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About Create A Rate
As the foundation of Cost Profiler, Create A Rate is a sophisticated rates modeler that handles various rate types or components, allowing you to enter tariff rates from utility companies so you can create cost reports. All rates used in Cost Profiler are manually entered and maintained by the user. Once entered, the rate is kept in the rates database (XML file in station file system) that can be emailed and imported into other projects. The web based application provides cost reporting using any standard web browser. The “Create A Rate” process includes the following tasks:
- Create a new rate
- Add rate details
- Add rate components
- Add rate component details
- Schedule a Rate Component
Figure 3-5 Create A Rate Process.
- Rates Pane
The rates window on the Create A Rate tab displays all rates, or may be filtered to show selected rates.
Figure 3-6 Rates Pane.
- Rate Details Pane
Once a new rate has been entered, you need to specify the energy provider, phone number, website, currency, consumption and demand units of the rate. The location should be that of the energy provider, not the site, as this will allow the user to easily link to their site or call their phone when issues require. Websites and emails should be filled in as they become hyperlinks in the Cost Profiler application. To add details, simply fill out the fields in the Rate Details pane, as shown in Figure 3-7.
Figure 3-7 Rate Details Pane.
- Default Units for Reactive and Apparent Energy and Power
The “More Units” button displays or hides a set of options that allow you to set the default units for reactive and apparent energy and power rate components. Unit options are listed below.
- Available Components Pane
This pane contains all the rate components that you have to select from. Add these to your active rate components by selecting the desired rate component in the Available Components pane and then select “Add Rate Component” from the right click menu or select “Copy” from the right click menu and paste the component into the Rates Component pane. You can also simply double-click the component to add it.
You can also paste into the Available Components pane if you want to save and re-use any pre-configured rate components from the Rate Components pane. By doing this, you may build up a “library” of pre-configured rate components that will be saved and available for future use.
Figure 3-8 Available Components Pane.
- Rate Components Pane
This pane displays all rate components that have been added to the rate. To see details about a rate component, you must select it.
Figure 3-9 Rate Components Pane.
- Rate Component Details Pane
Once you add the desired components to your rate, use the Rate Component Details pane (refer to Figure 3-10) to do the following:
Figure 3-10 Rate Component Details Pane.
- Name
This field lets you enter any custom name that you want for the rate component. Because the rate component category is defined by the Category Label, the name has no effect on how the rate component is grouped by Cost Profiler.
- Category Label
There are three categories of components plus four user defined labels. You must categorize each rate component to allow reporting in Cost Profiler between rates that don't name components the same, or that have different levels of a single component. For example, if one rate has three demand charges for different times of day and another rate in the same report has only one, categorizing the three demand charges in the former rate will allow the user to compare the total demand charges for each rate.
Figure 3-11 Category Label.
Note: It is very important to define the category for each rate component. These categories are used in several Cost Profiler reports. Each of the seven generic rate components has a default category but can be manipulated depending on the rate.
The following table defines the default category for each generic rate component:
Table 3-1 Generic rate component default category.
- Fee
This field is used to enter a fixed (flat) fee per billing cycle, if you are using a fixed fee rate component. Otherwise, it is a fee per unit (demand or consumption).
- Original Fee
This field is used with the Scheduled Fee Per Unit rate component and with the Scheduled Peak Charges rate component. Use this field to enter the fee that is in effect before the Transition Time.
- New Fee
This field is used with the Scheduled Fee Per Unit rate component and with the Scheduled Peak Charge rate component. Use this field to enter the fee that is in effect after the Transition Time.
- Transition Time
This field is used with the Scheduled Fee Per Unit rate component and with the Scheduled Peak Charge rate component. Use this field to specify the exact time that the Original Fee ends and the New Fee begins. Enter the day, month, year, hour, and minute that the change takes place.
