ELECTRIC ENERGY BILL REDUCTION IN DYNAMIC PRICING ENVIRONMENTS
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A method comprising:
- obtaining an electrical energy pricing structure from an electrical utility providing electrical energy to a consumer, the electrical energy pricing structure comprising a first tiered marginal rate schedule for electrical energy usage occurring during a first rate period within a billing period and a different second tiered marginal rate schedule for electrical energy usage occurring during a second rate period within the billing period;
projecting, based at least in part on historical data pertaining to time-dependent and load-specific usage of electrical energy by a plurality of electrical energy loads of the consumer, a first electrical energy usage by a first load of the plurality of electrical energy loads during at least one first time increment within a current or future electrical energy billing period and a second electrical energy usage by a second load of the plurality of electrical energy loads during at least one second time increment within the current or future electrical energy billing period;
generating a first load reduction and redistribution matrix, the generating of the first load reduction and redistribution matrix comprising scheduling the first time increment to occur during the first rate period and the second time increment to occur during the second rate period based at least on a predetermined prioritization pattern;
calculating, based on the electrical energy pricing structure, a first cost associated with energy usage scheduled according to the first load reduction and redistribution matrix; and
scheduling the first time increment and the second time increment during the billing period according to the first load reduction and redistribution matrix if the first cost is lower than a threshold;
wherein at least one of the obtaining, the projecting, the generating, the calculating, and the scheduling is performed by at least one processor.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system that can save energy and reduce electric utility costs is disclosed. The system may include one or more current measurement devices communicating with a processor as well as one or more switching devices for controlling power consumption in response to utility rate pricing systems.
184 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A method comprising:
-
obtaining an electrical energy pricing structure from an electrical utility providing electrical energy to a consumer, the electrical energy pricing structure comprising a first tiered marginal rate schedule for electrical energy usage occurring during a first rate period within a billing period and a different second tiered marginal rate schedule for electrical energy usage occurring during a second rate period within the billing period; projecting, based at least in part on historical data pertaining to time-dependent and load-specific usage of electrical energy by a plurality of electrical energy loads of the consumer, a first electrical energy usage by a first load of the plurality of electrical energy loads during at least one first time increment within a current or future electrical energy billing period and a second electrical energy usage by a second load of the plurality of electrical energy loads during at least one second time increment within the current or future electrical energy billing period; generating a first load reduction and redistribution matrix, the generating of the first load reduction and redistribution matrix comprising scheduling the first time increment to occur during the first rate period and the second time increment to occur during the second rate period based at least on a predetermined prioritization pattern; calculating, based on the electrical energy pricing structure, a first cost associated with energy usage scheduled according to the first load reduction and redistribution matrix; and scheduling the first time increment and the second time increment during the billing period according to the first load reduction and redistribution matrix if the first cost is lower than a threshold; wherein at least one of the obtaining, the projecting, the generating, the calculating, and the scheduling is performed by at least one processor. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A system comprising:
-
a plurality of electronic monitoring devices, each assigned to one of a plurality of electrical loads and each reporting electrical energy usage data for the assigned electrical load as a function of time; and a central controller executing software that receives the electrical energy usage data and also receives an electrical energy pricing structure comprising a first tiered marginal rate schedule for electrical energy usage occurring during a first rate period within a billing period and a different second tiered marginal rate schedule for electrical energy usage occurring during a second rate period within the billing period, the central controller executing software that causes it to; project, based at least in part on historical data pertaining to time-dependent and load-specific usage of electrical energy by a plurality of electrical energy loads of a consumer, a first electrical energy usage by a first load of the plurality of electrical energy loads during at least one first time increment within a current or future electrical energy billing period and a second electrical energy usage by a second load of the plurality of electrical energy loads during at least one second time increment within the current or future electrical energy billing period;
generate a first load reduction and redistribution matrix, the generating of the first load reduction and redistribution matrix comprising scheduling the first time increment to occur during the first rate period and the second time increment to occur during the second rate period based at least on a predetermined prioritization pattern;calculate, based on the electrical energy pricing structure, a first cost associated with energy usage scheduled according to the first load reduction and redistribution matrix; and schedule the first time increment and the second time increment during the billing period according to the first load reduction and redistribution matrix if the first cost is lower than a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
-
-
11. A computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:
-
obtaining an electrical energy pricing structure from an electrical utility providing electrical energy to a consumer, the electrical energy pricing structure comprising a first tiered marginal rate schedule for electrical energy usage occurring during a first rate period within a billing period and a different second tiered marginal rate schedule for electrical energy usage occurring during a second rate period within the billing period; projecting, based at least in part on historical data pertaining to time-dependent and load-specific usage of electrical energy by a plurality of electrical energy loads of the consumer, a first electrical energy usage by a first load of the plurality of electrical energy loads during at least one first time increment within a current or future electrical energy billing period and a second electrical energy usage by a second load of the plurality of electrical energy loads during at least one second time increment within the current or future electrical energy billing period; generating a first load reduction and redistribution matrix by, the generating of the first load reduction and redistribution matrix comprising scheduling the first time increment to occur during the first rate period and the second time increment to occur during the second rate period based at least on a predetermined prioritization pattern; calculating, based on the electrical energy pricing structure, a first cost associated with energy usage scheduled according to the first load reduction and redistribution matrix; and scheduling the first time increment and the second time increment during the billing period according to the first load reduction and redistribution matrix if the first cost is lower than a threshold. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification