US 2014/0351018 A1Published application

System and method for benchmarking energy usage

AssigneeMastercard International Incorporated

InventorJason A. Feldman

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Abstract

A system and method is disclosed for benchmarking and comparing energy consumption of a particular consumer to a relevant set of comparison consumers using a system that maintains a database of payment information. Using the payment information and publicly available information, the system identifies comparison consumers, dwelling addresses, calculates energy consumption and generates consumer profiles containing dwelling, location and demographic characteristics. The system also compares profiles to identify “look-a-like” consumers and analyzes energy consumption to determine a benchmark and compares a particular consumer's consumption to the benchmark. The system also generates reports detailing the comparison and provides the report to consumers. The system thereby accurately measures on a national scale whether a particular consumer's monthly energy consumption and payments are above/below/on-target with very specific look-a-like consumers and provides a solution for consumers/business to understand the accuracy of their invoice and if their structure has outsized consumption.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method for benchmarking and comparing energy consumption of a particular consumer having a profile, the profile including a plurality of data points relating to the particular consumer and the particular consumer's dwelling, to a relevant set of comparison consumers yet to be identified from a database of payment data and a database of dwelling characteristic data, comprising:

identifying the relevant set of comparison consumers, using the processor configured by code executing therein, wherein identifying includes applying an algorithm that, for each of the comparison consumers, compares one or more of the particular consumer's data points to a particular comparison consumer's one or more corresponding data points determined from at least the database of payment data and the database of dwelling characteristic data and adds the particular comparison consumer to the relevant set when the one or more corresponding data points match the one or more data points;
determining a benchmark energy consumption using the configured processor;
wherein determining the benchmark energy consumption includes applying an algorithm that, for each of the comparison consumers in the relevant set, calculates the respective energy consumption using the database of payment data and the database of dwelling characteristic data;
calculating, with the configured processor, the particular consumer's energy consumption using the database of payment data and the database of dwelling characteristic data;
and
generating, with the configured processor, an energy consumption report, by applying an algorithm that compares the particular consumer's energy consumption to the benchmark energy consumption;
and
providing the energy consumption report to the particular consumer.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.