JP2000078747A - Selecting method of electric power company and selection supporting system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the optimum selection of an electric power company by presenting the combination of contract conditions selected at every electric power company in response to the conditions of consumers in the contract conditions containing at least two of contract terms related to a meter rate, contract capacity related to a minimum charge and contract-load interruption related to a discount charge. SOLUTION: Consumers beforehand prepare power-consumption predetermined data 4 in conformity with rate systems in an input interface 12. An electric-rate charge calculating section 2 reads the power-consumption predetermined data 4, and outputs predicted electric rates 5a-5c corresponding to electric power companies a-c to a display interface 11 according to rate systems 3a-3c. A condition-combination generating section 6 reads the contents of databases 3 when rates differ by commercial conditions, and generates a plurality of combinations of the commercial conditions and registers the combinations on a combination list 10. The electric-rate calculating section 2 calculates electric rates at every combination, and presents the predicted electric rates 5a-5c to the consumers. Accordingly, the commercial conditions are satisfied, and an electric power company, from which a cheapest electric rate is presented, can be selected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a support system for a customer to select a power company to which a contract is to be made, and more particularly, to an optimum system for a customer when an electricity tariff system is complicated by a contract condition. A method and apparatus for easily selecting a power company.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The electric power market in Japan has been a regional monopoly market by electric power companies. In other words, consumers cannot freely select a power company. However, deregulation of electric power will allow consumers to freely select a power company in the near future. In fact, free choice has been realized in Pennsylvania in the United States. According to an article in the February 1998 issue of the IEEE Newspaper, a power company was selected from among 47 power companies. However, they report the real problem that it is not easy to know which power company is best to choose due to various fee structures.

[0003] By the way, consumers have to physically receive power supply from a specific power company. Nevertheless, the following briefly describes whether a sales contract can be selected from a plurality of power companies.

[0004] For example, it is assumed that the customer a is in the jurisdiction of the power company A, and the customer a is physically supplied with power from the power company A. In the conventional mechanism, the customer a automatically contracts with the power company A. At this time, the power generation cost of the power company A per unit power amount is 8 yen, and the power rate is
Assume that the yen and profit are 2 yen.

[0005] After deregulation, the contract between the customer and the power company is not limited to the physically supplying company. The power company B is linked to the power company A, and the power company B has a power generation cost of 5 yen per unit power. Then, it is assumed that the electric power company B sells electric power to the customer a for 9 yen. In order to transmit power from the power company B to the customer a, the power transmission and distribution facilities of the power company A must be physically used. Therefore, the electric power company B pays the electric power company A 3 yen per unit electric energy as the amount of transmission and distribution equipment used. As a result, the customer a can make a contract of 9 yen per unit electric energy with the electric power company B, which is one yen less than the contract with the electric power company A.

In this case, the electric power company A obtains a charge of 3 yen per unit electric energy from the electric power company B. In addition, since the electric power company B pays 5 yen to the power generation cost and 3 yen to the electric power company A out of the 9 yen electric charge received from the customer a, the remaining 1 yen can be made a profit. That is, since profits can be obtained for the three parties, a mechanism in which the customer selects and contracts with a power company becomes a reality.

[0007]

The points to be noted in the above-described mechanism in which a customer contracts with a power company freely selected are as follows.
Consumers are not interested in contracts between power companies, but in what contract each power company provides to them. This service doesn't stop at high electricity rates. For example, in a case where a consumer handles a perishable food product, a "load shedding contract" due to the convenience of a power company is difficult to accept even if the price is discounted.
For this reason, as described in the above-mentioned article, the customer selects the most appropriate power company for the customer while considering his / her own power consumption conditions and the amount of power consumption and the service contents of each power company. .

[0008] As a system in which a customer freely selects a contractor beyond physical restrictions, there is a similar telephone system automatic selection system. The telephone company automatic selection system automatically selects the telephone company that provides the cheapest call rate based on the distance and the call time zone of the call partner when the caller pushes the telephone number of the call partner, and Connect automatically. In this system, a telephone company is selected based only on the call charges. In fact, Japanese telephone services meet the basic qualities of any telephone company, such as noise and line availability, so the method of selecting a telephone company based on telephone charges alone is adapted to the actual situation of the telephone service .

