Abstract:
A system includes a utility analytics system. The utility analytics system includes a memory configured to store a utility rating scheme system relating to consumption pricing of a utility, and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to execute the utility rating scheme system for receiving an indication corresponding to a consumption of the utility, and deriving a dynamic utility rating scheme based at least in part on one or more cost indicators associated with a production of the utility or an operation of a grid configured to deliver the utility. The dynamic utility rating scheme comprises a cost-based pricing mechanism to adjust the pricing or the consumption of the utility.

Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    The invention relates generally to utility delivery and service infrastructure, and more specifically to methods and systems for providing dynamic utility consumption ratings for end users of a utility service. 
         [0002]    Certain energy infrastructure, such as electric power transmission and distribution grids, may include a variety of systems and components with sensors and detection devices that detect and analyze energy and/or other utility data. Certain associations with the energy infrastructure may include contracts, service level agreements, and the like, detailing capitalization, cost, and revenues for the energy infrastructure. A practice of many energy and/or other utility providers may be to provide flat rate pricing to consumers. Unfortunately, the flat rate pricing may not reflect certain energy costs variations, thus resulting in a disconnection between the costs of energy generation and delivery, for example, and the actual costs that the consumers pay. It may be useful to provide methods to improve energy rate pricing. 
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION 
       [0003]    Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimed invention are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claimed invention, but rather these embodiments are intended only to provide a brief summary of possible forms of the invention. Indeed, the invention may encompass a variety of forms that may be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth below. 
         [0004]    A system includes a utility analytics system. The utility analytics system includes a memory configured to store a utility rating scheme system relating to consumption pricing of a utility, and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to execute the utility rating scheme system for receiving an indication corresponding to a consumption of the utility, and deriving a dynamic utility rating scheme based at least in part on one or more cost indicators associated with a production of the utility or an operation of a grid configured to deliver the utility. The dynamic utility rating scheme comprises a cost-based pricing mechanism to adjust the pricing or the consumption of the utility. 
         [0005]    A non-transitory computer-readable medium having code stored thereon, the code includes instructions to receive a first indication corresponding to a pricing of a utility, to receive a second indication corresponding to a consumption of a utility; and to derive a dynamic utility rating scheme based at least in part on one or more cost indicators associated with a production of the utility or an operation of a grid configured to deliver the utility. The dynamic utility rating scheme comprises a cost-based pricing mechanism to adjust the pricing or the consumption of the utility. 
         [0006]    A system includes a memory configured to store an energy pricing scheme system relating to consumption pricing of electric power, and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to execute the energy pricing scheme system to derive a dynamic energy pricing scheme based at least in part on one or more cost effectors associated with a generation of the electric power or an operation of an electric power grid configured to deliver the electric power to an end user. The dynamic energy pricing scheme includes a cost-based pricing implementation for consumption of the electric power. 
     
    
     
       DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein: 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an embodiment of an energy generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure system; 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an embodiment of a utility analytics system included in the system of  FIG. 1 , in accordance with present embodiments; 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  illustrates chart diagrams of comparisons of a flat rating scheme, a time-of-use rating scheme, and a dynamic rating scheme, in accordance with present embodiments; and 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of a process suitable for providing dynamic utility consumption ratings, in accordance with present embodiments. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0012]    One or more specific embodiments of the invention will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers&#39; specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure. 
         [0013]    When introducing elements of various embodiments of the invention, the articles “a,” “an,” “the,” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of the elements. The terms “comprising,” “including,” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed elements. 
         [0014]    Present embodiments relate to a utility analytics system that may derive and/or store a cost-reflective dynamic utility rating scheme, in which a utility provider can offer as a cost-effective option to consumers in addition to, or in the place of the existing utility rating and/or pricing schemes such as, flat rating schemes and/or time-of-use (TOU) rating schemes. The dynamic utility rating scheme may account and/or compensate for variable costs in production and delivery of the utility, and, thus, provide the consumer with the best possible pricing and/or rating over, for example, one complete billing cycle (e.g., one month). Specifically, the utility analytics system may derive a number of utility pricing and/or rating schemes to be used by the utility provider to provide customers with multiple pricing and/or rating schemes. The derived pricing and/or rating schemes may include at least one scheme (e.g., flat rating and/or pricing scheme) that may be used as a base scheme (e.g., a reference scheme that may not provide any flexibility to the consumers), while the derived dynamic rating schemes and/or TOU rating schemes may provide additional and/or alternative pricing and/or rating schemes, thus allowing the utility provider and/or the consumers to track the most efficient and cost-effective pricing and/or rating scheme. As used herein “utility” may refer to a service such as electricity, gas, or water that may be provided to a consumer by a utility provider (e.g., electricity utility provider, gas utility provider, water utility provider, and so forth) for use by the consumer. Moreover, the techniques described herein may not be limited to electricity systems, but may also be extended to any utility systems, such as gas systems, water systems, sewage systems, aeration systems, and the like. 
