Schedule-based load estimator and method for electric power and other utilities and resources

• US 20030050738A1
• Filed: 05/09/2002
• Published: 03/13/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Siemens Industry Incorporated (Siemens AG)
• Original Assignee: Siemens Power Generation, Inc.
• Inventors: Landi, William A., Soni, Dilip, Masticola, Stephen, Spool, Peter
• Granted Patent: US 6,865,450 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/291
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/003 Load forecast, e.g. methods or systems for forecasting future load demand
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/82 Energy audits or management systems therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications

Abstract

A method for schedule-based load estimation in a system including a utility energy provider and a utility energy consumer, comprises the steps of generating a near-term proposed schedule set containing at least one near-term proposed schedule for operation of power-consuming resources; monitoring energy consumption of the consumer for providing a set of historical consumption data; providing from priorly stored data a set of historical schedule data for the consumer; providing a set of historical unscheduled factors that affect the consumer'"'"'s power consumption; providing a set of unscheduled factor predictions; and performing a correlation operation on the near-term proposed schedule set, the set of historical consumption data, the set of historical schedule data, the set of historical unscheduled factors, and the set of unscheduled factor predictions, for providing a respective near-term load estimate for each near-term proposed schedule in the near-term proposed schedule set.

Claims

1. A method for schedule-based load estimation in a system including a utility energy provider and a utility energy consumer, comprising the steps of:

generating a near-term proposed schedule set containing at least one near-term proposed schedule for operation of power-consuming resources;

monitoring energy consumption of said consumer for providing a set of historical consumption data;

providing from priorly stored data a set of historical schedule data for said consumer;

providing a set of historical unscheduled factors that affect said consumer'"'"'s power consumption;

providing a set of unscheduled factor predictions; and

performing a correlation operation on said near-term proposed schedule set, said set of historical consumption data, said set of historical schedule data, said set of historical unscheduled factors, and said set of unscheduled factor predictions, for providing a respective near-term load estimate for each near-term proposed schedule in said near-term proposed schedule set.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, comprising the step of:

integrating said respective near-term load estimate for each near-term proposed schedule in said near-term proposed schedule set with a near-term rate offer comprised in a near-term offer set available to said supplier for providing a respective predicted energy cost set for implementing each near-term proposed schedule in said near-term proposed schedule set.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, comprising the steps of:

selecting an optimal energy cost from said predicted energy cost set;

accepting a near term offer from said near-term offer set corresponding to said optimal energy cost set; and

implementing a near-term proposed schedule in said near-term proposed schedule set corresponding to said optimal energy cost.

4. A schedule-based load estimator for a system including a utility energy provider and a utility energy consumer, comprising:

means for generating a near-term proposed schedule set containing at least one near-term proposed schedule for operation of power-consuming resources;

means for monitoring energy consumption of said consumer for providing a set of historical consumption data;

means for providing from priorly stored data a set of historical schedule data for said consumer;

means for providing a set of historical unscheduled factors that affect said consumer'"'"'s power consumption;

means for providing a set of unscheduled factor predictions; and

means for performing a correlation operation on said near-tern proposed schedule set, said set of historical consumption data, said set of historical schedule data, said set of historical unscheduled factors, and said set of unscheduled factor predictions, for providing a respective near-term load estimate for each near-term proposed schedule in said near-term proposed schedule set.

5. A load estimator as recited in claim 4, comprising means for integrating said respective near-term load estimate for each near-term proposed schedule in said near-term proposed schedule set with a near-term rate offer comprised in a near-term offer set available to said supplier for providing a predicted energy cost set for implementing each near-term proposed schedule in said near-term proposed schedule set.

6. A load estimator as recited in claim 5, comprising;

means for selecting an optimal energy cost from said predicted energy cost set;

means for accepting a near term offer from set near-term offer set corresponding to said optimal energy cost set; and

means for implementing a near-term proposed schedule in said near-term proposed schedule set corresponding to said optimal energy cost.