GENETIC ALGORITHM METHOD FOR AGGREGATING ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION AND OPTIMIZING ELECTRIC BUYING GROUPS

摘要

The present invention relates to methods of monitoring utility usage and specifically to a system and a method for aggregation of utility users and optimization of such aggregated groups for marketing purposes. A genetic algorithm method (360) of creating electric energy buyers groups (362-368) which are optimized to match electric power sales offerings is disclosed, where each of the buying groups corresponds to a power offering having different energy specifications, including quality, quantity, firmness, availability, and price. The method is applied to the customers of a given utility or power marketer, where the customers are categorized into a plurality of bins (322-328) of varying energy requirements and where buying groups are constructed by selecting customers from bins to match requirements of power offerings. Customers may be choose another power provider at any time, so buying groups can be reoptimized on a daily or monthly basis to take advantage of new power offers.