Method of Tracking and Reporting Energy Performance for Businesses

• US 20140337107A1
• Filed: 04/15/2014
• Published: 11/13/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Opower, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Opower, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Foster, Benjamin David
• Granted Patent: US 10,719,797 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.41
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/82 Energy audits or management systems therefor
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/84 Greenhouse gas [GHG] management systems

Abstract

Methods and computer systems report and track resource performance for business customers. The computer system receives usage data about a resource associated with a customer of a utility, including hourly usage information about the resource metered at a business premises of the customer. The computer system receives operational data associated with the business premises, including hours of operations information describing when the business premises is open to patrons. The computer system determines resource performance data for the business premises using the received usage data and the received operational data, including information about: (i) resource usage at the business premises during the hours when open to patrons, and (ii) resource usage at the business premises during the hours when closed to patrons. The computer system causes a reporting of this information to the customer of the resource.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of tracking resource performance for business customers, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, usage data describing usage of a resource associated with a customer of a utility that provides the resource to the customer, the usage data including information about usage of the resource for a plurality of contiguous periods of time, each period of time being less than about six hours, the usage data having been metered at a business premises of the customer;

receiving, by a processor, operational data describing operation of the business premises, including information describing times of day when the business premises is open to patrons;

determining, by a processor, resource performance data for the business premises using the received usage data and the received operational data, the resource performance data including information about;

(i) resource usage at the business premises during the times of day when open to patrons, and (ii) resource usage at the business premises during times of day when closed to patrons; and

generating, by a processor, a report to the customer of the resource performance data.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the resource performance data further includes a comparison of the resource usage at the business premises between the times of day when open to patrons and the times of day when closed to patrons.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the operational data comprises receiving the operational data from a local directory service provider.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the operational data comprises deriving the operational data from an electronic publication of the business.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the operational data comprises receiving the operational data from a source that has derived the operational data from a publication of the business.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the operational data comprises receiving the operational data from a third-party service provider who maintains a database of the hours of operation of the business premises.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the operational data comprises determining the operational data, including the information describing the times of day of operations when the business premises is open to patrons, based on the received usage data.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by a processor, resource performance data for similar business premises; and

causing, by a processor, a reporting to the customer of the resource performance data for the similar premises in conjunction with the resource performance data of the customer.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by a processor, pricing data for the resource, including;

information about a first price of the resource, a first set of times of day associated with the first resource price, a second price of the resource that is higher than the first price, and a second set of times of day associated with the second resource price;

determining, by a processor, an elevated pricing time based on the pricing data and the operational data, the elevated pricing time being a time of day when the business premises is open to patrons overlaps with the times of day associated with the second resource price;

estimating, by a processor, savings that may be realized if a predefined portion of the usage of the resource during the elevated pricing time were moved to a time of day when the premises is closed to patrons; and

generating, by a processor, a report to the customer of the estimated savings, in conjunction with the report to the customer of the resource performance data.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the usage data comprises at least one of electricity usage data, gas usage data, oil usage data, wood usage data, waste removal usage data, water usage data, sewer usage data, garbage removal usage data, recycling removal usage data, telephone usage data and broadband usage data.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each period of time is no greater than about one hour.

12. A computerized method for reporting resource usage by a customer of a utility that provides the resource to the customer, the method comprising:

receiving, by a processor, characteristic data describing a first business premises, the characteristic data including at least one specialty classification of the first business premises;

receiving, by a processor, characteristic data describing a plurality of second business premises, the characteristic data including at least one respective specialty classification of each business premises of the plurality of second business premises;

receiving, by a processor, usage data describing usage of the resource by at least some of the plurality of second business premises, the resource being provided by a utility;

selecting, by a processor, from the plurality of second business premises, a plurality of selected second business premises, such that each selected second business premises has a first specialty classification equal to a first specialty classification of the first business premises;

if a number of the plurality of selected second business premises is less than a predetermined value, augmenting, by a processor, the plurality of selected second business premises with additional selected business premises selected from the plurality of second business premises, such that each additional selected business premises has a second specialty classification equal to a second specialty classification of the first business premises, the second specialty classification being different than the first specialty classification;

generating, by a processor, a report that includes usage data describing usage of the resource by the first business premises and usage data describing usage of the resource by at least one business premises of the plurality of selected second business premises.

