Computerized utility cost estimation method and system

• US 20030009401A1
• Filed: 04/29/2002
• Published: 01/09/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2001
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Enerwise Global Technologies, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Enerwise Global Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Ellis, David D.
• Application Number:
  US10/133,640
• Publication Number:
  US 20030009401A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/35
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/90 Financial instruments for climate change mitigation, e.g. environmental taxes, subsidies or financing

Abstract

The invention provides a method, system, and computer program device for cost estimation relating to utility usage and utility billing. Utility information concerning usage of utilities is collected, and a report is provided of actual and/or estimated usage and/or cost of utility resources. Information is stored relating to customers, one or more utilities relating to the customer, as well as a variety of rules that may be applied by the utilities for the customers, depending on various situations, in determining the utility information and the costs thereof. Measurement related information and/or estimate related information is collected, representative of the utility usage and the estimated usage by the customer(s). A user may selected one or more preferences representative of a variable, which are utilized in generating the utility information for the user. The report is based on utility information relating to the customer, the preference for the variable(s), and the measurement related or estimate related information for the customer. A report is displayed, representative of the utility information utilizing the preference for the variable(s).

Claims

1. In a computer-based system for managing utility information responsive to at least one of usage and estimated usage of utility resources, a billing system in an energy management system implemented by a computer system, creating reports that will display a cost estimate of billing charges for a given customer based on usage information including customer tariff and time period, said billing system comprising:

stored information regarding at least one user, at least one utility relating to the at least one user, and a plurality of rules that may be applied by the at least one utility for the at least one user in determining the utility information;

stored measurement related or estimate related information representative of the at least one of the utility usage and the estimated usage by the at least one user;

a web rate module comprising a site abstraction layer and managing substantially all user interface functionality and retrieving data;

a billing calculation module operable with respect to said web rate module, administrating billing charges and calculating the billing charges, and including data objects used in the billing engine, the data objects including;

a billing item object to assign at least one value from one billed item to another, and

a billing engine object including;

a read from file object determining the type of data read and processing the data, an initial period object initializing specified periods and preparing for processing, an and-period object used for joining periods that need to be accessed for a given billing period defined by the user, a not-period object used to filter out periods which will not be applied to the specified billing period specified, a process period expression used to process period information by evaluating operators, a get usage object used to retrieve usage information from the database for the specified period of time and use to calculate an amount to bill for this period of time, calculate bill object used to call the calculation charges method responsible for calculating all charges to a selected bill, a calculation charge object used to calculate all charges for the bill, a get tariff choices object used to accumulate a list of tariffs to be selected, a locate tariff object used to determine a tariff from the tariff list object, a get tariff name object used to determine the tariff name that is to be displayed on the web page, an identify tariff constants object used to determine when the tariff is present, a check charge object used to determine when the tariff listed for a given charge actually exists in the tariff list, an optional dump object used to display all utility, tariff, period and charge information, an evaluate object used to evaluate billing functions provided in the billing engine including bill amount, bill quantity, bill hours, bill history quantity, bill days, and bill history amount, and a calculate historical bill object used to calculate an historical bill;

a utility module storing and operating on utility information accessible to said billing engine object; and

a tariff module storing and operating on tariff information accessible to said billing engine object.

means for selecting at least one preference representative of a variable utilized in generating the utility information for the at least one user;

means for generating the utility information for the at least one user responsive to the at least one preference, the utility information relating to the at least one user, the at least one preference, and the measurement related or estimate related information for the at least one user; and

a display displaying a report representative of the utility information utilizing the at least one preference.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the usage information includes:

utility information comprising wholesaler identification information, utility name information, regulated status information, and service identifier information;

tariff information comprising utility name information, utility regulated name information, rate identifier information, and service identifier information;

period information defining time periods for different utilities with respect to time of year billing periods, time of day billing, day of week billing to define off-peak, mid-peak, and on-peak times, the period information comprising;

utility information, period name information, time zone information, start date/time information, end date/time information, and period qualifier information defining one of not clipped, clipped, end only, or prorate characteristics; and

charge information comprising utility information, tariff information, group information, charge name information, charge period information, time zone information, start date information, end date information, unit information, operation identifier information, minimum level information, maximum level information, amount information including a multiplier in cost per unit, charge qualifier information including at least one of prorate information, average charge level information, and summable information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the unit information comprises kW, kWh, service voltage, kVAR, kVARh, state tax, city tax, timing, phase, excess tform, temperature, gas, water, firm service, air-conditioning cycling, air-conditioning tons, standby kW, limiter tariff, added facilities, and controllable power.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein said billing engine object provides the functionality to reference charges that have been previously listed, including the functions:

