Electric power usage and demand reporting system

• US 7,215,109 B2
• Filed: 02/04/2005
• Issued: 05/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Utility Programs and Metering II, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Utility Programs And Metering, Inc.
• Inventors: Lorio, Kathleen, Tanoff, C. Robert, Angerame, Richard A., Harroun, David J.
• Primary Examiner(s): HOLLINGTON, JERMELE M
• Application Number:
  US11/051,036
• Publication Number:
  US 20060001414A1
• Time in Patent Office: 823 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 324/103.00R
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 22/10 using digital techniques
• 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 20/30 Smart metering, e.g. specially adapted for remote reading

Abstract

An electric power usage and reporting system for collecting electric power demand readings from multiple properties which may be either commonly owned or leased by the same company, processing the demand data to generate KWH and KW information on an individual property basis and on a combined properties basis and generating a report including the KWH usage and KW demand information. The report includes information on electric power KWH usage and KW demand in the aggregate and with respect to each property and includes information on coincident KW demand in the aggregate and with respect to each property.

Claims

1. An electric power usage monitoring and reporting process, comprising the steps of:

a) acquiring raw power usage and demand data including KW readings recorded on periodic intervals from electric interval power meters located at a plurality of commonly owned or leased properties;

b) transmitting and storing this raw data at a central location remote from said meters;

c) processing said raw data over a standard billing period after the close of the billing period by;

(i) computing contiguous KW values for all the intervals in said billing period for all said electric power meters across all said properties,

(ii) computing KWH values from the KW values and summing KWH values over said billing period for on-peak and off-peak times for all said properties in order to generate on-peak and off-peak KWH sums for each property;

(iii) aggregating said KWH sums together across all said properties in order to produce aggregate KWH on-peak and off-peak totals, and

(iv) identifying maximum KW demand values for all said intervals over said billing period with respect to each property, and

(v) aggregating said KW demand values together across all said properties to produce aggregate KW demand figures for all said intervals over said billing period and identifying an aggregate KW coincident demand total across all said properties over said billing period; and

d) reporting said KWH sums and aggregate totals together with said maximum KW values and coincident aggregate KW demand total for use in electric power usage billing processes.

2. The process of claim 1, in which:

said aggregate KW coincident demand total is based on the time of the maximum level of KW demand with respect to all the intervals over said billing period across all said properties.

3. The process of claim 1, in which:

said aggregate KW coincident demand total is based on the time of the maximum KW building wide demand for a single building in which said properties are located.

4. The process of claim 1, in which:

said aggregate KW coincident demand total is based on the time of a maximum KW system demand encompassing the multiple buildings in which said properties are located.

5. The process of claim 1, further including the steps of:

verifying the quality of the raw data by checking for missing data, zero value data and duplicate data at the time said data is received for storage, and

validating the quality of the processed KW values by load factor and out-of-bounds analysis.

6. The process of claim 2, in which:

said periodic intervals are 15 minutes long, and

said standard billing period is defined by a utility company'"'"'s billing period.

7. The process of claim 3, in which:

the time of the maximum KW system demand is accessed over the internet from a utility company providing power to said properties.

8. A system for monitoring and reporting electric power usage and demand for use in conjunction with electric power billing processes, comprising:

a) a plurality of remote electric interval power meters located at a plurality of commonly owned or leased properties for generating raw power usage and demand data including KW readings recorded with respect to periodic intervals for each of said properties;

b) a network communications link for transmitting this raw data from said meters to a central location;

c) a server located at said central location for storing said raw data and including an application program for processing said raw data at the end of each billing cycle by;

(i) computing and aggregating KWH readings over said period for on-peak and off-peak times across all said properties in order to generate aggregate KWH totals, and

(ii) computing aggregate KW demand figures over said period across all said properties and generating an aggregate KW coincident demand total across all said properties; and

d) a computer for accessing said aggregate KWH totals and aggregate KW coincident demand total online over a network and reporting said aggregate KWH and KW totals.

9. The system of claim 8, in which:

said application program also processes said data by;

computing contiguous KW readings for all said electric power meters.

10. The system of claim 9, in which:

said application program also processes said data by;

synchronizing said raw data with respect to said periodic intervals and meters across all of said properties.

11. The system of claim 8, in which:

said aggregate KW coincident demand total is based on the timing of the maximum KW demand over all said properties.

12. The system of claim 8, in which:

said aggregate KW maximum coincident demand total is based on the timing of the maximum KW building wide demand for a single building in which said properties are located.

13. The system of claim 8, in which:

said aggregate KW coincident demand total is based on the timing of the maximum KW system demand for multiple buildings in which said properties are located.

14. The system of claim 8, in which:

said application program validates the quality of the processed KW values by load factor and out-of-bounds analysis.

15. The process of claim 12, in which:

the timing of the maximum KW demand for a said building in which said properties are located is accessed over the internet from a utility company providing power to the building.

16. An electric power usage monitoring and reporting process, comprising the steps of:

a) acquiring raw power usage and demand data including KW readings recorded on periodic intervals from electric interval power meters located at a plurality of commonly owned or leased properties;

b) transmitting and storing this raw data at a central location remote from said meters;

c) processing said raw data over a standard billing period after the close of the billing period by;

(i) computing KWH values from the KW values and summing KWH values over said billing period for on-peak and off-peak times for all said properties in order to generate on-peak and off-peak KWH sums for each property;

(ii) aggregating said KWH sums together across all said properties in order to produce aggregate KWH on-peak and off-peak totals, and

(iii) identifying maximum KW figures for all said intervals over said billing period with respect to each property, and

(iv) aggregating said KW demand values together across all said properties to produce aggregate KW demand figures for all said intervals over said billing period and identifying an aggregate KW coincident demand total across all said properties over said billing period; and

d) reporting said KWH sums and aggregate totals together with said maximum KW figures and coincident aggregate KW demand total for use in electric power usage billing processes.

17. The process of claim 16, in which:

said step of processing said raw data includes the sub-step of;

computing contiguous KW readings for all said electric power meters.

18. The process of claim 16, in which:

said aggregate KW coincident demand total is based on the time of the maximum level of KW demand with respect to all the intervals over said billing period across all said properties.

19. The process of claim 16, in which:

said aggregate KW coincident demand total is based on the time of the maximum KW building wide demand for a single building in which said properties are located.

20. The process of claim 16, in which:

said aggregate KW coincident demand total is based on the time of a maximum KW system demand encompassing the multiple buildings in which said properties are located.

21. The process of claim 16, further including the step of:

verifying the quality of the raw data by checking for missing data, zero value data and duplicate data at the time said data is received for storage.

22. The process of claim 16, further including the step of:

validating the quality of the processed KW values by load factor and out-of-bounds analysis.

23. The process of claim 16, in which:

said periodic intervals are 15 minutes long, and

said standard billing period is defined by a utility company'"'"'s billing period.

24. The process of claim 19, further including the step of:

the time of the maximum KW demand for a said building in which said properties are located is accessed over the internet from a utility company providing power to the building.

25. The process of claim 20, in which:

the time of the maximum KW system demand is accessed over the internet from a utility company providing power to said properties.