Demand reporting of electricity consumption by radio in relays to a base station, and demand relays wattmeters so reporting over a wide area

摘要

A great number (typically over 1 million) radio-communicating monitors of electricity consumption (typically all-electronic computerized wattmeters) distributed over a large geographical area (typically over 4500 square miles) communicate over radio frequency band (typically V.H.F. band at a one of three different frequencies) to multiple (typically over 45) regional central stations. Communication both to and from distant monitors is multi-path multi-link radio through intervening monitors, commonly located each in an associated annular concentric ring centered about a regional central station. Individual monitors from 0 to typically 5.64 miles distance from regional central stations are individually interrogated of typically 25 bytes information in typically up to 5 relays both outgoing and incoming during a time interval of up to typically 9.78 seconds at data transfer rates of typically 6 kbaud/second. Some 1.2 million monitors, called "demand relay meters" can typically be read out in 55 hours. Any individual demand relay meter can be accessed for instantaneous electrical consumption, and well as a demand profile history, for load monitoring and for load- sensitive billing purposes.