[0009] Further, a telephone cannot be connected to a new call if there is not enough line, but once the call is connected, basically the call is not disconnected until the call ends. Therefore,
If the telephone user does not have access to the cheapest telephone company,
Will try the second cheapest telephone company. This telephone user's behavior is a real-time trade-off between quality (whether the call is connected or not) and price, regardless of whether the telephone user is conscious or not. Is equal to

On the other hand, in the case of electric power, even if the electric power is continuously used from the early morning, if the supply and demand become extremely tight around the noon, a power company and a customer contract based on a contract in order to avoid a power outage of the entire system. Power supply may be interrupted. That is, in the case of electric power, a trade-off between quality and price cannot be performed in real time. Therefore, it is necessary for customers to enter into appropriate contracts in advance, taking into account the trade-off between quality and price.

[0011] However, the trade-off between power quality and price is not as simple as a telephone when there are multiple choices of power companies, and once a contract is signed, the contract must be fulfilled for a certain period of time. However, selection requires careful consideration. In addition, the electric power tariff system is not simple at present, including a basic fee for a capacity contract, a pay-as-you-go fee based on usage, a fee according to a season and a time zone, and a special fee according to an emergency shut-down contract. In the future, if the electricity market is liberalized and electricity price competition is promoted, the fee system is expected to become more complicated. As a result, even if a customer has an opportunity to freely select a power company, it becomes increasingly difficult for the customer to determine which power company is the most appropriate contract.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method of selecting a power company and a selection support system that facilitates a customer to select an optimum power company from a trade-off between power quality and a charge.

[0013]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, which achieves the above object, provides a method in which a customer selects a power company based on desired conditions when a different fee system is used for each power company. In the contract conditions to be prescribed, the contract period including at least two of the contract period related to the usage-based fee, the contract capacity related to the basic fee, and the contract load rejection related to the discount fee, is separately set for each power company according to the desired condition of the customer. And selecting a combination of the selected contract conditions.

[0014] Further, when a desired condition of the customer is reserved with respect to the contract conditions having options, the combination of the contract conditions by all the options is presented.

[0015] Further, based on the combination of the above-mentioned contract conditions and the power consumption schedule data of the customer prepared for a certain period prepared in advance, an electricity rate for each electric power company is calculated and presented for each combination of the above-mentioned contract conditions. When the designated condition is reserved for one of the contract conditions having options, the combination of all the options of the contract condition is presented.

A support system for selecting a power company according to the present invention includes a database for storing a charge system of a plurality of power companies, a database for storing scheduled power consumption data of consumers, and a plurality of contracts for defining the charge system. A condition combination unit that selects from the conditions and creates a combination list of contract conditions for each power company; and an electricity rate calculation unit that calculates an electricity rate for a scheduled contract period of a customer based on the combination list and the power consumption schedule data. And a display device for presenting the electricity rate of each power company for each combination of the combination list.

Further, the selection support processing device is provided with a condition setting control unit for inquiring about the intention of the customer, and the condition combination unit deletes a combination contrary to the intention of the customer.

The general operation of the power company selection support system according to the present invention will be described. This system calculates the electricity tariff corresponding to each electric power company's tariff based on the consumer's power consumption schedule data, and presents the calculation results together with the contract conditions that stipulate the tariff system, so that the customer can optimize himself / herself. To select the right power company.

The charge system of each power company is input in advance by a system developer. Consumers apply their own power consumption schedule data to each company's tariff system to obtain a fee. The electricity rate presented as a result depends on not only the power consumption but also a capacity contract and an emergency shutdown contract. The charge system is defined in these contract conditions, and the contents of the contract conditions can be acquired by referring to the charge system. In this system, these conditions are presented to the customer, and the customer confirms the intention of the desired condition. In this case, the system allows the customer to suspend the intention of the contract conditions, creates a combination of the contract conditions with all options for the suspended conditions, obtains the electricity rate for each, and presents it to the customer I do. Thereby, the consumer can judge whether or not to adopt the contract condition in consideration of the fee.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a power company selection support system according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of a power company selection support system according to one embodiment. This system is a processing device 1,
Display interface 11 and input interface 1
2 and is realized by a computer device such as a personal computer. The processing device 1 includes an electricity bill calculator 2, a database 3,
A condition combination generating unit 6, a condition setting control unit 8, and a combination list 10 are provided.

The database 3 stores the charge systems 3a to 3c of the electric power companies a to c classified according to contract conditions. Specifically, a fee system in which contract conditions and the like are in the form of IF-THEN rules is stored. The user of the system, i.e.
First, the power consumption schedule data 4 corresponding to the fee system is created in advance. For example, if there is a power company that adopts a time-based charge, the power consumption schedule data 4 is created at time intervals equal to or shorter than the time interval.

