Utility services usage and demand reporting system

• US 7,309,979 B2
• Filed: 10/11/2006
• Issued: 12/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Utility Programs and Metering II, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Utility Programs and Metering II, Inc.
• Inventors: Angerame, Richard A., Harroun, David J., Lorio, Kathleen
• Primary Examiner(s): HOLLINGTON, JERMELE M
• Application Number:
  US11/545,894
• Publication Number:
  US 20070124253A1
• Time in Patent Office: 433 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 324/103.00R
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

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. A utility services billing system for assisting property managers in billing tenants within one or more buildings having a plurality of different tenants that have one or more different leaseholds within the buildings based on each tenant'"'"'s use of electric power utility services supplied to each building as a whole by one or more utility companies but billed to the tenants by the property manager based on their individual use of these services, comprising the steps of:

a) collecting leasehold based data on tenant use of utility services from a plurality of electric sub meters for tracking the use such services at the individual leaseholds of the tenants within the buildings;

b) analyzing such leasehold data to calculate the amounts of utility services KWH consumption and levels of utility services KW demand by the individual leaseholds in the buildings;

c) analyzing such leasehold data to calculate the amounts of utility services consumption and levels of utility services demand by each tenant on a combined aggregate basis across all of the leaseholds held by individual tenants having multiple leaseholds including the maximum amount of coincident demand by such tenants having multiple leaseholds;

d) computing individual tenant utility bill payment amounts based on said utility services consumption and demand calculations; and

e) reporting said amounts of consumption, demand, coincident demand and said corresponding payment amounts to said property manager on a tenant-by-tenant basis for use in billing said tenants and providing tenants with basic information on their use of utility services.

2. The utility services billing system of claim 1, wherein:

said step of analyzing leasehold data includes calculating the amounts of utility services consumption and levels of utility services demand by the individual leaseholds in the building on a total basis, an off-peak basis and an on-peak basis with respect to consumption and on an on-peak basis with respect to demand.

3. The utility services billing system of claim 1, wherein:

said step of analyzing leasehold data includes calculating contiguous KW (KWc) readings for all said electric sub meters.

4. A utility services billing system for billing tenants within a building having a plurality of different tenants that have one or more different leaseholds within the building based on their use of utility services supplied to the building as a whole by one or more utility companies but billed to the tenants by the building manager based on their individual use of these services, comprising the steps of:

a) collecting leasehold data on tenant use of one or more utility services from a plurality of sub meters for tracking the use such services at the individual leaseholds within the building;

b) analyzing such leasehold data to calculate the amounts of utility services consumption and levels of utility services demand by the individual leaseholds in the building;

c) analyzing such leasehold data to calculate the amounts of utility services consumption and levels of utility services demand by each tenant on a combined aggregate basis across all of the leaseholds held by said tenants having multiple leaseholds including the maximum level of aggregate coincident demand by tenants having multiple leaseholds;

d) computing individual tenant utility bill payment amounts based on said utility services consumption and demand calculations; and

e) reporting said amounts of consumption, demand, coincident demand and corresponding payment amounts to said building manager on a tenant-by-tenant basis for use in billing said tenants and providing tenants with basic information on their use of utility services.

5. The utility services billing system of claim 4, wherein:

said utility said utility services comprise electric power and said consumption is in KWH and said demand is in KW.

6. The utility services billing system of claim 4, wherein:

said utility services billing system covers more than one building, includes tenants having leaseholds in different buildings, calculates utility services by tenant across leaseholds in different buildings and reports said amounts of consumption, demand, coincident demand and corresponding payment amounts to building managers responsible for multiple buildings.

7. The utility services billing system of claim 5, wherein:

said step of analyzing leasehold data includes calculating contiguous KW (KWc) readings for all said sub meters.