         [0015]    With the foregoing in mind, it may be useful to describe an embodiment of an infrastructure, such as an example energy grid system  10  illustrated in  FIG. 1 . It should again be noted that the systems and methods described herein may apply to a variety of infrastructures, including but not limited to power distribution infrastructures, gas delivery infrastructures, and various fluid (e.g., water) delivery infrastructures. As depicted, the energy grid system  10  may include one or more utility providers  12 . The utility provider  12  may provide for oversight operations of the energy grid system  10 . For example, utility control centers  14  may monitor and direct power produced by one or more power generation stations  16  and alternative utility generation stations  18 ,  20 , and  22 . The power generation stations  16  may include conventional power generation stations, such as power generation stations using gas, coal, biomass, and other carbonaceous products for fuel. The alternative utility generation station  18  may include power generation stations using solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power, geothermal power, and other alternative sources of power (e.g., renewable energy) to produce electricity. Other alternative utility generation stations may include a water power producing plant  20  and geothermal power producing plant  22 . For example, water power producing plants  20  may provide for hydroelectric power generation, and geothermal power producing plants  22  may provide for geothermal power generation. 
         [0016]    The power generated by the power generation stations  16 ,  18 ,  20 , and  22  may be transmitted through a power transmission grid  24 . The power transmission grid  24  may cover a broad geographic region or regions, such as one or more municipalities, states, or countries. The transmission grid  24  may also be a single phase alternating current (AC) system, but most generally may be a three-phase AC current system. As depicted, the power transmission grid  24  may include a series of towers to support a series of overhead electrical conductors in various configurations. For example, extreme high voltage (EHV) conductors may be arranged in a three conductor bundle, having a conductor for each of three phases. The power transmission grid  24  may support nominal system voltages in the ranges of 110 kilovolts (kV) to 765 kilovolts (kV) or more. In the depicted embodiment, the power transmission grid  24  may be electrically coupled to a power distribution substation and grid  26 . The power distribution substation and grid  26  may include transformers to transform the voltage of the incoming power from a transmission voltage (e.g., 765 kV, 500 kV, 345 kV, or 138 kV) to primary (e.g., 13.8 kV or 4160V) and secondary (e.g., 480V, 240V, or 120V) distribution voltages. For example, industrial electric power consumers (e.g., production plants) may use a primary distribution voltage of 13.8 kV, while power delivered to commercial and residential consumers may be in the secondary distribution voltage range of 120V to 480V. 
         [0017]    As again depicted in  FIG. 1 , the power transmission grid  24  and power distribution substation and grid  26  may be part of the energy grid system  10 . Accordingly, the power transmission grid  24  and power distribution substation  26  may include various digital and automated technologies to control power electronic equipment such as generators, switches, circuit breakers, reclosers, and so forth. In certain embodiments, the power transmission grid  24  and power distribution substation and grid  26  may also deliver power and communicate data such as changes in electric load demand to a meter  30 . 
         [0018]    In certain embodiments, the meter  30  may be an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) meter used to collect, measure, and analyze electric power usage and/or generation. For example, electric utilities may report to consumers their usage and/or generation per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for billing and/or crediting purposes. The meter  30  may be electrically and communicatively coupled to one or more of the components of the system  10 , including the power transmission grids  24 , power distribution substation and grid  26 , and a commercial and/or industrial consumer  32  and residential consumer  34 . Additionally, the meter  30  may enable two-way communication between commercial and residential consumers  32 ,  34  and the utility control center  14 , providing for a link between consumer behavior and electric power usage and/or generation. For example, the meter  30  may track and account for pre-paid energy usage and/or energy used before payment As noted above, electric power may also be generated by the consumers (e.g., commercial consumers  32 , residential consumers  34 ). For example, the consumers  32 ,  34  may interconnect a distributed generation (DG) resource (e.g., solar panels or wind turbines) to generate and deliver power to the grid  26 . As further illustrated, communicatively coupled to components (e.g., utility control center  14 , power generation stations  16 ,  18 ,  20 , and  22 , transmission grid  24 , substation and grid  26 , meter  30 , and so forth) of the system  10  may be an analytics system  38 . 