bill quantity to determine quantity of units used in the calculation of a previously listed charge;

bill amount to determine a billing amount of the previously listed charge;

bill hours to determine a number of hours used for the calculation of the previously listed charge;

bill days to determine a number of days that apply to a given period;

bill history quantity to determine a quantity of units used in the calculation for the previous period in history; and

bill history amount to determine a billing amount for the previous period in history for a given charge.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the measurement related or estimate related information is acquired remotely from at least one of:

a utility meter, a database of meter information, a periodic reading of a utility meter, and a demand reading of a utility meter.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the utility resource is power characterized by power component information, and wherein the power component information includes real power, apparent power, and reactive power;

and wherein the measurement related or estimate related information comprises at least two of the real power, the apparent power and the reactive power; and

wherein said means for generating (D) generates the utility information including calculated billing information comprising one another of the at least two of the real power, the apparent and the reactive power.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the utility resource is power, and the variables include at least one of time period, site, tariff, state tax, city tax, billing cycle, energy usage, location, and curtailment.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the user comprises at least one of an energy provider and a customer with multiple facilities.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the report includes actual usage, forecast usage and/or cost estimates, responsive to data input by the user;

and wherein the preference reflects at least one of;

location, demand, time shift, curtailment participation, extrapolation of current usage, adjustment of current usage, billing period and tariff.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising an estimated forecast of a utility billing statement, provided to the user responsive to the at least one preference.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the report comprises a plurality of sites, and the report includes a summary corresponding to the plurality of sites.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the report includes at least one line item selected from:

delivery charge, service charge, transmission charge, customer charge, distribution charge, computer transmission charge, environmental fund rate, low income fund rate, and power factor adjustment.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the report has a format resembling a printed billing statement.

14. The system of claim 1, further comprising at least one of components selected from:

estimating cost, reporting exceptions, forecasting cost, benchmarking, providing market prices, and analyzing report information;

wherein said at least one component utilizes at least one of;

the measurement related information, the estimate related information, and the user information.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising information determined, responsive to a user request, reflecting an effect on cost of participation in a curtailment program.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a verification, if the user selected participation in the curtailment program, that the user curtailed.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the measurement related information, the estimate related information, and the user information is stored in at least one table.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the information stored in the at least one table includes at least one of:

peak periods, holidays, bill rates, tariff information, factor information for line items, and billing factor criteria.

19. In an energy management system including retriever means for providing information to a user characteristic of energy consumption patterns, and for using the information to develop at least one optimal energy management strategy, wherein said retriever means further includes the functionality of:

automated energy consumption data retrieval, archiving, and posting;

load data posting;

load analysis and comparison; and

cost estimation based on tariff;

energy analysis means for generating signals to assist the user in implementing a selected energy management strategy, facilitating development of procurement and usage strategies, wherein said energy analysis means further includes the functionality of;

load aggregation;

peak load analysis with trending and benchmarking;

cost estimation including “

what-if”

analysis;

utility bill posting per existing tariff(s); and

automated notification with alarming and paging;

power quality means for monitoring facility electrical disturbances and activating alarms when at predetermined number of readings fall outside of industry-specified tolerance specifications, wherein said power quality means further includes the functionality of;

data monitoring, event capture, and archiving;

web access to power quality information in various formats;

access to 24/7 to an Information Command Center;

personalized alarm triggering via pager, e-mail, cellular phone, or personal data assistant (PDA); and

harmonic analysis;

load management marketplace means for determining volatility of energy supply market and determining management of the energy responsive to the volatility, wherein said load management marketplace means further includes the functionality of;

automatic posting of local and regional pricing;

benchmark load certification;

verification of load curtailment and payment amount;

bid notification and at least one of acceptance and rejection from at least one of a supplier and an ISO;

economic value calculation of load curtailment; and

customer election to participate in the energy management; and

distributed generation dispatch means for supporting dispatch of site generation resources and implementation of load management strategies, wherein distributed generation dispatch means further includes the functionality of;

automated generator operation or load-shedding initiative;

verification of power generated and notification of curtailable event;

viewable data from any combination of energy resource related assets;

real-time monitoring and alarming of all asset parameters; and

determination of participation level and savings, a billing system in an energy management system implemented by a computer system, creating reports that will display a cost estimate of billing charges for a given customer based on usage information including customer tariff and time period, said billing system comprising;

