UTILITY DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM

• US 20110313964A1
• Filed: 12/20/2010
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Onzo Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Onzo Ltd.
• Inventors: Sanchey Loureda, Jose Manuel, WestBrooke, Adam Richard
• Granted Patent: US 8,825,583 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/50
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 2204/24 Identification of individual loads, e.g. by analysing current/voltage waveforms
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/14 The load or loads being home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/64 The condition being economic, e.g. tariff based load management
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 2310/70 Load identification
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/003 Load forecast, e.g. methods or systems for forecasting future load demand
• CPC Class Codes: H02J 3/14 by switching loads on to, or off from, network, e.g. progressively balanced loading
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/30 Systems integrating technologies related to power network operation and communication or information technologies for improving the carbon footprint of the management of residential or tertiary loads, i.e. smart grids as climate change mitigation technology in the buildings sector, including also the last stages of power distribution and the control, monitoring or operating management systems at local level
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 70/3225 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y02B 90/20 Smart grids as enabling technology in buildings sector smart grids supporting the management or operation of end-user stationary applications in general, or like technologies with no associated climate change mitigation effect Y04S20/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/222 Demand response systems, e.g. load shedding, peak shaving
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/242 Home appliances
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 50/10 Energy trading, including energy flowing from end-user application to grid

Abstract

A utility data processing system for processing data relating to consumption of a utility comprises: a fact memory for storage of facts relating to utility consumption received from fact sources, at least one fact source module for deriving facts from utility consumption data and adding the derived facts to the tact memory, an inference module for inferring new facts relating to utility consumption from one or more facts stored in the fact memory, and an interlace module.

Claims

1. A utility data processing system for processing data relating to consumption of a utility, the system comprising:

a fact memory for storage of facts relating to utility consumption received from fact sources;

at least one fact source module for deriving facts from utility consumption data and adding the derived facts to the fact memory;

an inference module for inferring new facts relating to utility consumption from one or more facts stored in the fact memory; and

an interface module.

2. A system according to claim 1 wherein one of the at least one fact source modules comprises an appliance identification module configured to identify one or more appliances using data relating to utility consumption by the one or more appliances, and to add the identity of the one or more appliances as one or more facts in the fact memory.

3. A system according to claim 2 wherein the appliance identification module comprises:

a profile generator for generating a utility consumption profile from utility consumption data, the utility consumption data comprising a plurality of utility consumption values measured at a corresponding plurality of measurement points; and

an event identifier for identifying an event within the utility consumption profile that matches the profile of a known event associated with operation of a known device, said known event stored in a database of utility consumption profiles.

4. A system according to claim 2 wherein the appliance identification module is further configured to add the time of use or duration of use the one or more appliances present within the household as one or more facts in the fact memory.

5. A system according to claim 1 wherein the at least one fact source module comprises a statistics module configured to generate statistical facts on energy consumption from the utility consumption data.

6. A system according to claim 5 wherein the statistical facts are selected from:

energy use per period of time;

variations in energy usage per period of time; and

baseload energy.

7. A system according to claim 6 wherein the period of time is one or more of 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week, 1 month and 1 year.

9. A system according to claim 1 further comprising a data memory for storage of utility consumption data received from at least one utility meter.

10. A system according to claim 1 wherein the interface module is a presentation interface configured to present facts on a display screen.

11. A system according to claim 10 wherein the system is configured to receive data from the presentation interface.

12. A system according to claim 10 wherein the fact memory is configured to receive facts declared by a user of the system via the interface.

13. A system according to claim 12 wherein the system is configured to prompt the declaration of a fact by a user.

14. A system according to claim 1 wherein the interface module is a control interface.

15. A system according to claim 14 wherein the control interface is configured to control utility consumption within a household managed by the utility data processing system based on control parameters determined by one or more facts.

16. A system according to claim 5 wherein the statistics module is configured to generate average utility consumption by a group of households.

17. A system according to claim 2 wherein the inference module is configured to identify appliances for the appliance detection module to search for.

8. (canceled)

18. A method of processing utility consumption data comprising the steps of:

receiving utility consumption data;

deriving at least one fact from utility consumption data;

storing the at least one fact in a fact memory; and

inferring at least one new fact from the at least one fact stored in the fact memory.

19. (canceled)

20. (canceled)

21. (canceled)

22. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-readable storage medium; and

executable program instructions embodied in the machine readable storage medium that when executed by a programmable system causes the system to perform the function of processing utility consumption data comprising the steps of;

receiving utility consumption data;

deriving at least one fact from utility consumption data;

storing the at least one fact in a fact memory; and

inferring at least one new fact from the at least one fact stored in the fact memory.

23. A utility data processing data system for deriving facts relating to consumption of a utility comprising:

a fact memory for storage of facts relating to utility consumption received from one or more fact sources;

wherein one said fact source comprises an inference module configured to infer new facts relating to utility consumption from one or more facts stored in the fact memory; and

a question management module configured to communicate a request to a system user to provide one or more facts not available from any other fact source.

24. A method of processing utility consumption data comprising the steps of:

analysing facts relating to utility consumption stored in a fact memory to identify one or more required facts not contained within the fact memory; and

if one or more required facts is not contained within the fact memory, communicating a request to a system user to provide the one or more facts.

25. (canceled)

26. (canceled)

27. (canceled)

28. An article of manufacture comprising:

a machine-readable storage medium; and

executable program instructions embodied in the machine readable storage medium that when executed by a programmable system causes the system to perform the function of processing utility consumption data comprising the steps of;

analysing facts relating to utility consumption stored in a fact memory to identify one or more required facts not contained within the fact memory; and

if one or more required facts is not contained within the fact memory, communicating a request to a system user to provide the one or more facts.