         [0019]      FIG. 2  is a block diagram of an embodiment of the utility analytics system  38 . As illustrated, the utility analytics system  38  may include one or more processors  44 , a memory  46  (e.g., storage), input/output (I/O) ports (e.g., one or more network interfaces  47 ), an operating system, software applications, and so forth, useful in implementing the techniques described herein. Particularly, the utility analytics system  38  may include code or instructions stored in a tangible non-transitory machine-readable medium (e.g., the memory  46  and/or storage) and executed, for example, by the one or more processors  44  that may be included in the analytics system  38 . Additionally, the utility analytics system  38  may include a network interface  47 , which may allow communication within the system  10  via a personal area network (PAN) (e.g., NFC), a local area network (LAN) (e.g., Wi-Fi), a wide area network (WAN) (e.g., 3G or LTE), a physical connection (e.g., an Ethernet connection, power line communication (PLC)), and/or the like. 
         [0020]    In certain embodiments, as will be discussed in further detail below, the utility analytics system  38  may be used to derive and store data related to certain business parameters such as billed and unbilled energy, billing cycle data, energy rates, dynamic rating and billing schemes, and so forth. Accordingly, the utility analytics system  38  may receive continuous (and/or predetermined timed) updates of the energy usage of the consumers  32  and  34 , and report such information to the utility provider  12  and/or utility control center  14 . Indeed, the utility analytics system  38  may receive (e.g., via the one or more processors  44 ) and store (e.g., to the memory  46 ) the cost of energy, the amount of energy used at the use end point (e.g., commercial buildings, residences) and/or billed to the consumers  32 ,  34 , the amount of energy unbilled (e.g., energy used by the consumers  32 ,  34  or lost over a billing cycle but has not yet been billed), time-of-use (TOU) data, and usage and load profiles, and may derive one or more billing and/or energy rating schemes (e.g., flat rating scheme, TOU rating scheme, dynamic rating, and so forth) based on consumer  32 ,  34  usage data collected. 
         [0021]    As further illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the utility analytics system  38  may receive data from external data services  42  communicatively coupled to the one or more processors  44  of the utility analytics system  38 . The one or more processors  44  may transfer the received data between systems of the memory  46  internal to the utility analytics system  38 . This data may include energy and business-related data, which in some embodiments, may be derived and/or calculated based on data received from the transmission grid  24 , distribution substation and grid  26 , the meters  30 , and so forth. The external data services  42  may include systems useful in exchanging data with components (e.g., generation stations  16 ,  18 ,  20 , and  22 , grids  24  and  26 , meter  30 , and so forth) external to the analytics system  38 . For example, the external data services  42  may include systems such as an Outage Management System (OMS), a Distribution Management System (DMS), a Geographic Information System (GIS), Customer Information System (CIS), a Meter Data Management (MDM), an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), an Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), a Meter Data Repository (MDR), or other similar external systems. As will be further appreciated, the data received via the OMS, DMS, GIS, CIS, MDM, MDR, and AMI systems may be input to internal systems of the utility analytics system  38 , such as an energy rating scheme system  48  and business rules system  50  stored, for example, in the memory  46  and executed by the one or more processor(s)  44  of the utility analytics system  38 . 
         [0022]    In certain embodiments, the energy rating scheme system  48  (e.g., executed via the processor  44 ) may be a software system and/or a combination of software and hardware that may be used to derive and/or calculate dynamic energy rating and/or pricing schemes for consumers  32 ,  34 . For example, in certain embodiments, the energy rating scheme system  48  may derive a number of energy billing rating schemes such as a flat rating scheme, TOU rating scheme, or a dynamic scheme. Specifically, the energy rating scheme system  48  (e.g., executed via the processor  44 ) may be used to calculate the dynamic energy billing ratings for a specific billing cycle (e.g., hourly, daily, monthly, quarterly, and/or annually), and may report to consumers  32 ,  34  their usage per kWh for billing purposes. For example, the flat rating scheme may include a flat (e.g., commercially inactive) billing rate (e.g., price per kWh) charged to consumers  32 ,  34  irrespective of variations in, for example, generation and delivery costs, energy demand, TOU data, seasonal changes, weather variations, business incentives and/or business disincentives, and so forth. 
