Patent ID: 8359124

Claim:
A utility management system, comprising: a plurality of customer sites connected to a utility network, wherein each of the customer sites comprises one or more utility devices; a plurality of utility management user interfaces associated with the customer sites, respectively; and a controller coupled to the utility management user interfaces via a private network and configured to communicate customer utility optimization information to the utility management user interfaces, wherein the controller comprises: a first module configured to exchange customer site information comprising measured information, predicted information and customer input information with each of the customer sites, wherein the customer site information is specific to each customer site; a second module configured to generate an adaptive customer site model capable of adapting to customer site changes including structural changes for each customer site by performing a system identification process based on the customer site information, and wherein the system identification process uses a system identification algorithm which is self-updating or configured to update when changes in the one or more utility devices are detected; a third module configured to generate the customer utility optimization information for each of the customer sites using model predictive control based on the adaptive customer site model, the customer site information, system constraints and control objectives; a fourth module configured to output a real-time estimate of utility usage cost savings based on the customer utility optimization information to each of the customer sites.