 microsecond pulsed short circuit; and instructions to select a behavior curve from a plurality of smart dynamic programmable circuit breaker behavior curves 10% above the current magnitude and current rise time during the pulsed short circuit.

Provided by the present invention is a current overload protection apparatus. The apparatus comprises a current measuring device and a control module; the current measuring device is used to measure a current value on a current path; the control module is electrically connected to the current measuring device, and stores current threshold data; the current threshold data comprises a plurality of time intervals respectively corresponding to disconnection threshold values; the earlier the time corresponding to a plurality of time intervals, the larger the disconnection threshold value corresponding thereto; and the control module is used to receive and collect current signals within a specified time length so as to calculate the current value of the current path, and determine whether the current value is greater than or equal to the disconnection threshold values, and if so, then an overload protection step is performed to protect the load from current overload.