Quantitative monthly visual indicator to determine data availability for utility rates
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional methods for determining utility consumption costs in central energy facilities are inefficient, particularly due to the manual entry of hourly utility rates, which is tedious and prone to errors, and fail to account for seasonal variations, making it difficult to accurately capture and validate utility usage data across different seasons and years.
Innovation Solution
A system and method for allocating resources across equipment in central energy plants that includes a planning tool with a user-friendly interface for defining utility rates, providing visual indicators for data completeness, and simulating energy usage to optimize resource allocation and cost determination, using historical data to validate operational inputs and ensure data exists for all time steps.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If manual entry of hourly utility rates is used, then utility consumption costs can be determined, but the process is tedious and prone to errors
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically retrieves utility rates from external sources and populates the rate structure without requiring manual data entry. The system self-services by fetching, parsing, and validating utility rate data, eliminating the tedious and error-prone manual entry process while maintaining high accuracy through automated data collection and validation rules
Solution Approach 2:
An automated data retrieval and validation system acts as an intermediary between external utility rate sources and the internal simulation engine. This intermediary automatically fetches utility rates, validates their completeness, and prepares them for simulation, eliminating direct manual interaction while ensuring data quality
2Measurement precision
If conventional methods are used to determine utility consumption costs, then costs can be calculated, but seasonal variations are not accounted for
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses dynamic time-step-based simulation that can adapt to seasonal variations in utility rates and consumption patterns. The simulation engine processes data at granular time steps (hourly, daily, monthly) and can incorporate time-varying utility rates that change with seasons, providing accurate measurements that reflect real-world seasonal fluctuations
Solution Approach 2:
The simulation period is segmented into discrete time steps (hours, days, months) that can be individually analyzed and validated. This segmentation allows the system to track and validate utility usage data at each time step, ensuring completeness and accuracy while capturing seasonal variations through the temporal breakdown of the simulation period
3Reliability
If visual indicators are provided for data completeness, then data validation is improved, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs color-coded visual indicators (e.g., green checkmarks for complete data, yellow warnings for partial data, red errors for missing data) to communicate data completeness status. These visual cues provide immediate, intuitive feedback on validation status without requiring complex interfaces or additional hardware, maintaining simplicity while enhancing reliability
Data Source
AI summary
A system for allocating resources across equipment that operate to serve one or more loads of a building. The system includes one or more memory devices storing instructions that cause one or more processors to receive operational data defining at least one of planned loads to be served by the equipment or utility rates for one or more time steps within a simulation period, determine whether the operational data define the planned loads or the utility rates for each time step within the simulation period, and in response to a determination that the operational data do not define the planned loads or the utility rates for each time step within the simulation period, identify one or more time steps for which the planned loads or the utility rates are not defined and initiate an action to define the planned loads or the utility rates for the identified time steps.