Patent ID: 11861687
Assignee: ATLANTIC CITY ELECTRIC COMPANY
Field: IT methods for management (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 10:
11. A computer-based method of receiving a withdrawal request or a switch request in a computer-based auction, the method comprising:
receiving, via secure technology and a web server computer system, electronic bids from qualified bidders indicating at least one desired tranche of at least one of a plurality of products at a specified starting price for each of the at least one of the plurality of products during a first round;
calculating, via an application server computer system, a second round price for each of the at least one of the plurality of products for a second round based on the specified starting price and a number of tranches bid for each of the at least one of the plurality of products during the first round;
sending, via application software, a first round result of the first round to the qualified bidders, the first round result including the second round price for each of the at least one of the plurality of products and a notice of the number of tranches bid during the first round for each of the at least one of the plurality of products and an amount of excess supply offered during the first round for each of the plurality of products;
receiving, via the web server computer system, electronic bids for at least one tranche of the at least one of the plurality of products from the qualified bidders during the second round;
receiving, via the web server computer system, a withdrawal request or a switch request from at least one of the qualified bidders;
determining whether or not denying the withdrawal or switch request and retaining the withdrawn tranches will fully satisfy a tranche target;
denying the switch request when the number of tranches bid during the previous round for each of the at least one of the plurality of products is greater than the tranche target for that product and when the bid during the current round for that product and the withdrawn tranches for that product is less than the tranche target for that product;
accepting the withdrawal of the tranches from at least one of the plurality of denied switches when at least one of the denied switches from at least one particular product in the first round is outbid;
determining, via the application software, when the number of tranches bid during the second round are equal to or less than the tranche target for each of the at least one of the plurality of products; and
when the number of tranches bid for the second round are equal to or less than a certain threshold for each of the at least one of the plurality of products, ending, via the application software, the auction after the round and awarding winning bidders an ending price for each of the at least one of the plurality of products won by the winning bidders, wherein the ending price comprising one of a final price from a final round of bidding and a named exit price for each of the at least one of the plurality of products won by the winning bidders, wherein the winning bidders are determined based on the named exit price, and where bidders submitted the same named exit price, the bidders that submitted their bids earlier, based on the time-stamps of the bids, are the first to be allocated tranches, and
wherein a plurality of client browsers, the application server computer system, the web server computer system, the application software, and an auction database provide a multi-tier architecture and field-level database access control in combination with a constituent hierarchy, wherein the electronic bids are communicated over a plurality of tiers of the multi-tier architecture using secure technology, wherein each of the plurality of client browser interactively communicates with a web-based auction software, and wherein the validity of the electronic bids are based on a maximum number of allowable tranches that the at least one bidder can bid on for each round, each EDC, the auction, or pursuant to state and local rules.