Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or... – Finance
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-04
2003-07-22
Weiss, John G. (Department: 3628)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Finance
C705S400000, C705S020000, C705S035000, C705S412000, C376S254000, C376S428000, C376S434000, C376S444000, C376S259000, C376S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06598029
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of provision of energy supply, such as electric power and natural gas.
2. Description of the Background Art
The electric power and natural gas industries will experience fundamental changes over the next few years as the results of continuing deregulation take hold. One of those results is to give end users a choice of energy providers. Until now, substantially all end users purchased the electric power or natural gas they needed from the local electric or gas utility serving their geographic area. Electric utilities have generally operated as vertically integrated local monopolies, producing or purchasing (on a wholesale basis), the quantities of electric power they needed to serve all end users within the utility's geographic boundaries. Natural gas utilities have generally operated in a similar fashion, though usually purchasing rather than producing most of the natural gas they need.
According to the Federal Energy Information Administration, legislation to deregulate the electric power industry has been adopted in five states and is pending in over 20 others. In general, this legislation calls for a restructuring of the industry into at least three kinds of participants: (i) electric power generating companies, (ii) long-haul transmission companies, and (iii) local distribution companies (“DISCOs”). Power generators will include companies that own actual generating facilities as well as those firms that purchase generating capacity from others and market that available power directly to end users. Under most of the various legislative approaches, an end user will be given the opportunity to purchase its electric power from any legitimate power generating company willing to supply electric power to that end user's geographic region. One of the primary aims of electric power deregulation efforts nationwide is to reduce end user's energy prices by introducing competition among power generators. As competition increases, power generators are expected to offer prospective customers various pricing plans premised, for example, on volume and term commitments, and peak/off-peak usage. Under most of the pending deregulation schemes, the local distribution company facilities of the local electric utility will continue to be a government-regulated monopoly within the region it serves. These facilities are primarily the wires and other equipment constituting the local power grid over which electric power is transmitted to end user locations, having been delivered to the grid by generating plants within the local utility's service area or by other utilities' grids interfacing with that local utility's grid (when the local utility purchases electric power today from suppliers outside of its service area).
In the natural gas industry, similar deregulatory efforts are underway to enable greater competition and customer choice. The wholesale purchase and sale of natural gas has already been mostly deregulated. In some states large industrial and commercial customers can purchase their natural gas directly from gas producers rather than from the local gas utility. Most industry observers expect local natural gas utilities to be restructured in the near future to follow the model being used in the electric power industry as a result of deregulation, with three similar components: (i) natural gas production companies, (ii) gas pipeline transmission companies, and (iii) local distribution companies (“DISCOs”). Gas producers will include companies that own actual production facilities as well as these firms that purchase production capacity from others and market that available gas directly to end users. End users are expected to be given the opportunity to purchase the natural gas they need from any of numerous natural gas producers willing to supply natural gas to that end user's locale. Under most of the expected deregulation models, the local distribution company facilities of the local gas utility will continue to be a government-regulated monopoly within the region it serves. These facilities are primarily the pipelines and other equipment constituting the regional gas pipeline network through which natural gas is transported to end user locations, having been delivered to the regional network by production facilities within the local utility's service area or, more often, by long-haul gas pipeline transmission companies transporting natural gas from production facilities to the local utility's regional pipeline network.
Meter reading and billing of end users has until now generally been handled by the local distribution utility as part of its local franchise. As a result of deregulation, however, the local distribution utility is expected in many jurisdictions to lose this monopoly over meter reading and billing. The various state public utility commissions (“PUCs”) in those states where electric power deregulation plans are at an advanced stage, for example, are considering giving power generators the right to read meters and render their own bills without the cooperation of the local distribution utility. In many cases, the power generator or end user may have the right to determine who will own the meter and whether the end user will receive separate bills (one for energy consumption from the power generator and another for the distribution and service charges of the local distribution utility) or a consolidated bill, as is the case today. Many industry experts expect independent service entities (not necessarily affiliated with, but acting as agents for, power generators or gas producers, local distribution utilities, end users, or any combination thereof) to provide meter reading and billing services on a more efficient basis than local electric and gas utilities do today.
Both electric and gas utilities rely primarily on meters at customer sites to apprise them of how much energy the customer has taken from the utility's supply lines running down the street. Many of these meters can measure (i) the volume of energy used (e.g., kilowatt-hours of electricity), (ii) the highest volume used during any hour throughout a monthly billing cycle (peak demand), and (iii) the volume used in every hour of the monthly billing cycle (or as short a period as every 15 minutes during this cycle). Some meters, such as those used by larger industrial and commercial end users, can measure all of the above. Other meters measure only total monthly volume and peak demand. Meters servicing residential customers often measure only total volume used during the month.
Today, most end users have meters that require a physical on-site visit by the local utility to read the meter in order to determine the end user's actual energy usage since the last time the meter was read. Typically, such on-site visits are made once a month. If the local utility fails to make such a visit, the end user's energy usage for that month is estimated and billed based on prior usage. Billing is then reconciled after the next on-site meter reading. More sophisticated meters now available enable the local utility to monitor the end user's actual energy usage electronically, without requiring a physical on-site visit to read the meter. Employing these meters, the local utility can continuously monitor the end user's actual energy usage by taking readings every 15 minutes throughout the day, if necessary. Some local electric utilities, for example, require their largest customers to install these electronic remotely-readable meters so that the utility can monitor these customers' actual usage throughout the day and, as a result, better manage and balance the overall load on its local power distribution grid. Industry experts expect meter manufacturers within a few years to reduce this monitoring window to under five minutes.
Whether the meter is read by an on-site visit or via remote communication, today the local utility records that energy usage data and applies its applicabl
Coyle William F.
Johnson Jack J.
Charles Debra
Friedman, Esq. Allen N.
Geophonic Networks, Inc.
Johnson, Esq. Christine
McCarter & English LLP
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