Development of a natural language data query system for utility companies

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Utility usage is monitored by 'smart meters' which measure automated, detailed, accurate, and frequent usage data for individual clients. Compared to analog meters which are read manually (typically once a month), smart metering offers wide benefits for both utility companies and for customers. Examples include ability to balance loads and eliminate service disruptions, and customers' ability to adjust consumption habits or sell power back to the grid. The challenges of analyzing the vast amounts of metered data continue to seriously hinder reaping many more benefits. The research in the colleges will result in new products for utility companies to provide safer and more reliable electricity, water, and gas services to Canadian and international businesses, homeowners, and renters. This project will also help utility companies reduce their costs. Furthermore, these utility companies have conservation and/or demand management goals which this technology will help them achieve. this in turn leads to carbon emission reductions and better stewardship of water resources. Businesses, homeowners, and renters will benefit from safer and more reliable electricity, water and gas services. The reduced costs for utility companies will be passed on to the public via lower rates, as is stipulated by profit margin regulations on provincial utilities.Harris SmartWorks, a division of N. Harris Computer Corporation, is an Ottawa-based market-leading provider of utility data software solutions since 1976. This collaboration with Okanagan and Langara College's researchers and students is developing applications for a system that answers non-technical, plain language questions from utility users, using artificial intelligence and the vast amount of data within the software system. The system will accept both typed and voiced questions.