stored information regarding at least one user, at least one utility relating to the at least one user, and a plurality of rules that may be applied by the at least one utility for the at least one user in determining the utility information;

stored measurement related or estimate related information representative of the at least one of the utility usage and the estimated usage by the at least one user;

a web rate module comprising a site abstraction layer and managing substantially all user interface functionality and retrieving data;

a billing calculation module operable with respect to said web rate module, administrating billing charges and calculating the billing charges, and including data objects used in the billing engine, the data objects including;

a billing item object to assign at least one value from one billed item to another, and

a billing engine object including;

a read from file object determining the type of data read and processing the data, an initial period object initializing specified periods and preparing for processing, an and-period object used for joining periods that need to be accessed for a given billing period defined by the user, a not-period object used to filter out periods which will not be applied to the specified billing period specified, a process period expression used to process period information by evaluating operators, a get usage object used to retrieve usage information from the database for the specified period of time and use to calculate an amount to bill for this period of time, calculate bill object used to call the calculation charges method responsible for calculating all charges to a selected bill, a calculation charge object used to calculate all charges for the bill, a get tariff choices object used to accumulate a list of tariffs to be selected, a locate tariff object used to determine a tariff from the tariff list object, a get tariff name object used to determine the tariff name that is to be displayed on the web page, an identify tariff constants object used to determine when the tariff is present, a check charge object used to determine when the tariff listed for a given charge actually exists in the tariff list, an optional dump object used to display all utility, tariff, period and charge information, an evaluate object used to evaluate billing functions provided in the billing engine including bill amount, bill quantity, bill hours, bill history quantity, bill days, and bill history amount, and a calculate historical bill object used to calculate an historical bill;

a utility module storing and operating on utility information accessible to said billing engine object; and

a tariff module storing and operating on tariff information accessible to said billing engine object.

means for selecting at least one preference representative of a variable utilized in generating the utility information for the at least one user;

means for generating the utility information for the at least one user responsive to the at least one preference, the utility information relating to the at least one user, the at least one preference, and the measurement related or estimate related information for the at least one user; and

a display displaying a report representative of the utility information utilizing the at least one preference.

20. In a computer-based system for managing utility information responsive to at least one of usage and estimated usage of utility resources, a billing system in an energy management system implemented by a computer system, creating reports that will display a cost estimate of billing charges for a given customer based on usage information including customer tariff and time period, said billing system comprising:

stored information regarding at least one user, at least one utility relating to the at least one user, and a plurality of rules that may be applied by the at least one utility for the at least one user in determining the utility information;

stored measurement related or estimate related information representative of the at least one of the utility usage and the estimated usage by the at least one user;

a web rate module comprising a site abstraction layer and managing substantially all user interface functionality and retrieving data;

a billing calculation module operable with respect to said web rate module, administrating billing charges and calculating the billing charges, and including data objects used in the billing engine, the data objects including;

a billing item object to assign at least one value from one billed item to another, and

a billing engine object including at least one of;

a read from file object determining the type of data read and processing the data, an initial period object initializing specified periods and preparing for processing, an and-period object used for joining periods that need to be accessed for a given billing period defined by the user, a not-period object used to filter out periods which will not be applied to the specified billing period specified, a process period expression used to process period information by evaluating operators, a get usage object used to retrieve usage information from the database for the specified period of time and use to calculate an amount to bill for this period of time, calculate bill object used to call the calculation charges method responsible for calculating all charges to a selected bill, a calculation charge object used to calculate all charges for the bill, a get tariff choices object used to accumulate a list of tariffs to be selected, a locate tariff object used to determine a tariff from the tariff list object, a get tariff name object used to determine the tariff name that is to be displayed on the web page, an identify tariff constants object used to determine when the tariff is present, a check charge object used to determine when the tariff listed for a given charge actually exists in the tariff list, an optional dump object used to display all utility, tariff, period and charge information, an evaluate object used to evaluate billing functions provided in the billing engine including bill amount, bill quantity, bill hours, bill history quantity, bill days, and bill history amount, and a calculate historical bill object used to calculate an historical bill;

a utility module storing and operating on utility information accessible to said billing engine object; and

a tariff module storing and operating on tariff information accessible to said billing engine object.

means for selecting at least one preference representative of a variable utilized in generating the utility information for the at least one user;

means for generating the utility information for the at least one user responsive to the at least one preference, the utility information relating to the at least one user, the at least one preference, and the measurement related or estimate related information for the at least one user; and

a display displaying a report representative of the utility information utilizing the at least one preference.