Energy-saving service offering method and apparatus therefor

This is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 11/123,198, filed May 6, 2005, which is a divisional application of U.S. Ser. No. 10/913,396, filed Aug. 9, 2004, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/661,373, filed Sep. 13, 2000, the subject matter of which is incorporated by reference herein.

The present invention relates to an energy saving service offering method and its apparatus, which is suitable for use in connection with an energy saving operation performed for example, in factories.

In the Kyoto Conference on Global Warming held in December, 1997, a warming curtailment goal was defined so that the reduction fraction may be 6% of that in 1987. Taking this into consideration, the “Law related to Rationalization of Energy Usage (Energy Saving Law)” was amended and enforced in April of 1999. Though large-scale factories had been obligated by the law to engage in the promotion of energy saving features initially, the scope of the Energy Conservation Act was augmented to include medium-scale factories as well.

The load facility conventionally used in factories includes fans, blowers and pumps, and various motors are used for driving such equipment. It is often a common approach to install inverters in order to reduce the electric power consumption (promote energy saving) in various motors for driving this equipment. In the case of attempting to reduce electric power consumption by installing inverters, whether inverters should be purchased, rent or leased is determined by calculating the advantages brought about by installing inverters.

In the conventional method, in case of purchasing inverters, the initial investment is typically quite large, and in case of obtaining inverters on the basis of a lease or rental contract, the rental fee may be high or the user may be obliged to continue to pay the rental fee, even if the expected effect of energy saving is not attained by the user.

The conventional business schemes and their problems are described more specifically below according to those examples discussed above.

In a case where the user purchases inverters combined with new motors, or purchases inverters alone, the user has to provide the initial investment and bear a heavy burden of a large investment, and such investments are assumed to be made before it is possible to determine the extent of the electric power consumption saving that may actually be attained.

(B) Lease or Rental Schemes and their Problems

In leasing inverters with new motors, or inverters alone, the user enters into a contract whereby he or she purchases the installed facility or equipment within a fixed period of time. Therefore, the user can not cancel the contract and has to bear a heavy burden even if he or she does not need the facility or equipment any more.

In the rental contract, in which the user uses the facility or equipment by paying rental charges, the rental charge is typically comparatively higher than the lease charge.

The lease and rental schemes described above have a problem in that the user has to execute the contract and pay a certain lease or rental charge in advance before the extent of the electric power consumption saving is identified.

The present invention is directed to the problems described above. The present invention provides an energy saving service offering method and its apparatus for allowing the user to obtain his or her desired energy saving service without forcing the user wishing the energy saving service to put up any initial investment, and for allowing the energy saving service provider to experience a satisfactory commercial profit as well.

In accordance with the present invention, if the user hopes for an energy saving, and the energy saving service provider improves the existing facility of the user or installs a new facility for the energy-saving, and then the energy saving is attained as a result, the advantages brought about by the energy saving are shared between the user and the energy saving service provider by estimating the benefits of the energy saving quantitatively. The measure of the extent of the energy saving is based on the electric power saving, that is, the saved electricity charge.

The present invention provides an energy saving service offering method, which determines the present electric power consumption of the supervised load facility of the user who owns the supervised load facility, in which there are motors, and who is attempting to save energy, provides inverter control operation data when installing an inverter in the supervised load facility for performing motor speed control, determines a merit refund corresponding to the saved electric power consumption by referring to the difference between the present electric power consumption data and the inverter control operation data, and performs a billing and charge operation based on a merit refund under the contract conditions established between the energy saving service provider and its contractor.

The apparatus of the present invention is characterized as an apparatus comprising a supervisory unit for supervising the operation status of a supervised load facility having an inverter and a motor, a means for sending the actual operation data based on a motor speed control operation performed by the inverter in the supervised load facility from the supervisory unit through a communication system, a calculation apparatus for calculating the saved electric power consumption dependent of the difference between the estimated value for the electric power consumption of the load facility without inverters and the actual operation data of the inverter, and a processor for performing a billing and charge operation based on a merit refund under the contract conditions established between the energy saving service provider and its contractor.