A device, a method and a system for monitoring an electrical connection status of a disconnector device are disclosed. The disconnector device is connectable to pole-mounted equipment in a power distribution or transmission grid, thereby disconnecting the pole-mounted equipment. The connection status monitoring device includes a determining section configured to determine whether the disconnector device has been activated and to generate connection status indicator data, indicative of whether the disconnector device has been activated. The determining section further includes a wireless communication section which is adapted to connect to a wireless communication infrastructure using a wireless communication protocol, and to transmit the connection status indicator data over the wireless communication infrastructure.

A method for designing a distributed communication topology of a micro-grid based on network mirroring and global propagation rates includes the following steps: first, determining the communication connectivity of distributed directed networks in the micro-grid; next, obtaining, for connected directed communication networks, mirror networks thereof based on a mirroring operation, and selecting an optimal distributed directed communication topology corresponding to a maximum performance indicator based on algebraic connectivity and communication costs; solving, for the optimized distributed communication topology, pinned distributed generation sets corresponding to different pinning numbers based on global propagation rates and out-degrees; and finally, establishing a distributed secondary voltage control of the micro-grid based on the optimal distributed communication network and pinned nodes of the micro-grid, to achieve accurate reactive power sharing and average voltage restoration.

A power distribution network monitoring system includes a plurality of measuring instruments that are installed at predetermined positions on power lines constituting a power distribution network and configured to perform electrical measurement of the power lines; a data collection relay configured to receive data related to measurement results from the plurality of measuring instruments; an imaging unit that is disposed near the data collection relay and configured to capture an image including the data collection relay; an abnormality detector configured to use the image captured by the imaging unit to detect an abnormality in the data collection relay; and a storage unit configured to store image data taken by the imaging unit. The image data consists of a single image previously captured by the imaging unit. The abnormality detector compares the latest image captured by the imaging unit and the image data stored by the storage unit and determines whether or not an appearance of the data collection relay changes. If it is determined that there is no change in the appearance of the data collection relay, the image data in the storage unit is updated with the latest image captured by the imaging unit.

Systems and methods to disconnect a faulted region of a power grid are described. For example, a control system may obtain a set of regions of a power grid. The control system may obtain a current magnitude and a voltage magnitude of the power grid. The control system may detect a fault in the power grid based at least in part on the current magnitude. The control system may, from the set of regions, determine a faulted region that the fault is located within based on a voltage magnitude of one or more buses in the power grid, a net change in power with respect to time of one or more regions in the set of regions, or both. The control system may send one or more signals to electrically disconnect the faulted region from the power grid.

An electrical power distribution system configured to automatically regulate one or more Voltage/VAR control devices for optimization of one or more user defined metrics in an alternating current (AC) electrical power distribution system that includes one or more power distribution lines configured to transmit AC electrical power between a substation and a plurality of loads, each power distribution line including one or more Voltage/VAR control devices configured to regulate voltage and reactive power of the AC electrical power on the power distribution line according to an operational setting for each of the one or more Voltage/VAR control devices and one or more sensors configured to sense a sensed quality of the AC electrical power on the one or more power distribution lines with at least one communication network communicating with the one or more Voltage/VAR control devices and the one or more sensors.

A control system (300) allows recognized standard premise electrical outlets, for example NEMA, CEE and BS, among others to be remotely monitored and/or controlled, for example, to intelligently execute blackouts or brownouts or to otherwise remotely control electrical devices. The system (300) includes a number of smart receptacles (302) that communicate with a local controller (304), e.g., via power lines using the TCP/IP protocol. The local controller (304), in turn, communicates with a remote controller (308) via the internet.

A method and apparatus for analyzing power devices in a circuit are disclosed. In one embodiment, a power analysis apparatus analyzes information on power supplied to the circuit and classifies the power patterns into groups of their own similar power patterns by making reference to the information on the power patterns, so as to acquire at least one piece of motif information which is information on at least one fingerprint. The apparatus further counts the frequency of occurrence of each motif and determines a pair of specific motifs having the difference between the counted frequencies of occurrence, which is within a predetermined value range, and average power variation values symmetrical to each other, whereby an accurate determination can be made as to the individual power devices in the circuit.

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 energy storage system includes a plurality of physical devices and an integration engine. The physical devices include at least a battery and a power inverter operable to charge and discharge the battery. Each of the physical devices stores one or more data points. The integration engine includes a processing circuit having a processor and memory. The memory stores a virtual device network including a plurality of virtual devices and a virtual device manager. Each of the virtual devices includes one or more attributes. The virtual device manager is configured to map the attributes of the virtual devices to corresponding data points stored by the physical devices and update the attributes of the virtual devices in response to detecting changes in value of the corresponding data points stored by the physical devices.

A method recognizes topology in low-voltage networks including local substations each having a plurality of output lines connected to a controllable electrical resource, and a control apparatus of each local substation. The method uses a computer arrangement assigning resources to the control apparatuses based on geographical proximity, selecting an assigned resource, transmitting a test control command specific to the selected resource from the control apparatus to the assigned resources, the test control command configured to trigger a change in power consumption or power output of the selected resource, measuring a change in an electrical variable on the output lines of the local substation by using a measuring apparatus, and assigning the selected electrical resource to that output line of that local substation on which a correlation between test control command and change is recognized. An arrangement for recognizing a topology in a low-voltage network is also provided.