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  •   almost 11 years ago

Hourly Cost Information from Utilities

Matt: I notice that some sample files have cost and others do not. The utility rate schedules have some fixed charges ($/month, meter charges, etc.) and some variable charges (as a function of TOU). When the Green Button data includes hourly cost, is it to be interpreted that the summation of cost for the month represents TOTAL utility cost OR does it simply reflect Variable portion of the cost in the Utility Tariff? Thanks in advance for the clarification.

  • 5 comments

  • Manager   •   almost 11 years ago

    Good question! I'll first note that the provision of cost data varies by utility. Among the current providers of Green Button data, Reliant in Texas and NSTAR in Massachusetts provide cost data, but PG&E and SDG&E do not.

    As to your question, I am 90% sure that the cost information is marginal cost of that electricity, so it would not include fixed costs associated with meter charges and other fees. I'm going to confirm this with Reliant and NIST, and I'll post here once I hear back.
    Thanks!
    Matthew

  • Manager   •   almost 11 years ago

    Just got the confirmation from NIST- the costs in each interval period are the marginal cost of that electricity, and don't include any fixed costs. The fixed portion of the costs, if included, are stored in ElectricPowerUsageSummary.costAdditionalLastPeriod

    Matthew

  • Manager   •   almost 11 years ago

    One update here. As I mentioned in my competition update this morning, PG&E now includes cost data in their Green Button files. I'll get samples posted as soon as I have them, but please see the update for interim resources.
    Thanks!
    Matthew

  •   •   almost 11 years ago

    Aside from the data in the Green Button file, there is a subject matter expert-reviewed, crowd-sourced dataset on OpenEI that gives very specific utility rate information (time of use, demand charges, etc). It may be useful for you to check it out:

    http://en.openei.org/wiki/Gateway:Utilities (overview of data)
    http://en.openei.org/services/doc/rest (data via RESTful web service)

    There are currently 26 rates posted for PG&E. Rates on the OpenEI utility rate database may include historical rates, indicated by an "end date" on the rate.

    For more information, contact the OpenEI webmaster, linked to from the frontpage of OpenEI.org. Happy coding!

  •   •   almost 11 years ago

    Ryan, thank you for posting that. Very handy.

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