A control and monitoring device integrated in an intermediary coupling unit, said intermediary coupling unit being configured to couple an electrical appliance to a power supply, said control and monitoring device comprising a control module configured to change a status of the electrical appliance; a sensor configured to monitor a condition of said electrical appliance and/or an environment thereof; and a processor configured to instruct the control module to change a status of the electrical appliance based on an output of the sensor. Complementary devices and methods of operating such devices are also presented herein.

A communication-based permissive protection method for protecting an electrical power distribution network from a fault. The network includes a power source, an electrical line and a plurality of fault interrupters, where the fault interrupters are operable to prevent current flow in response to the fault. The method includes detecting the fault by each fault interrupter that is between the fault and the power source, and sending a drop of voltage message from each fault interrupter that doesn't detect the fault, but does detect a drop of voltage as a result of the fault to its immediate upstream fault interrupter. The method opens the fault interrupter that both detects the fault and receives a drop of voltage message from all of the fault interrupters immediately downstream of that fault interrupter.

A system and related methods configured to embed information into the blockchain of a mined crypto-currency. The system generally comprises a receiver attached to a crypto-currency mining device, that is in communication with a transmitter connected to a power grid or a power generator that can take information relating to the power grid or the energy production and transmit it to the receiver. The receiver will then send the information to the crypto-currency mining device to embed it into the blockchain of a mined crypto-currency. The receiver and transmitter can also take the information together with pre-defined conditions in order to determine if crypto-currency is suitable to be mined.

An offshore oil and gas platform has a power supply system with a cascaded arrangement for a black start. The power supply system includes a first power supply apparatus for providing power at a first energy level, an uninterruptible power supply arrangement configured to receive power from the first power supply apparatus, wherein the uninterruptible power supply is for powering at least one essential and/or safety critical component, and a second power supply apparatus for providing power at a second energy level to a main power distribution system, wherein the second energy level is higher than the first energy level, wherein the second power supply apparatus includes a power source and a high-power energy storage system capable of supplying power at the second energy level, and wherein the second power supply apparatus can receive and store energy from the first power supply apparatus.

The power information management device is directly or indirectly connected to a communication network and is provided with: wiring that transmits power; a power measurement unit that measures an amount and a direction of the power transmitted through the wiring; a power information generation unit that generates, on a predetermined period basis, power information that represents the amount and the direction of the power measured by the power measurement unit; and a communication unit that transmits the power information to the communication network, wherein a load unit, a power generation unit and a power storage unit are directly or indirectly connectable to the wiring.

A method/system is provided for estimating distribution system conditions in a low-voltage network having local nodes, the local nodes including distributed energy resources. The method includes: acquiring periodic measurements of periodic node voltages and/or branch currents from nodes, the measurements acquired with fixed time intervals; acquiring event-driven measurements of event-driven data based on node voltages and/or branch currents from the energy resources and/or other event-driven data sources, the measurements acquired when a power operating point and/or other measured quantity changes exceed a predefined threshold; in a primary process, executing a distribution system state estimation based on a data set including the periodic measurements; in a secondary process, estimating impacts on the node voltages and/or branch currents in local nodes based on the event-driven measurements; wherein the estimated impacts on node voltages and/or branch currents in local nodes from the secondary process update the data set in the primary process.

A multi-layer architecture for control of distributed energy resources (DER) includes a forecasting and optimization system and one or more site-level controllers. The forecasting and optimization system generates predictions of optimal set points and communicate the optimal set points to a site-level controller. The site-level controller includes stored instructions that, when executed, direct the site-level controller to perform a boundary check and a real-time static economic dispatch, which can include steps of receiving optimal set points from the forecasting and optimization system; comparing received optimal set points with local conditions; outputting dispatch commands for DER control according to the optimal set points when the optimal set points are within appropriate limits with respect to the local conditions; and when the optimal set points exceed the appropriate limits, generating adjusted dispatch commands and outputting the adjusted dispatch commands for the DER control.

An automatic transfer switch (100) for automatically switching an electrical load between two power sources is provided. Two power cords (106) enter the ATS (A power and B power inputs) and one cord (109) exits the ATS (power out to the load). The ATS has indicators (107) located beneath a clear crenelated plastic lens (108) that also acts as the air inlets. The ATS (100) also has a communication portal (103) and a small push-button (104) used for inputting some local control commands directly to the ATS (100). The ATS (100) can be mounted on a DIN rail at a rack and avoids occupying rack shelves.

Methods and systems are provided for managing environmental conditions and energy usage associated with a site. One exemplary method of regulating an environment condition at a site involves a server receiving environmental measurement data from a monitoring system at the site via a network, determining an action for an electrical appliance at the site based at least in part on the environmental measurement data and one or more monitoring rules associated with the site, and providing an indication of the action to an actuator for the electrical appliance.

A power management system includes a facility including an adjustment power supply to which feed-in tariff is applied. The power management system includes an equipment management apparatus that manages the adjustment power supply, and a power management server that manages a reverse power flow output from the facility to a power grid. The equipment management apparatus includes a transmitter transmitting, to the power management server, a message including an information element with which an expiration timing of a period to which the feed-in tariff is applied is allowed to be specified.