- Transition Approach
This field is used with the Scheduled Fee Per Unit rate component only. Use this field to choose one of two options that are available for calculating the cost during the billing cycle when the transition occurs. The two transition approaches: Pro-Rated and Absolute, are described below:
- Pro-Rated
This option is the default option for the Transition Approach field and is the underlying method that is always used for the Scheduled Peak Charge rate component. It uses the information about a billing cycle’s Transition Time, start time and end time, and calculates two Pro-Rate Factors. The Pro-Rate Factors are then used with the Original Fee, the New Fee and the Consumed Units (or Peak Units for Scheduled Peak Charge) to calculate the total cost, as shown in the following equations:
- Absolute
This option simply separates the consumption into two time periods. The consumption before the Transition Time is applied to the Original Fee, the consumption after the Transition Time is applied to the New Fee and the two products are summed to calculate the total cost.
Note: The consumption level at the time of the transition will be maintained, so that any applicable data range minimum or maximum will observe the appropriate value.
- Minimum Contract Peak Level
This is a parameter used to define a “no lower than” value to be used for defining a peak level in a ratchet component. See "Ratchet" and "Contract Ratchet" for more details.
- Advanced Tab
The Advanced Tab appears in the Rate Component Details pane when you are working with any of the following types of components:
- Fee Per Unit
- Scheduled Fee Per Unit
- Ratchet
- Historical Ratchet
- Peak Charge
- Scheduled Peak Charge
The following fields are available under this tab and give you the ability to enter multi-tiered rates:
- Applicable Data
This option provides the choice of different data categories to allow you to choose the type of data to use for a particular rate component calculation. For the Peak Charge, Scheduled Peak Charge, Ratchet, or Historical Ratchet, the default data choice is Demand, but may be changed to Reactive Power or Apparent Power. For Fee Per Unit and Scheduled Fee Per Unit, the default data choice is Consumption, but may be changed to Reactive Energy or Apparent Energy.
- Data Range Min
The minimum consumption (or demand) that this rate component is applicable for.
- Data Range Max
The maximum consumption (or demand) that this rate is applicable for.
- Data Range Approach
The Data Range Approach property applies to all rate components that look at data:
- Fee Per Unit
- Scheduled Fee Per Unit
- Peak Charge
- Scheduled Peak Charge
- Ratchet
- Historical Ratchet
The Data Range Approach property has the following three options that determine how the Data Range Min and Max values are applied:
- Cumulative Approach
With this option, if the total units for a billing period exceed the Data Range Max value, then the Data Range Max value is used for the cost calculation. For example, consider a situation where there are two peak charges, both using the cumulative approach. One peak charge has a range of 0 - 100kW and the second has a range of 100kW and above. If the demand for the billing cycle is 150kW, then the cost for the first peak charge is equal to the fee multiplied by 100kW, and the cost for the second peak charge is the fee multiplied by 50kW. The Cumulative Approach is the default Data Range Approach selection.
- Overall Units Approach
With this option, the total units for a billing period are used in determining if the rate component is in range. For example, consider a situation where there are 3 peak charges. One charge has a range of 0 - 100kW, the second charge has a range of 100kW-200kW, and the third has a range of 200kW and above. If the total demand for the billing cycle is 150kW, then the cost for the first and third peak charges is zero, and the cost for the second peak charge is its fee times 150kW, since the overall total units for the billing cycle fall within its range.
- Individual Data Units Approach
With this option, each individual data point's units over the billing cycle are compared against the data range to determine if the value should be used in the cost calculation. For example, consider a case where there is a peak charge using this approach with a range of 0 - 100kW. As each individual data point (usually at 15 minute intervals) is read, the current kW value is checked to see if it is in range. If it is in range, then the kW value is used in the cost calculation – otherwise it is skipped.
- Units in Fee
this field is available for accommodating different fee per unit definitions, if needed.
- Rate Component Schedule Pane
The Rate Component Schedule pane is used to add, copy, or remove schedules from a rate component. Refer to "Types of Schedules" for details about using the Rate Component Schedule pane.
Figure 3-12 Rate Component Schedule Pane.
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