Anomalous Utility Usage Reporting System
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Solution Overview
Problem
Consumers face challenges in reducing utility usage and costs due to variability in usage patterns and seasonality, leading to potential power outages and inefficient resource consumption, as existing alert systems often trigger late or require understanding of usage patterns to set proper thresholds.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method that monitors and reports unusual utility usage by establishing report-trigger conditions based on past and current usage data, forecasting future usage, and sending alerts via electronic messages or devices, allowing consumers to curb usage during actionable windows, thereby reducing consumption and preventing power outages.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If traditional alert systems are used to notify consumers of high usage, then consumers can be made aware of their usage patterns, but the alerts often trigger late or require consumers to understand complex usage patterns to set proper thresholds
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously monitoring usage data and automatically establishing baseline thresholds before unusual usage occurs. The system proactively identifies deviations from normal patterns and triggers alerts before consumers need to manually analyze their usage patterns or set thresholds, thereby reducing response time while maintaining accurate information delivery.
2Adaptability or versatility
If manual monitoring of usage patterns is required to set alert thresholds, then consumers can customize their alerts, but this increases the complexity and difficulty of using the system
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements self-service by automatically analyzing consumer usage data and establishing baseline thresholds without requiring manual consumer input. The system autonomously learns individual usage patterns, accounts for seasonality and variability, and configures alert parameters automatically, thereby maintaining high adaptability to individual needs while dramatically improving ease of operation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts alert parameters based on changing usage patterns, seasonality, and consumer behavior. Rather than requiring consumers to manually set fixed thresholds, the system automatically modifies baseline values and alert triggers to adapt to varying conditions, maintaining versatility while eliminating the complexity of manual parameter setting.
3Reliability
If alert thresholds are set to account for usage variability and seasonality, then false alerts are reduced, but the system requires sophisticated analysis of past usage data
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs feedback mechanisms by continuously monitoring actual usage against dynamically established baselines and automatically adjusting threshold parameters based on observed patterns. This closed-loop approach accounts for seasonality and variability by learning from historical data and refining predictions over time, thereby improving alert accuracy while managing complexity through automated iterative optimization rather than manual sophisticated analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
Illustrative embodiments are directed to methods and computer systems for reporting unusual or anomalous usage a commodity by consumers. A computer system retrieves a set of usage-information datasets corresponding to a set of consumers, each dataset including past usage of the commodity during at least one of a completed billing period and a current usage of the commodity during the current billing period. The computer system establishes a set of report-trigger conditions for the current billing period, each of the report-trigger conditions corresponding to a consumer. The computer system may monitor usage or spending of the set of consumers to determine, for each consumer, whether an estimated usage established for each consumer fulfills the consumer's report-trigger condition. Once the report-trigger condition is fulfilled, the computer system outputs a report to the consumer.