         [0023]    Conversely, the TOU rating scheme generated by the energy rating scheme system  48  may include, for example, rates corresponding to an off-peak rate, a near-peak rate, or a peak rate. For example, the off-peak rate may be applied to consumers  32 ,  34  energy usage during, for example, hours ranging from approximately 10:00 p.m. to approximately 6:00 a.m. Similarly, the near-peak rate may be applied to consumers  32 ,  34  energy usage during, for example, hours ranging from approximately 6:00 a.m. to approximately 5:00 p.m., while the peak energy rate may be applied, for example, during hours ranging from approximately 5:00 p.m. to approximately 10:00 p.m. In other embodiments, the TOU rating scheme may also take into account the date and time that the meter  30  is read, holidays and weekends, and so forth. 
         [0024]    However, when providing only flat rating schemes and TOU rating schemes, the energy rating scheme system  48  may not account for real-time energy cost variations such as those resulting from, for example, generation and delivery costs for the utility provider  12 , energy demand of the consumers  32 ,  34 , specific TOU data, seasonal changes, infrastructure maintenance, business-related data such as incentives and/or discounts to the consumers  32 ,  34 , and so forth. For example, the real-time cost of energy generation and delivery, and thus consumption of energy by the consumers  32 ,  34 , may be affected by the season of the year. For example, energy rates may be generally higher (e.g., due to consumers  32 ,  34  rising energy demand for cooling systems, and the increase in cost of electric power generation and/or delivery by the utility provider  12 ) during the latter spring and summer months (e.g., May-September), but much less during the cooler winter months (e.g., October-April). Thus, consumers  32 ,  34  subject to only a flat rating scheme may not be apt to take advantage of periods of lower cost energy consumption. Similarly, consumers  32 ,  34  subject to only a TOU rating scheme may not be subject to certain energy cost savings during periods of lower cost energy consumption. This may result in a disconnection between the time-based and/or cost-based expenses of energy generation and/or energy delivery by the utility provider  12 , and the actual prices the consumers  32 ,  34  may be subject to paying. This may further lead to vast inefficiencies, and an improvident use of resources (e.g., financial resources, infrastructure) of both the utility provider  12  and the consumers  32 ,  34 . 
         [0025]    Accordingly, in certain embodiments, it may be useful for the energy rating scheme system  48  (e.g., executed via the processor  44 ) to derive and/or calculate a dynamic rating scheme based on, for example, real-time or near real-time energy and/or business related data. Specifically, the energy rating scheme system  48  (e.g., executed via the processor  44 ) may derive the dynamic rating scheme based on data received via the OMS, DMS, GIS, CIS, MDM, MDR, and AMI systems along with certain criteria or predetermined rules (e.g., one or more business rules) generated by a business rules system  50  that may be included in the utility analytics system  38 . The business rules system  50  may be any system (e.g., software system and/or software application) executed by the one or more processor(s)  44  useful in generating one or more business rules including, for example, financial goals, company policies, legal regulations, and/or similar business (e.g., utility provider  12 ) operations data that may affect energy ratings and/or consumption pricing. 
         [0026]    In certain embodiments, the dynamic rating scheme generated by the energy rating scheme system  48  (e.g., via the processor  44 ) may be a cost-reflective dynamic pricing scheme that may, in some embodiments, include an aggregate of other rating and/or pricing schemes such as the TOU rating scheme or other time-based and cost-based rating schemes. Specifically, the dynamic rating scheme may account for the variations in costs of energy generation and/or delivery, and may incentivize the consumers  32 ,  34  to practice more economical and efficient consumption patterns. For example, the consumers  32 ,  34  may experience certain financial savings by learning to shift energy demand during periods of generally higher energy costs (e.g., peak time periods, summer months, and so forth) to periods of lower energy costs (e.g., off-peak time periods). This information may be provided to the consumers  32 ,  34  via the dynamic rating scheme generated by the energy rating scheme system  48 . 