The electricity rate calculation unit 2 calculates power consumption schedule data 4
Is read and predicted electricity rates 5a to 5c corresponding to the electric power companies a to c according to the rate systems 3a to 3c of the database 3.
And outputs it to the display interface 11.

When the fee differs depending on the contract condition, the condition combination generating unit 6 reads the contents of the database 3, generates a plurality of combinations of the contract conditions, and registers them in the combination list 10. The electricity rate calculator 2 calculates an electricity rate for each combination registered in the combination list 10.

The processing apparatus 1 is provided with a condition setting control unit 8, which can prompt a customer to make a decision from a decision prompt 7, and can take in a result of a customer decision from a decision input unit 9. I have to. For example, the decision prompt 7 urges the customer to make a decision on certain contract conditions, takes in the decision made by the customer from the decision input unit 9, and transmits it to the condition setting combination generating unit 6.
The condition setting combination generation unit 6 deletes the combination contrary to the decision from the combination list 10.

As described above, the estimated electricity rates 5a to 5c of the respective electric power companies a to c calculated by the electricity rate calculation unit 2 for each combination of contract conditions are presented to the consumer through the display interface 11. As a result, each customer can select a power company that satisfies the contract conditions necessary for him and that has the lowest power rate. Alternatively, when the customer wants to determine the contract terms in consideration of the electricity rate, the determination of the customer can be supported by comparatively presenting the electricity rates based on the combination of the contract terms.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a plurality of fee systems.
(A)-(c) are specific examples of the fee systems 3a-3.
The charge system in this example is designed to calculate based on the contract period related to the pay-as-you-go rate, the contract capacity related to the basic charge, and the contract condition of load shedding related to the discount of the basic charge. Based on these fee systems, a description will be given of a support operation for selecting a power company when making a contract for the next three months from the power companies a to c.

The consumer first creates the power consumption schedule data 4 for the previous three months. According to the time-based charges of the charge systems 3a to 3c in FIG. 2, (b) 0:00 am to 5:00 am, 5:00 am to 10:00 am, 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, and 3 pm
Hours to 12:00 pm are the most subdivided and need to be less than this. Here, it is assumed that one-hour scheduled data is created.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the power consumption schedule data for one day. As described above, since it is going to select a power company for the next three months, it is originally desirable to have data for three months. Here, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that every day for three months is repeated in the same pattern.

The condition combination generating unit 6 generates a combination of contract conditions to be registered in the combination list 10 in order from the fee system 3a. First, consider the contract period for the pay-as-you-go fee as a contract condition. The charge system 3a has a contract condition of a pay-as-you-go fee, "If a contract is made for one year or more, it is reduced to 2/3 from one year later". However, since the contract period is set to three months, the condition combination generating unit 6 determines that there is no need to consider these conditions, and inquires the customer of "Do you contract for one year or more?" , "Contracts of less than one year are unrelated to discounts on pay-as-you-go rates." As a result, the customer can be notified of the existence of the discount condition of the pay-as-you-go rate compared to the case of simply excluding from the combination list.

As a next contract condition, consider a capacity contract related to a basic charge. According to the power consumption schedule data of FIG.
Consumes up to 3 kilowatt-hours of electricity per hour.
The condition combination generation unit 6 requests that a capacity of at least 30 amps be required when the power consumption is 3 kilowatts, and further selects “20 amps or more” from the capacity rank of the fee system 3a.

Next, consider a load shedding contract as a contract condition. The discount rate of the basic charge differs depending on whether the load shedding discount is “with advance notice” or “without advance notice”. The condition combination generation unit 6 issues a question to the customer via the condition setting control unit 8 as to “Do you want to make a load shedding contract?” And “If you make a contract, with or without prior notice?”. Here, for example, the customer “contracts load shedding with advance notice”
Is returned from the decision making unit 9 to the condition combination generating unit 6. As a result, a combination of contract conditions relating to the charge system 3a is registered in the combination list 10.

Similarly, condition combination generating section 6 obtains a combination of contract conditions to be registered in combination list 10 from fee system 3b. The charge system 3b has no conditions related to the contract period. It is assumed that the capacity contract is “20 amperes or more” and the load shedding discount is “contract load shedding with advance notice”.

