Method and system for validation, estimation and editing of daily meter read data

• US 7,557,729 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2005
• Issued: 07/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Landis+Gyr Analytics, LLC (Landis+Gyr Group AG)
• Original Assignee: Ecologic Analytics, LLC (Landis+Gyr Group AG)
• Inventors: Ramachandran, Venkatesh, Skog, John, Hubbard, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Wong; Albert K
• Application Number:
  US11/059,089
• Publication Number:
  US 20050234837A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,611 Days
• Field of Search: 340/870.02, 340/870.03, 340/870.4, 324/158.1, 700/291, 705/412
• US Class Current: 340/870.02
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/002 Remote reading of utility meters
• CPC Class Codes: G01D 4/004 Remote reading of utility meters to a fixed location
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 9/00 Arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station, in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom
• 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

A method for processing daily consumption, demand and time of use meter reads for electric, gas, water and other metered entities. The meter reads are collected by any of the well known Automated Meter Reading (AMR) technologies and loaded into a meter data warehouse. At a minimum daily meter reading, reads that are tagged as Good, Stale, Partial, Incomplete and Missing are required for properly identifying usage patterns, applying rules for error patterns and estimating the reads which will provide quality meter reads to the utilities thereby identifying meter problems before they become billing problems. The overall process involves loading the daily meter reads into a database, comparing each meter read against its previous day'"'"'s read and applying a set of rules that help in validating, editing and estimating (VEE) of this data. The VEE rules that are applied can be broadly classified into five (5) categories. They are 1) Cumulative (CUM) Read Error Detection 2) Demand (DEM) read Error Detection 3) Rounding, Truncation and Offset rules 4) Allocation and Estimation 5) Others. Once these rules have been applied and the required reading estimated and edited, the data is now ready for billing. Prior to the reads being used for billing, another process is executed that helps to determine the meters that need to be replaced and hence whose reads cannot be used for billing as it would result in the customer being billed for incorrect usage. The output of this process can be customized to suit any of the popular Utility Billing Systems (UBS)'"'"'s input format and mimics a meter exchange transaction.

Claims

1. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter, wherein the set of rules comprise error detection rules, rounding rules, offsetting rules, estimation rules, and allocation rules, and wherein applying the set of rules, comprises;

detecting errors in current read data; and

rounding and offsetting current read data so as to ensure that a total consumption of energy data value matches a sum of time of use tiers;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein tagging includes identifying the current read data for each meter as Good, Stale, Partial, Incomplete or Missing.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the history tables store cumulative data, demonstrative data and time of use data for each meter.

4. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

a. obtaining a list of meters that are to be billed on a same day;

b. obtaining last thirty two days of reads from the history tables;

c. checking if the last billing date'"'"'s read was tagged for meter replacement;

d. checking whether the meter was replaced; and

e. checking if the meter was reset.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said meter reset comprises the steps of:

a. obtaining current reads for each meter;

b. obtaining previous day'"'"'s reads for each meter;

c. comparing the current reads and previous day'"'"'s reads for each meter;

d. resetting the reads based on the comparison step;

e. tagging each meter as a Reset meter.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein current and previous day'"'"'s reads for each meter further comprise one cumulative read and at least two time of use reads.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the comparing step further comprises the steps of:

a. Comparing the current cumulative read with previous day'"'"'s cumulative read;

b. if the current cumulative read is less than the previous day'"'"'s cumulative read then determining whether it is a valid rollover for the cumulative read;

c. if it is not a valid rollover for the cumulative read then the cumulative read is reset;

d. comparing a bin 1 cumulative read with previous day'"'"'s bin 1 cumulative read;

e. if the bin 1 cumulative read is less than the previous day'"'"'s bin 1 cumulative read then determining whether it is a valid rollover for the bin 1 cumulative read;

f. if it is not a valid rollover for the bin 1 cumulative read then bin 1 is reset;

g. comparing a bin 2 cumulative read with previous day'"'"'s bin 2 cumulative read;

h. if the bin 2 cumulative read is less than the previous day'"'"'s bin 2 cumulative read then determining whether it is a valid rollover for the bin 2 cumulative read;

i. if it is not a valid rollover for the bin 2 cumulative read then the bin 2 cumulative read is reset.

8. The method of claim 5 or claim 7, wherein if the cumulative read and one of the bins are reset the meter is tagged as Meter and Bins Reset.

9. The method of claim 5 or claim 7, wherein if the cumulative read has been reset the meter is tagged as Meter Reset.

10. The method of claim 5 or claim 7, wherein if one of the bins have reset and sum of previous day'"'"'s offset and sum of bins equals cumulative read, the meter is tagged as Partial Bin Reset.

11. The method of claim 5 or claim 7, wherein if one of the bins has reset and sum of previous offset and sum of bins is not equal to cumulative read then the meter is tagged as Virtual Meter Reset.

12. A method of claim 1 further comprising the step of:

a. if current read data is incomplete or partial or stale or missing then tagging the meter as Demand Read Missing.

22. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Cannot Calculate Usage.

23. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Bin Did Not Advance.

24. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Estimated Partial Bins.

25. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Rounding with Offset.

26. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Rounding with Rollover.

27. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Change in Offset.

28. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Rounding Within Threshold.

29. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Rollover Not Validated.

30. A method of claim 1 wherein the meter is tagged as Rollover Not Validated.

13. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules, wherein

if current read data is partial read and if estimating cumulative read data based on different options is not possible then the meter is tagged as Partial Did Not Estimate.

14. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules, wherein

if current read is stale or incomplete or missing and if it is first day'"'"'s read then the meter is tagged as No Historical Data.

15. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules;

wherein;

a. if current read data is not good read data then estimating cumulative read data;

b. if previous read data is good read data, then meter is tagged as Week Old Read.

16. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules, wherein

if previous read data is estimated read data, then the meter is tagged as Week Old Estimates.

17. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules;

wherein;

a. if current read data is not good read data then finding the last good read;

b. if last good read data is not found then the meter is tagged as Estimation Threshold Overflow.

18. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules;

wherein;

a. if current read is not a good read then finding the last good read

b. if last good read is found and if current date minus last good read is greater than 7then meter is tagged as Estimation Threshold Overflow.

19. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules;

wherein;

a. if current read is a good read and the previous day'"'"'s read is not a good read then finding the last good read;

b. if last good read is found and if current date minus last good read date is greater than 30, meter is tagged as G-ETO.

20. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules;

wherein;

a. if current read data is good read and previous day'"'"'s read data is not good read data then finding last good read data; and

b. if last good read data is found and if current date minus last good read date is not greater than 30 then determining whether there are other meters to be checked.

21. A meter read loading method for a plurality of utility meters, said method comprising:

getting current read data for each meter;

comparing the current read data for each meter to previous read data for the meter;

applying a set of rules to the current read data for each meter;

determining if any of the rules are satisfied;

storing current read data for each meter in original history tables; and

tagging the meter based on application of the set of rules;

wherein;

a. If current read data is good and the previous day'"'"'s read data is not good then finding last good read data;

b. if the last good read data is found within threshold then do the Current Good Read calculation between two good reads and the meter is tagged as Current Good Read.