         [0027]    In certain embodiments, the dynamic rating scheme generated by the energy rating scheme system  48  may be provided as merely an option to the consumers  32 ,  34 . For example, at the end of each billing cycle (e.g., monthly billing cycle), the bills of the consumers  32 ,  34  may be calculated based on each rating scheme (e.g., flat rating scheme, TOU rating scheme, dynamic rating scheme) the consumer  32 ,  34  elected to participate in. The energy rating scheme system  48  may then calculate the consumers  32 ,  34  bills according to the rating scheme and/or aggregate of rating schemes that yields the minimum costs (e.g., price per kWh) to the consumers  32 ,  34 . The consumers  32 ,  34  may then be required to pay only the lesser of the pricing ratings calculated according to the derived rating schemes, and based on a comparison between the consumers&#39;  32 ,  34  energy consumption patterns and the derived rating scheme. In this way, the consumers  32 ,  34  may likely pay a lesser value, or at worst, an equal value to what the consumer  32 ,  34  would pay based only the flat rating scheme and the TOU rating scheme. That is, the dynamic rating scheme generated by the energy rating scheme system  48  may take into account the real-time or near real-time factors (e.g., generation and delivery costs, energy demand, fuel prices, specific TOU data, seasonal changes, weather variations, business-related data such as tax incentives, tax disincentives, energy stock prices, and changing infrastructure maintenance and operating costs, changing regulations and policies, and so forth) that may affect the costs of energy generation and/or delivery, and by extension, the cost of energy consumption by the consumers  32 ,  34 . Moreover, because the dynamic rating scheme may be optional and likely to result in only financial savings (e.g., instead of additional costs) by the consumer  32 ,  34  and the utility provider  12 , the dynamic rating scheme may be implemented by the utility provider  12  under the existing laws and regulations governing the energy costs and consumption. 
         [0028]    As an example illustration,  FIG. 3  depicts a diagram  52  of a consumer&#39;s (e.g., consumers  32 ,  34 ) energy consumption (e.g., kWh) and cost (e.g., price per kWh) pattern over, for example, one billing cycle (e.g., one month), and a cost comparison diagram  54  of the flat rating scheme, the TOU rating scheme, and the dynamic rating scheme. Specifically, the diagram  52  presents a comparison of a consumer  32 ,  34  practicing an indifferent energy consumption pattern  56  and a consumer  32 ,  34  practicing an economical consumption pattern  58  as allowed by providing the dynamic rating scheme. The diagram  52  also illustrates a flat rating scheme plot  60  (e.g., price per kWh), a TOU rating scheme plot  62  (e.g., price per kWh), and a dynamic rating scheme plot  64  (e.g., price per kWh). As depicted, the consumer  32 ,  34  practicing the indifferent energy consumption pattern  56  may be subject to higher energy costs when, for example, consuming energy during peak demand periods, as well as possibly subject to higher energy costs when consuming energy during off-peak periods. This is illustrated by the high amplitudes (e.g., crests) and low troughs of the consumption pattern  56 . As can be seen, when the consumer  32 ,  34  is subject to the flat rating scheme  60 , the consumer  32 ,  34  may experience some possible cost savings when consuming energy during peak periods, but may also experience higher costs when consuming energy during off-peak periods. Similarly, when the consumer  32 ,  34  is subject to only a TOU rating scheme  62 , the consumer  32 ,  34  may experience some possible cost savings when consuming energy during peak periods, but may again experience higher costs when consuming energy during off-peak periods. 
         [0029]    However, as further illustrated, the dynamic rating scheme  64  may be constantly adjusted to compensate for the various changes in energy consumption costs. Thus, the dynamic rating scheme  64  (e.g., generated by the rating scheme system  48  and executed by the one or more processor(s)  44  of the utility analytics system  38  as discussed with respect to  FIG. 2 ) may be provided by the utility provider  12  to incentivize the consumer  32 ,  34  to consume energy according to the economical consumption pattern  58 . As can be seen, when the consumer  32 ,  34  is subject to the dynamic rating scheme  64 , the consumer  32 ,  34  may experience cost savings when consuming energy during peak periods, as well as during off-peak periods, as the dynamic rating scheme  64  may reflect real-time or near real-time factors (e.g., generation and delivery costs, energy demand, fuel prices, TOU data, seasonal changes, weather variations, business-related data such as tax incentives, tax disincentives, energy stock prices, and changing infrastructure and operating costs, changing regulations and policies, and so forth) that may adversely impact the cost of energy consumption by the consumers  32 ,  34 . The diagram  54  illustrates the cost comparison between the flat rating scheme  60 , the TOU rating scheme  62 , and the dynamic rating scheme  64  over, for example, a billing cycle of one month. As illustrated, the dynamic rating scheme  64  may provide significant cost savings (e.g., to the consumers  32 ,  34 , as well as the utility provider  12 ) as compared to the flat rating scheme  60  and the TOU rating scheme  62  alone. 