Similarly, condition combination generating section 6 obtains a combination to be registered in combination list 10 from fee system 3c. According to the fee system 3c, there is a contract condition of "if a contract is made for one year or more, two discounts from the contract time". Depending on whether or not a contract is made for one year or more, the electricity rate for the three months of the set period differs. Therefore, the above condition is presented to the customer via the condition setting control unit 8 and the decision prompt 7 and "1 year Do you subscribe? " Here, it is assumed that a response of “do not make a contract for one year or more” is obtained from the decision input unit 9.

Next, a capacity contract is selected. As described above, a capacity of at least 30 amps is required from the power consumption pattern of FIG. In this case, in the fee system 3c, there are two options, “up to 40 amps” and “40 amps or more”. Here, it is assumed that the answer "up to 40 amps" has been obtained. In addition, regarding the load shedding contract, "Sign a load shedding contract with advance notice"
Shall be obtained.

FIG. 4 shows the registered contents of the combination list for each fee system. As shown above, the condition combination generation unit 6 automatically or ascertains the intention of the customer and selects and shows a set of contract conditions for each of the fee systems 3a to 3c registered in the combination list 10.

From this combination list, it is possible to compare the qualitative conditions of the electric power supply of each electric power company, so that it is possible to determine to some extent whether or not the electric power company is suitable for the customer based on, for example, the difference between the capacity contract and the load shedding contract. Furthermore, a comparison of electricity rates, which is a quantitative condition of power supply, makes it possible to realize a truly optimal choice.

Next, a description will be given of a method of calculating an expected electricity bill for three months for each power company. The electricity rate calculator 2 calculates electricity rates according to the fee systems a to c according to the contract conditions of the combination list 10.

Since the electricity rate based on the rate system 3a is described in the combination list 10 as "the contract for one year or more is not related to the metered rate", the metered rate is calculated as 12 yen / kWh without discount. That is, using the power consumption schedule data of FIG. 3 to calculate the pay-per-use rate for 90 days is 42120 yen. Also, the capacity contract fee is "20 amps or more"
Because of this, it is 4000 yen / month, so it costs 12,000 yen for 3 months. Further, since the load shedding contract discount is 100 yen / month discount based on the “load shedding contract with advance notice”,
A discount of 300 yen per month. From the above, fee structure 3
The total expected electricity bill for three months based on
0 yen + 12,000 yen-300 yen = 53820 yen.

Similarly, the estimated electricity rate based on the rate system 3b is as follows: the metered rate is 44100 yen, and the capacity contract rate is “20”.
The contract is 7,200 yen for an ampere contract or more and 360 yen for a load shedding contract discount for a load shedding contract with advance notice, so the total is 44100 yen + 7200 yen-360 yen = 5
0940 yen.

The same applies to the expected electricity bill according to the billing system 3c. The pay-as-you-go fee is "No contract for one year or more", so 48600 yen without discount.
"Up to 0 amps" gives a discount of 9000 yen, and a load shedding contract discount of ¥ 300 for three months with a "load shedding contract with advance notice". As described above, the total charge based on the charge system 3c is 48600 yen + 9000 yen-300 yen = 57300 yen.

FIG. 5 shows a calculation result of the expected electricity bill based on the contract conditions and the billing system. When calculating the expected electricity rates 5a to 5c for each power company, the electricity rate calculator 2 outputs the estimated electricity rates 5a to 5c to the display interface 11. It can be seen that the electric power company of the fee structure 3b is most advantageous for the consumer.

According to the present embodiment, the customer can obtain a list of combinations of contract conditions for each power company only by responding to the choice of contract conditions, so that these combinations match their own use conditions. Can be easily determined. Furthermore, since the calculation result of the expected electricity rate in the meantime can be obtained from the combination conditions and the scheduled power consumption data for a certain period, it is possible to easily select a power company that satisfies desired use conditions and has the lowest electricity rate.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. It is assumed that the system configuration in FIG. 1, the fee system in FIG. 2, and the scheduled power consumption data in FIG. 3 are the same. In the above-described embodiment, when the contract condition combination list is generated, the customer's determined intention with respect to the selection condition is obtained. However, in reality, the intention of the consumer cannot often be determined immediately from the beginning. In the present embodiment, a description will be given of a method of generating a combination list and calculating an expected electricity rate when a customer suspends a decision on contract conditions.

