Design and Implementation of High Voltage Customer Service Portal Chin-Tun Wang Taiwan Power Research Institute, Taiwan Power Company 198, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10091, Taiwan, Republic of China, u630499@taipower.com.tw Chia-Wen Huang Taiwan Power Research Institute, Taiwan Power Company 198, Roosevelt Road, Taipei 10091, Taiwan, Republic of China, u629802@taipower.com.tw ABSTRACT The goal of this paper is to propose and establish a web-based high voltage customer service portal with convenient and effective contents which include load management strategies and more economic electricity options in order to meet the requirements of customers. The first step of this paper is to design hardware, software structure and their specifications for proposed portal. The major electricity economical functions consist of electricity tariff transfer calculation, load management alternatives discount calculation (including planned and temporary electrical reduction options), demand contract selection analysis service for the lowest electricity fee, and load simulation associated with best electricity planning and analysis. The next step is to code data retrieval program to extract data which include customer electricity attributes and real power demand from both New Billing System (NBS) and Database of high voltage Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) applied to the proposed portal. The services have been designed to be accessed via IE browser by securely logging in to PCs or portable devices. After a prototype had been established, we kept doing online testing and improvement for about one year to adjust. It shows a satisfactory stability and performance recently. Furthermore, the proposed portal will be formally operated by end of 2014. KEYWORDS: High voltage customer service portal, Web based system, Load Management options 1. INTRODUCTION Taipower has established a high voltage Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system which applies smart electronic meter to measure power parameters and collects and sends to control center through two-stage communication channel. The AMI system supports electrical information with one-day ahead data and duplex communicating as well as the value added services ( such as electricity daily report, outage message notification, etc.) to encourage the customers saving electricity and clipping the peak load and energy consumption [1-5]. Taipower has finished the AMI system with 24123 high voltage customers at the end of the year 2013. Based on the conclusion of the AMI team meeting of Taipower, high voltage customer service portal has to be built to provide electricity data and service information by extracting the metering data from Meter Data Management System (MDMS) of AMI. Many energy service portals supported by utility have been designed and implemented for years to expand the application of built AMI system [6-10]. In these proposed portals, they commonly provide basic electricity data associated with query and computation service to customer through web based friendly human machine interface. Customers can directly login into portal via browsers such as Chrome or IE to access useful information and energy service provided. Besides value added services for AMI system, a few portals also provide query service of load management information. However, due to insufficient energy service and maintenance supported from utility, some portals have problems of low customer registration rate and improper operation. Then important functions for AMI system are expected to enhance electricity usage supervision and management as well as to promote demand response measures. By the implementation of customer service portal, high voltage AMI system feeds one-day ahead electricity data into database system to serve customer, and they can actively conduct with the energy service management. In this paper, meeting the requirements of various types of customers, customer energy services with basic and advanced alternatives are designed and applied in our high voltage customer service portal. The advanced energy services are mainly composed of electricity tariff transfer calculation, load management alternatives discount calculation (including planned and temporary electrical reduction option), the lowest electricity demand contract selection analysis service, and load simulation associated with best electricity planning and analysis. Besides, mobile platform with reduced version of energy service functions is also designed for users to login our proposed system with portable devices such as pad, or mobile phone from anywhere.
2. PORTAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION DESIGN Fig. 1 shows the structure and location of the proposed portal and data source. In this figure, the proposed portal for user service is located at a Demilitarized Zone(DMZ) and communicates with customers protected by firewalls bilaterally to access intranet of Taipower. The server with the function of administration and maintenance is independently located at central area data processing center inside the intranet of Taipower. Besides, 15-min demand of customers are retrieved from MDMS located at central area data processing center and the statistic electricity data of high voltage customer are extracted from a standard interface at Taiwan Power Research Institute (TPRI), which accesses data from NBS. In order to satisfy the customers entering and using the proposed portal, two access modes associated with different human machine interface which including desktop mode and mobile device mode are designed. Fig. 2 indicates the designed functions of the proposed portal for various types of high voltage customer. These proposed functions are described as follows: 1. Bulletin board and energy saving alternatives 2. Customer basic information 3. Electricity management-electricity analysis for the same type of load customer 4. Electricity management-analysis of load simulation and optimum electricity alternatives 5. Electricity management-the lowest electricity fees calculation with latest one year 6. Load management options (Demand Response Measures) calculation 7. Analysis of individual customer power and electricity fees with periods of 15-min, hourly, daily, weekly and monthly 8. Comparison of electricity fees cycle 9. Question submitting and query services 10. Customer login and certification system Fig. 1 portal system structure Functions of website Bulletin board and energy saving alternatives Customer basic information Functions for mobile Electricity analysis for the same type of load customer Load management options calculation Electricity fee transformation Lowest electricity fees calculation PC or Laptop Website Interface Database Web Server Analysis of load simulation and optimum electricity alternatives AMI website Analysis of individual customer power with periods of 15-min, hourly, daily, weekly and monthly Mobile Comparison of electricity fees cycle Question submit and query service Customer login and certification system Fig. 2 portal proposed functions
3. MAIN LOAD MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS ANALYSIS 3.1 Load management options (Demand response measures) calculation 8 load management options which contain customer planning electricity reduction programs 1, 2, 3 and 4 as well as customer temporary electricity reduction programs 1, 2, 3 and 4 are proposed by Taipower to support different degree of favorable electricity fee for customers who satisfy the rules. The rate schedules in customer portal of Taiwan Power Company (www.taipower.com.tw) shows the proposed load management options associated with content of demand clipping period, clipping methods, and favorable electricity fee. These options are described detail and coded in the proposed portal. For example, the customer planning electricity reduction option 1 is designed for high voltage and extra high voltage manufactory customer with demand contract capacity more than 500 kw (customer with three-stage TOU in changeable peak time is exclusive), and the electricity clipping time period is from May to December. Meanwhile, demand clipping is required to execute 4-day in total within one month and the daily executing time is from 10 AM to 17 PM. After completing this option in one year, each qualified month has 20% discount for basic electricity fee. It is noted that the demand response plan renames as customer temporary electricity reduction 4. The detail content of the proposed load management options can be referred to the Calendar days of Time-of-Use Rate in last two years and Rate Schedules in Customer Portal of Taiwan Power Company (www.taipower.com.tw), Oct. 2013 [16 ]. 3.2 Electricity management-the lowest electricity fees calculation with the latest one year This proposed function is designed to provide the proper demand contract capacity to high voltage customer by calculating the monthly demand contract capacity with lowest electricity fee and satisfied constraints. The historical data of demand with 12-month in the latest one year is selected as input data for computer simulation to examine the optimum peak demand contract capacity, the optimum partial-peak demand contract capacity, the optimum off peak demand contract capacity, and the optimum Saturday partial-peak demand contract capacity. The mathematical formulation of the objective function and the inequality constraints is expressed as Eq. (1). The customer with two-stage TOU has the same solved variables except for the optimum shoulder demand contract capacity compared with the one with three-stage TOU service. P opt,pk P P P opt,sd opt,opk dc,wend Min 12 i= 1 C ( P,P,P P ) bi opt,pk opt,sd opt,opk, dc, wend...( Eq.1) Subject to :1. P 2. P 3. P 4.P mini,pk mini,sd mini,opk mini,pk max,opk max, wend maxi,opk The relative calculation functions implemented from the above method include the following, (1) Selection and calculation of customer peak demand contract capacity (2) Selection and calculation of summer/non-summer demand contract capacity (3) Selection and calculation of customer shoulder demand contract capacity (4) Selection and calculation of customer off peak demand contract capacity (5) Selection and calculation of customer Saturday shoulder demand contract capacity (6) Basic electricity fee calculation for customer with two-stage TOU and three-stage TOU service 3.3 Electricity management-analysis of load simulation and optimum electricity alternatives The idea of this function is to simulate the load behavior according to the increasing/decreasing load growth of basic loading. The load pattern as well as peak demand of customer with new condition is calculated as input data for next step of executing the lowest electricity fee and transformation of two-stage TOU and three-stage TOU. Finally both the monthly electricity fees before/after load change and their difference in electricity fee will also be shown. Fig. 3 illustrates the flowchart of overall solution procedure for this proposed max,pk max,sd maxi,pk maxi,sd : Optimal peak demand Contract Capacity maxi,pk : Optimal partial-peak demand Contract Capacity : Optimal off-peak demand Contract Capacity : Optimum Saturday partial-peak demand contract capacity
