Optimizing operational efficiency and reducing costs of major energy system at large facilities

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The primary object of the subject invention is to provide a system and method for overcoming the deficiencies of the prior art and in particular to provide a system and method for producing highly accurate information for use by facilities managers in achieving more efficient facilities operation and energy cost containment.
Another object of the subject invention is to provide a computer implemented method for visually analyzing current and historic patterns of energy consumption in a facility to which energy is supplied by one or more utilities which bill for the energy supplied over consecutive billing periods at rates which may vary during some billing periods to determine the presence of possible operating errors, equipment problems, or hard-to-detect billing errors.
Still another object of the subject invention is to provide a computer implemented method including processing the stored data, in a computer, to create single period graphs which illustrate and tabulate energy consumption for each billing period (e.
g.
monthly) and to create multi-period graphs (e.
g.
yearly) which illustrate and tabulate energy consumption during multiple extended periods formed of consecutive billing periods to allow visual comparison of energy consumption during one billing period with energy consumption during another billing period and to allow visual comparison of energy consumption during one extended period with the energy consumption during a second extended period.
Yet another object of the subject invention is to create documented patterns representing unusual circumstances which could represent inefficient operation of the facility, for which solutions are known based on analysis of energy consumption by several large facilities over long periods, to allow identification of the nature of similarly inefficient facility operation as shown in the graphs produced by the disclosed method and to allow identification of possible solutions.
In particular, this object is achieved by the steps of replacing the stored data representing an unusual pattern of energy use or consumption by data representing a normalized pattern of energy use or consumption; reprocessing the stored data to calculate the effect on the cost under the normalized pattern of energy use or consumption; and creating a chart which records the differential in cost of the unusual pattern of energy use or consumption over the normalized pattern of energy use or consumption