FIG. 6 shows a combination list (2) when the customer suspends his or her intention regarding the contract conditions. The condition combination generation unit 6 generates all options for the conditions for which the customer has suspended the selection among the conditions with options. Options for each selection condition are prepared in advance. For example, fee structure 3
When there is no indication in the load shedding contract of a, “the load shedding contract has a prior notice”, “the load shedding contract has no prior notice”
And all of the three options of “do not make a load shedding contract” are listed.

The electricity rate calculator 2 performs the same calculation as in the above embodiment for all of these combinations, and outputs the calculation result to the display interface 11. FIG. 7 shows a calculation result (2) of the expected electricity rate based on the combination list (2).

In the figure, for example, in the charge contract 3c, the contract period is less than one year and one year or more, the contract capacity is less than 40 amps and 40 amps, the load shedding contract is "with advance notice",
Electricity charges are calculated for all combinations of "no prior notice" and "no load shedding contract".

For example, if the user selects "a contract of one year or more", "capacity contract is up to 40 amps", and "load shedding contract requires advance notice" in the charge system 3c, the total electricity charge is 47580 yen. In this case, the price is lower than 50940 yen of “the load shedding contract has a prior notice” of the lowest price system 3b in FIG. However, in this case, a contract with power company c must be made for one year or more.
In the meantime, there is a risk that even better power companies will not be able to switch to them. Therefore, the customer considers the price difference and the magnitude of the risk, and selects the electric power company c if the price difference is more important.

According to the present embodiment, when the customer suspends the decision making for various options, the consumer receives the presentation of the electricity rate calculated based on the combination of all the suspended options and other conditions. The most advantageous choice for the consumer can be made. In addition, it is easy to use because it is possible to suspend items that are difficult to make a decision.

[0050]

According to the present invention, in the case of a tariff system in which the electricity rates differ according to the contract conditions for each power company, a plurality of combinations of the contract conditions are created for each company in accordance with the specification of the customer. The presentation makes it easy to select a power company suitable for the power consumption condition of the customer.

Further, since the estimated power consumption data of the customer is applied to the combination of the contract conditions and the estimated electricity rate is presented for each company, an optimum power company for the customer can be easily selected.

Further, when there is an option in the contract conditions, it is possible to suspend the specification of the customer, and a combination of the contract conditions based on all the retained options and the estimated electricity rate are presented. The most suitable power company can be selected while comparing all the items.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a power company selection support system.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a charge system of three electric power companies.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing an example of daily power consumption schedule data of a consumer.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a combination list (1) of contract conditions for each fee system.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a calculation result (1) of an electricity fee for each fee system.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view showing a contract condition combination list (2) according to another embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a calculation result (2) of an electricity bill according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Selection support processing apparatus, 2 ... Electricity rate calculation part, 3 ... Charge system database, 4 ... Electric power consumption schedule database, 6
... Condition combination generating unit, 7 decision prompt, 8 condition setting control unit, 9 decision input unit, 10 combination list, 11 display interface, 12 input interface.

Claims (5)

[Claims] [Claim 1] In the case of a different charge system for each power company,
In a method in which a customer selects an electric power company based on desired conditions, at least a contract period related to a usage-based fee, a contract capacity related to a basic fee, and a contract load rejection related to a discount fee under contract conditions that define the fee system. A method for selecting a power company, comprising selecting two or more contract conditions for each electric power company according to a desired condition of the customer and presenting a combination of the selected contract conditions. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a desired condition of the customer is reserved for one of the contract conditions having options, a combination of the contract conditions by all the options is presented. A method for selecting a power company. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein an electricity bill for each electric power company is calculated based on the combination of the contract conditions and the power consumption scheduled data of the customer prepared for a certain period prepared in advance. A method for selecting a power company, which is presented for each combination. 4. In the case of a different fee structure for each power company,
In a support system in which a customer selects a power company based on desired conditions, a database that stores a plurality of power company fee structures,
A database for storing power consumption schedule data of consumers, a condition combination unit for selecting from a plurality of contract conditions that define the fee structure, and creating a combination list of contract conditions for each power company, the combination list and the power consumption Based on the schedule data, a selection support processing device having an electricity rate calculation unit that calculates the electricity rate of the customer's scheduled contract period, and a display device that presents the electricity rate of each power company for each combination of the combination list, A selection support system for electric power companies, characterized by the provision of: 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the selection support processing device is provided with a condition setting control unit for inquiring about a customer's intention, and the condition combination unit deletes a combination contrary to the customer's intention. Support system for electric power companies.