function. In this figure, the historical data of 12-month billing stored in NBS is first extracted to compute the basic case without any modification of load change for customer. Meanwhile, the information of load change associated with the operation time period, rate schedules, peak load demand and off peak load demand in summer stored in MDMS and holiday listing is also asked to input to calculate the new load profile with weekday/weekend in summer/non-summer. The electricity fees as well as the monthly peak demand before and after changing the load growth are obtained. Finally, the demand contract capacity with the lowest electricity as well as the electricity fees associated with two-stage TOU and three-stage TOU service for the new condition are then calculated. 3.4 Electricity management-benefit analysis of energy saving The proposed function is design to compare the annual electricity fee of target year with the one of previous year to examine the achieved rate of anticipated energy saving benefit. Customer may select one year or more than one year as target and the percentage of energy saving benefit, and the proposed function will proceed to analyze the electricity amount in kwh or $ for both the target years and previous year. Fig. 4 shows the flowchart of benefit analysis of energy saving function. In this figure, customer ID, expected percentage of energy saving benefit and target years are first selected to extract the electricity billing data stored in NBS for both previous year and target year. Analysis and calculation of energy saving benefit with respect to the expected rate are executed and the result of saving rate is obtained. Fig. 3 The flow chart of overall solution of load simulation and optimum electricity alternatives Fig. 4 The flow chart of the benefit analysis of energy saving
4. PORTAL USER INTERFACE DESIGN AND REALIZATION Figs. 5, 6 show the user interface function for both customer and administrator. In figure 5, the user interfaces are designed to support friendly functions which contain account service, customer electricity information, electricity management, load management alternatives calculation, energy saving special area, and setting and service to solve customer s query and question. In figure 6, the user interfaces are also designed to provide the friendly and convenient operation functions which include customer ID maintenance, account setting, rate schedules setting, other setting, related connection and password change to administrator to easily maintain the portal system. The different privileged levels for accessing the specific functions are designed for customer in this proposed portal system. The upper part of Fig.5 and Fig.6 shows the designed function tree, and the lower one is its visualization in portal. Fig. 5 Interfaces and functions for customers
. Fig. 6 Interfaces and functions for administrators There are more than 30 friendly interfaces and functions designed for customer in this portal. Some of them, especially for user concerned electricity management, will be addressed as follows. 4.1 Analysis of energy saving benefit Fig. 7 shows the statistic output of this proposed function. In this figure, bar chart of kwh comparison, X- Y chart of percentage of energy saving benefit, and monthly electricity kwh with interesting symbol are illustrated.
Fig. 7 The statistic output of energy saving benefit 4.2 Electricity management- load simulation and optimum electricity option Fig. 8 shows the procedure of data input of proposed option. It is noted that the decreasing/increasing load growth, load operation duration, and rate schedule of (extra) high tension service are displayed for customer selection. Meanwhile, Fig. 9 shows the output result of proposed option after detail calculation. In this figure, the X-Y chart of kwh comparison and monthly electricity kwh with two-stage TOU service and three-stage service are displayed. Fig. 8 User input interface of load simulation and optimum electricity option
Fig. 9 The output result interface of load simulation and optimum electricity option 4.3 The lowest electricity fee of demand contract capacity Fig. 10 shows the output result of this proposed option. In this figure, the optimum value of peak demand contract capacity, off peak demand contract capacity and shoulder demand contract capacity as well as associated electricity fee and saved money and X-Y chart of electricity fee are displayed. Customer may select new proper demand contract capacity according to calculation of last 12-month peak demand data in order to economically plan expense. Fig. 10 The output result of the lowest electricity fee of demand contract capacity 4.4 Load management option calculation Fig. 11 show the computed result of this proposed option with customer planning electricity reduction option 1. In this figure, one customer with peak demand contract capacity of 9500 kw (user defined) selects planning electricity reduction option 1 with 5000 kw clipping demand contract in May. If the load clipping rule is satisfied, the 20% discount in May can save 166,900 NT$ after calculation.
