Method for design of pricing schedules in utility contracts
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method for design of pricing schedules in utility contracts comprising the steps of:
- before a contract starting date, selecting by a customer a capacity discount threshold, said capacity discount threshold being a prespecified rate of provisioning by a provider of standardized services, a price paid by the customer to the provider for the standardized services being proportional to the selected threshold;
during a term of the contract, measuring by the provider demand by the customer of the standardized services; and
if demand rate by the customer of the standardized service stays below the selected threshold, paying by the customer a base price per unit of standardized services received, but if the instantaneous demand rate by the customer of standardized service exceeds the selected threshold, paying by the customer a peak price per unit of standardized services received, which peak price is greater than the base price.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A provider of standardized services is provided with guidance on the design of pricing structures for contracts regulating the provision of a commodity good between a supplier and a customer. These are contracts characterized by long duration and dedicated infrastructure. The provision of the commodity good is variable over time, and the rate of provisioning is continuously monitored. Examples are kilowatt hours in the case of electric energy and megabytes/second in the case of Web hosting.
-
Citations
7 Claims
-
1. A method for design of pricing schedules in utility contracts comprising the steps of:
-
before a contract starting date, selecting by a customer a capacity discount threshold, said capacity discount threshold being a prespecified rate of provisioning by a provider of standardized services, a price paid by the customer to the provider for the standardized services being proportional to the selected threshold;
during a term of the contract, measuring by the provider demand by the customer of the standardized services; and
if demand rate by the customer of the standardized service stays below the selected threshold, paying by the customer a base price per unit of standardized services received, but if the instantaneous demand rate by the customer of standardized service exceeds the selected threshold, paying by the customer a peak price per unit of standardized services received, which peak price is greater than the base price. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 7)
-
-
6. A system for facilitating the design of pricing schedules in utility contracts comprising:
-
a provider of standardized services to a plurality of customers wherein, before a contract starting date, each of the plurality of customers selects a capacity discount threshold, said capacity discount threshold being a prespecified rate of provisioning by the provider of standardized services, a price paid by the customer to the provider for the standardized services being proportional to the selected threshold, an allocated capacity by the provider equal to the sum of the capacity discount threshold selected by the customers;
a load monitor at the provider for monitoring, during terms of contracts with said plurality of customers, demands by each customer of said plurality of customers of the standardized services provided by the provider; and
a pricing and billing component at the provider and responsive to monitored demands by each customer of said plurality of customers to determine if demand rate by a customer of the standardized service stays below the threshold selected by the customer, and if so, billing the customer a base price per unit of standardized services received, but if the instantaneous demand rate by the customer of standardized service exceeds the threshold selected by the customer, billing the customer a peak price per unit of standardized services received, which peak price is greater than the base price.
-
Specification