Patent ID: 7729993

Claim:
A computer implemented method for outputting billing values of utility service usage at a consumer site, the site having a plurality of load devices, each respective load using at least one of a plurality of utility services supplied to the consumer site by a plurality of utility service suppliers, the method comprising: providing a billing system at the consumer site, the billing system being configured to allow the consumer to see the bill out usage of the at least one utility service by each respective load; providing a computer system at the consumer site having at least one computer processor for executing instructions and performing a variety of operations; providing at the consumer site an output device in communication with the computer system for outputting billing values generated by the computer system; receiving in the computer system a measurement of usage of the at least one utility service by each load for a period of time; receiving in the computer system at least one rate information from a remote server wherein rate information relates to one or both of at least an input value, and at least one value of a least one product produced by each load; storing in the computer system a user-defined usage range representation for each load, wherein the user-defined usage range representation identifies a user's preference of rate and time of the usage for the load and a type of utility service provider, and wherein the user-defined usage range representation represents a range of values of at least one or both of utility input, and product produced by each load; applying for each load the rate information to the measurement of usage by the load to produce at least one billing value for at least one of the utility service suppliers; outputting for each load a billing value using the output device, the output being configured to be monitored by the consumer; comparing for each load the measurement of usage with the user-defined usage range representation; and creating for each load the billing of the at least one utility service based on the user-defined usage range representation and on the rate.