I-Corps: Circuit-Level Electricity Meters

I-Corps项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力集中在利用电路级电力使用数据来识别设备故障，分配能源成本，提高住宅和商业建筑部门的运营效率。通过监测电路级的电力，可以检测到设备何时即将发生故障。通过对多租户设施进行分计量，可以公平地向每位住户收费。通过审计能源使用情况并与其他建筑物进行比较，可以确定提高运营效率或设备效率低下的投资机会。所有这些好处，以及其他许多好处，都源于对用电量的更大的可视性。I-Corps的这个项目涉及一种新型的亚电表，它可以大大降低安装成本和复杂性，这是该技术广泛采用的主要障碍。这些结果在今天是可能的，因为对超低功耗能量收集电路的大量先前研究。这些电路可以实现自供电传感器的工作，卡接式安装降低了安装成本，无需电气关闭，新的校准方法可以联合校准传感器和前端电子设备，以提高整体精度和降低成本，以及一种新的非接触式电压传感方法，可以实现真正的功率测量，而不需要高安装成本和传统电压传感器的安全风险。当对这些新型电力分表产生的数据进行算法分析和处理时，可以识别设备故障，分配能源成本，检测低效运行，降低高电网需求。该解决方案解决了关键的准确性、成本和部署挑战，填补了电力分计量行业的重要空白。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is focused on the substantial opportunity to utilize circuit-level electricity usage data to identify equipment faults, allocate energy costs, and increase operating efficiency in the residential and commercial building sectors. By monitoring electricity at the circuit level, it is possible to detect when equipment is about to malfunction. By sub-metering electricity in multi-tenant facilities, it is possible to fairly charge each occupant. By auditing energy use and benchmarking against other buildings, it is possible to identify investment opportunities that increase operating efficiency or equipment inefficiencies. All of these benefits, as well as many others, stem from greater visibility into electricity usage.This I-Corps project concerns a new type of electricity sub-meter that dramatically reduces installation cost and complexity, the main impediments to greater adoption of the technology. These results are possible today because of substantial prior research into ultra-low power energy-harvesting circuits. These circuits enable self-powered sensor operation, clip-on installation that reduces installation cost and eliminates the need for electrical shutdowns, new calibration methods that can jointly calibrate the sensors and front-end electronics for better overall accuracy and lower cost, and a novel method of non-contact voltage sensing that allows true power measurement without high installation cost and safety risks of conventional voltage sensors. When the data that these new types of electricity sub-meters generate are analyzed and processed by algorithms, it is possible to identify equipment faults, allocate energy costs, detect inefficient operations, and reduce high grid demand. This solution addresses key accuracy, cost, and deployment challenges, filling an important gap in the electricity sub-metering industry.