1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to energy conservation and allocation methods. More particularly, the invention relates to computer program and method for distributing a limited resource to a plurality of users so as to aggregate the users and organize the distribution of the resource to meet the limited availability of the resource according to need.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The impending deregulation of various energy resources such as electricity and natural gas has created an opportunity to combine consumers' resource requirements in order to approach the marketplace and acquire the best price. Consumers experience not only a per time unit requirement of a resource (such as a kilowatt-hour requirement for electricity) but also a peak availability, or demand, for the resource (such as a kilowatt demand).
Suppliers of the limited resource must be prepared to supply these two facets of use by maintaining appropriate capacity. If no control is placed over the use of the limited resource, the use of the resource will typically peak at certain times of the year, for example in the summer for electricity. Electric utility companies must design generation capacity to meet the highest demand on the highest usage day of the year. The alternative is to subject customers to possible brown outs or black outs.
Distribution systems for limited resources are traditionally limited to providing the limited resource to consumers physically attached to the distribution company's facilities. Thus, consumers must purchase the limited resource only from the attached distribution company and cannot aggregate with other consumers attached to other distribution systems and bargain for better rates.
Prior art energy control systems have been developed that allow utility companies to control specific appliances at consumers' homes or businesses by turning the appliance on or off based on the needs of the utility company to reduce the demand for the resource. These prior art systems do not consider the resource needs of consumers and thus may result in an appliance being turned off at a very inopportune time.
Other prior art methods use power consumption reduction based on a “comfort fairness” procedure. The “comfort fairness” method sheds loads with the lowest priority first. The “comfort fairness” method focuses on the systems in one building but does not take into account need over an aggregated system of users.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved method of providing a limited resource to a plurality of users that overcomes the limitations of the prior art.