Enhanced meter management solution

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12487101-B2
Application number	US-202418407751-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2024
Priority date	Apr 11, 2019
Publication date	Dec 2, 2025
Grant date	Dec 2, 2025

Abstract

A method includes receiving, from a first head end system (HES), a first raw file including a first set of events in a first HES specific format, and modifying the first set of events in the first raw file by a first HES adapter to create a first unified formatted file. The first unified formatted file is in a unified format, and the first HES adapter is connected to the first HES. The method further include transforming, by a core HES adapter, the first unified formatted file to a first data management formatted file according to a data management format, and consuming the first data management formatted file.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . A method comprising:
receiving, by a central computer system executing a customer information system (CIS), a first raw file comprising a plurality of usage data in terms of meter reads; determining, by the CIS, whether the meter reads exist for meters not saved in the meter database; storing, by the CIS, a raw version of the plurality of usage data in a meter database; converting, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data to a data management format; storing, by the CIS, in the database, the plurality of usage data in the data management format; framing, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data in the data management format by aggregating the meter reads into two buckets relating to peak and off peak usage, wherein the framing includes mapping to a Time of Use (TOU) structure, and wherein framing procedures are assigned at a level of:
register/channel, meter program, rate category and device group; and
billing, by the CIS, a utility's end customers using the plurality of usage data in the data management format, wherein the framing and the billing is decided based on a type and quantity of validation errors.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting, by the CIS, the meter reads corresponding to meters not saved in the meter database as an invalid read; and estimating, by the CIS, the invalid read based on a customer account data.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
validating, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data using the customer account data.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein validating the plurality of usage data comprises:
detecting that a customer has a move out event in the customer account data; and marking the meter read of the plurality of usage data as unauthorized in response to the move out event.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting that interval data is not present; detecting a meter removal of a meter generating the meter read using customer account data; and interpolating a missing interval using a removal read based on the meter removal.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
creating a billing order; and framing the plurality of usage data to generate a report.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
deriving, by the CIS, an anchor read from a previous meter read and a daily consumption value, wherein a subset of the plurality of usage data are validated against the anchor read.

8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
validating, by the CIS, interval data of the subset of the plurality of usage data against a current read.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the plurality of usage data is advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) metering data.

10 . A system comprising:
a meter database; and a computer processor comprising instructions for causing the computer processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a central computer system executing a customer information system (CIS), a first raw file comprising a plurality of usage data in terms of meter reads;
determining, by the CIS, whether the meter reads exist for meters not saved in the meter database;
storing, by the CIS, a raw version of the plurality of usage data in the meter database;
converting, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data to a data management format,
storing, by the CIS, in the database, the plurality of usage data in the data management format;
framing, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data in the data management format by aggregating the meter reads into two buckets relating to peak and off peak usage, wherein the framing includes mapping to a Time of Use (TOU) structure, and wherein framing procedures are assigned at a level of:
register/channel, meter program, rate category and device group; and
billing, by the CIS, a utility's end customers using the plurality of usage data in the data management format, wherein the framing and the billing is decided based on a type and quantity of validation errors.

11 . The system of claim 10 , further comprising:
detecting the meter reads corresponding to meters not saved in the meter database as an invalid read; and estimating the invalid read based on a customer account data.

12 . The system of claim 11 , wherein the operations further comprises:
validating, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data using the customer account data.

13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein validating the plurality of usage data comprises:
detecting that a customer has a move out event in the customer account data; and marking the meter read of the plurality of usage data as unauthorized in response to the move out event.

14 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the operations further comprise:
detecting, by the CIS, that interval data is not present; detecting, by the CIS, a meter removal of a meter generating the meter read using customer account data; and interpolating, by the CIS, a missing interval using a removal read based on the meter removal.

15 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise:
deriving, by the CIS, an anchor read from a previous meter read and a daily consumption value, wherein a subset of the plurality of usage data are validated against the anchor read.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:
validating, by the CIS, interval data of the subset of the plurality of usage data against a current read.

17 . A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable program code for causing a computer system to perform operations comprising:
receiving, by a central computer system executing a customer information system (CIS), a first raw file comprising a plurality of usage data in terms of meter reads;
determining, by the CIS, whether the meter reads exist for meters not saved in the meter database;
storing, by the CIS, a raw version of the plurality of usage data in a meter database; converting, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data to a data management format; storing, by the CIS, in the database, the plurality of usage data in the data management format; framing, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data in the data management format by aggregating the meter reads into two buckets relating to peak and off peak usage, wherein the framing includes mapping to a Time of Use (TOU) structure, and wherein framing procedures are assigned at a level of:
register/channel, meter program, rate category and device group; and
billing, by the CIS, a utility's end customers using the plurality of usage data in the data management format, wherein the framing and the billing is decided based on a type and quantity of validation errors.

18 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprises:
validating, by the CIS, the plurality of usage data using a customer account data.

19 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise:
detecting, by the CIS, the meter reads corresponding to meters not saved in the meter database as an invalid read; and estimating, by the CIS, the invalid read based on the customer account data.

20 . The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 17 , wherein the operations further comprise:
detecting, by the CIS, that a customer has a move out event in customer account data; and marking, by the CIS, a meter read of the plurality of usage data as unauthorized in r

Assignees

• Cognizant Tech Solutions U S Corporation

Inventors

• Bui Christopher
• Raskin Alon
• Chandrasekharan Jagathguru
• Edens William

Classifications

• G06Q50/06 Primary

  Energy or water supply · CPC title

• H04Q9/02

  Automatically-operated arrangements · CPC title

• G06F16/258

  Data format conversion from or to a database · CPC title

• H04Q2209/60

  for transmitting utility meters data, i.e. transmission of data from the reader of the utility meter · CPC title

• G01D4/008

  Modifications to installed utility meters to enable remote reading · CPC title