Fig. 11 The output result of load management option with planning electricity reduction option 1 4.5 Customer portable device application Near 80% of total support function in desktop type is designed and implemented in the portal with portable device. Fig. 12 shows the display of output result for load management option with planning electricity reduction option 1. In this figure, simplified information is designed and provided for the load management option selection and calculation. Customer may use pad or mobile phone to login the proposed portal to query the desired information. Fig. 12 The display of load management option with planning electricity reduction option 1 in pad device 5. CONCLUSIONS The proposed portal has installed and finished a 6-month try run and testing and will be formally online by the end of this year. Customer test and the online questionnaire investigation for response is also executed with more than 95% of satisfaction. Several remarks are concluded as follows: 5.1 The hardware, software structure and the all functions required of the proposed portal have planned and designed after the detail discussion. The main user functions for customer include (1) Bulletin board and energy saving alternatives, (2) Customer basic information, (3) Electricity management-electricity analysis for the same type of load customer, (4) Electricity managements of analysis of load simulation and optimum electricity alternatives, the lowest electricity fees calculation with optimum demand contract capacity, (5) Load management options calculation, (6) Analysis of individual customer power and electricity fees with periods of 15-min, hourly, daily, weekly and monthly, (7) Comparison of electricity fees cycle, (8) Question submitting and query services and (9) Customer login and certification management system. 5.2 Completion of data trend analysis, database design (including conceptual, logical, and physical schemas), design of retrieving interface of NBS electricity information, and the data integration of AMI/MDMS 15-min. power demand. The XML based automatic data transferring from MDMS and NBS as well as the database maintenance program of portal server are also finished. 5.3 The portal system with web based user interfaces design for customers accessing via both desktop type and portable device type has been established. The stored procedures of main user interface functions which include
customer load characteristics information query, electricity fee transformation between two-stage TOU service and three-stage TOU service, load management and demand response calculation, the optimum demand contract capacity with lowest electricity fee, load simulation and optimum electricity alternative calculation, are well finished. The portable device of HTC, Samsung, and Apple can directly login and access the electricity information stored in database via wireless communication channel. 5.4 The experimental test and performance improvement for the proposed portal system has fulfilled and first stage try run has been executed by business department of Taipower from January to November 2013. 100 selected and voluntary customers participated in this test and 51 customers successfully completed the testing procedure and the online questionnaire investigation. It is noted that more than 95% of customers satisfy the supported function and they are very interested in the load simulation and optimum electricity alternative and the optimum demand contract capacity with the lowest electricity fee option for the reason of expense saving. Finally, the results indicate that the practicality and the effectiveness of the portal system can be justified and reached. 6. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Special thanks to professor Ming-Yuan Cho for his help drafting this paper and his great contribution on this project with the research team in National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences. REFERENCES [1] The Green Grid: Energy Savings and Carbon Emissions Reductions Enabled by a Smart Grid, EPRI Technical Update report, 1016905,June 2008, Electric Power Research Institute. [2] J. Vasconcelos, Survey of regulatory and technological developments concerning smart metering in the European Union electricity market, RSCAS Policy Paper, Jan. 2008. [3] Feasibility and Cost-Benefit Analysis of Taipower Advanced Metering Infrastructure, Taiwan Power Company,Jun.2010 [4] Smart meters information paper on the development of an implementation plan for the roll-out of smart meter, Ministerial Council of Energy, Australia, Jan. 2007. [5] Wen-Hong Chen, Planning of Advanced Metering Infrastructure for France, Abroad Study Report by Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs, R.O.C,,Jul.2009. [6] Consumer Portal Stakeholder FAQ and Survey, EPRI IntelliGrid, Mar. 2005 [7] Attachment ESP-A Energy Service Portal Development Draft Assessment and Recommendations, CEIDS Steering Committee Meeting Dec. 2003 [8] McGranaghan, M.; Didierjean, A.; Russ, R., The business case for a consumer portal to implement flexible pricing, consumer services and demand response programs 18th International Conference and Exhibition on Electricity Distribution (CIRED), 2005, pp. 1 5 [9] Attachment ESP-C Business Case Assessment for Energy Service Portal, CEIDS Steering Committee Meeting, Mar. 2004 [10] ACLARA AMI Customer login portal, http://www.aclaratech.com/pages/default.aspx [11] Huang, Chia-Wen,Cho, Ming-Yuan Planning and Implementation of High Voltage Customer Service Portal, Taiwan Power Company, Dec.2013. [12] Huang, Chia-Wen,Cho, Ming-Yuan Development of Web Based High/Low Tension Customers Optimal Demand Contract Capacity Analysis and Management Software, Taiwan Power Company,May.2005. [13] Huang, Chia-Wen,Cho, Ming-Yuan Development of Web Based Monthly Load Reduction Program Statistics Report System, Taiwan Power Company, Dec.2009. [14] Chang, Wen -Yao,Cho, Ming-Yuan Development and Application of Energy Saving Audit System, Taiwan Power Company, Feb.2011. [15] Customer Service White Paper of Taiwan Power Company, 2008. [16] The Calendar days of Time-of-Use Rate during last two years, Rate Schedules in Customer Portal of Taiwan Power Company (www.taipower.com.tw), Oct. 2013