13. The computerized method of claim 12, wherein the first specialty classification corresponds to a first market characteristic and the second specialty classification corresponds to a second, different, market characteristic.

14. The computerized method of claim 12, wherein the first specialty classification corresponds to a first NAICS code and the second specialty classification corresponds to a second, different, NAICS code.

15. The computerized method of claim 12, wherein the first specialty classification corresponds to a first SIC code and the second specialty classification corresponds to a second, different, SIC code.

16. The computerized method of claim 12, wherein the first specialty classification corresponds to a first sub-specialty classification and the second specialty classification corresponds to a second, different, sub-specialty classification, and wherein the first specialty classification is hierarchically related to the first sub-specialty classification.

17. The computerized method of claim 12, wherein the predetermined value is 1.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the usage data comprises at least one of electricity usage data, gas usage data, oil usage data, wood usage data, waste removal usage data, water usage data, sewer usage data, garbage removal usage data, recycling removal usage data, telephone usage data and broadband usage data.

19. A report of resource performance for a first business premises, the report comprising:

a first diagram element representative of a first resource usage at the first business premises during times of day when the first business premises is open to patrons;

a second diagram element representative of a second resource usage at the first business premises during times of day when the first business premises is closed to patrons; and

a third diagram element representative of a comparison of the first resource usage to the second resource usage.

20. The report of claim 19, further comprising:

a fourth diagram element representative of a third resource usage by a plurality of second business premises during times of day when the second business premises are open to patrons;

a fifth diagram element representative of a fourth resource usage by the plurality of second business premises during times of day when the second business premises are closed to patrons; and

a sixth diagram element representative of a comparison of the first resource usage to the third resource usage.

21. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions which, when loaded on at least one computer, establish processes for tracking resource performance for business customers, the processes including:

a process configured to receive usage data describing usage of a resource associated with a customer of a utility that provides the resource to the customer, the usage data including information about usage of the resource for a plurality of contiguous periods of time, each period of time being less than about six hours, the usage data having been metered at a business premises of the customer;

a process configured to receive operational data describing operation of the business premises, including information describing times of day when the business premises is open to patrons;

a process configured to determine resource performance data for the business premises using the received usage data and the received operational data, the resource performance data including information about;

(i) resource usage at the business premises during the times of day when open to patrons, and (ii) resource usage at the business premises during times of day when closed to patrons; and

a process configured to generate a report to the customer of the resource performance data.

22. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with instructions which, when loaded on at least one computer, establish processes for reporting resource usage of a customer of a utility that provides the resource to the customer, the processes including:

a process configured to receive characteristic data describing a first business premises, the characteristic data including at least one specialty classification of the first business premises;

a process configured to receive characteristic data describing a plurality of second business premises, the characteristic data including at least one respective specialty classification of each business premises of the plurality of second business premises;

a process configured to receive usage data describing usage of the resource by at least some of the plurality of second business premises, the resource being provided by a utility;

a process configured to select, from the plurality of second business premises, a plurality of selected second business premises, such that each selected second business premises has a first specialty classification equal to a first specialty classification of the first business premises;

a process configured, if a number of the plurality of selected second business premises is less than a predetermined value, augment the plurality of selected second business premises with additional selected business premises selected from the plurality of second business premises, such that each additional selected business premises has a second specialty classification equal to a second specialty classification of the first business premises, the second specialty classification being different than the first specialty classification;

a process configured to generate a report that includes usage data describing usage of the resource by the first business premises and usage data describing usage of the resource by at least one business premises of the plurality of selected second business premises.