         [0030]    Turning now to  FIG. 4 , a flow diagram is presented, illustrating an embodiment of a process  66  suitable for calculating and storing utility usage according to a dynamic rating and/or pricing scheme by using, for example, the one or more processor(s)  44  and the memory  46  of the utility analytics system  38  depicted in  FIG. 2 . Thus, the process  66  may include code or instructions stored in a non-transitory machine-readable medium (e.g., the memory  46 ) and executed, for example, by the one or more processor(s)  44  included in the utility analytics system  38 . The process  66  may begin with the one or more processor(s)  44  receiving (block  68 ) utility consumption data. For example, as previously discussed, the one or more processor(s)  44  may receive indications from the meters  30  reflecting the utility usage of the consumers  32 ,  34  over, for example, 15-minute, 30-minute, 45-minute, 60-minute intervals, and/or over a monthly billing cycle. The process  66  may continue with the one or more processor(s)  44  determining (block  70 ) in real-time or near real-time certain factors impacting the cost of utility consumption. For example, the one or more processor(s)  44  may determine certain utility generation and delivery costs, energy demand, fuel prices, specific TOU data, seasonal changes, weather variations, business-related data such as tax incentives, tax disincentives, energy stock prices, and changing infrastructure and operating costs, changing regulations and policies, and/or other various factors that may adversely impact the utility costs (e.g., pricing) to the consumers  32 ,  34 . 
         [0031]    The process  66  may then continue with the utility analytics system  38  determining (block  72 ) a dynamic rating scheme corresponding to the utility consumption of, for example, the consumers  32 ,  34  and based on the dynamic factors impacting the cost of utility consumption. For example, the dynamic rating scheme may be a cost-reflective dynamic pricing scheme that may account for the variations in costs of the utility, and may incentivize the consumers  32 ,  34  to practice more economical and efficient utility consumption patterns. The process  60  may then conclude with the one or more processor(s)  44  storing (block  74 ) (e.g., to the memory  46 ) the utility consumption data of the consumers  32 ,  34  according to the dynamic rating scheme. In certain embodiments, the utility consumption data of the consumers  32 ,  34  may then be transmitted by the one or more processor(s)  44  to the meter  30  of the consumers  32 ,  34 , or presented to the consumers  32 ,  34  in a similar manner. In this way, the consumers  32 ,  34  may likely pay a lesser value, or at worst, an equal value to what the consumer  32 ,  34  would pay based only the flat rating scheme and the TOU rating scheme. As a result, the dynamic rating scheme may provide cost savings to the consumers  32 ,  34 , as well as the utility provider  12 . 
         [0032]    Technical effects of the disclosed embodiments relate to a utility analytics system that may derive and/or store a cost-reflective dynamic utility rating scheme, in which a utility provider can offer as a cost-effective option to consumers in addition to, or in the place of the existing utility rating and/or pricing schemes such as, flat rating schemes and/or time-of-use (TOU) rating schemes. The dynamic utility rating scheme may account and/or compensate for variable costs in production and delivery of the utility, and, thus, provide the consumer with the best possible pricing and/or rating over, for example, one complete billing cycle (e.g., one month). Specifically, the utility analytics system may derive a number of utility pricing and/or rating schemes to be used by the utility provider to provide customers with multiple pricing and/or rating schemes. The derived pricing and/or rating schemes may include at least one scheme (e.g., flat rating and/or pricing scheme) that may be used as a base scheme (e.g., a reference scheme that may not provide any flexibility to the consumers), while the derived dynamic rating schemes and/or TOU rating schemes may provide additional and/or alternative pricing and/or rating schemes, thus allowing the utility provider and/or the consumers to track the most efficient and cost-effective pricing and/or rating scheme. 
         [0033]    This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the claims.