Energy distribution and marketing backoffice system and method

• US 8,442,917 B1
• Filed: 09/04/2007
• Issued: 05/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bluenet Holdings, LLC (Vistra Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Ambit Holdings, LLC (Vistra Corp.)
• Inventors: Burke, John
• Primary Examiner(s): Nigh, James D
• Application Number:
  US11/899,197
• Time in Patent Office: 2,079 Days
• Field of Search: 705/412, 705/63
• US Class Current: 705/63
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

A retail energy provider system comprising a market transaction manager, business rules and requirements processor, usage rater, customer analysis and quality control auditor, customer billing processor and collection manager, customer payment processor, third party sales and marketing application programming interface, customer acquisition and residual income interface, having a wholesale forecaster, interactive voice response system, intranet web services, internet web services and network based external customer service and executive management systems and financial services functions, all said functions and systems interacting with a robust SQL database engine for which the novel database schema is taught herein.

Claims

1. A system of networked computers computer programmed to store and execute a set of instructions that cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving a set of payment information related to an energy customer;

receiving a set of sales information related to a sales agent;

receiving a set of inbound transactions, related to a set of energy usage data for the energy customer;

deriving a set of outbound transactions, related to the set of inbound transactions;

sending the set of outbound transactions to an independent systems operator;

deriving a set of bill information, related to the set of energy usage data and the set of payment information; and

,

deriving a set of commissions, based on the set of payment information, the set of bill information, the set of sales information and the set of energy usage data; and

,

assigning a commission amount to be paid to the sales agent.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the operation of deriving a set of commissions further comprises:

deriving a bill delinquency condition from the set of bill information, the set of payment information and the set of energy usage data.

3. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise:

receiving a set of customer information from the energy customer; and

sending a connect order, in an outbound transaction of the set of outbound transactions, based on the set of customer information.

4. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise:

deriving a bill delinquency condition, based on the set of bill information, the set of payment information and the set of energy usage; and

sending a disconnect order, in an outbound transaction of the set of outbound transactions, based on the bill delinquency condition.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the set of inbound transactions further comprises a meter read date and a meter read quantity;

and,

wherein the operations further comprise;

determining a first bill validity condition, based on the meter read date;

determining a second bill validity condition, based on the meter read quantity;

if the first bill validity condition is invalid, then logging a first exception to an exceptions worklist; and

,

if the second bill validity condition is invalid, then logging a second exception to the exceptions worklist.

6. The computer system of claim 1 wherein the operations further comprise:

choosing an identifier for an energy meter associated with the energy customer;

searching the set of inbound transactions for a set of invoice transactions associated with the identifier for the energy meter;

searching the set of inbound transactions for a set of usage transactions associated with the identifier for the energy meter;

comparing the set of invoice transactions to the set of usage transactions to determine a matched transaction pair; and

,

determining a bill validity condition based on the matched transaction pair.