As noted above, the TAP database was created expressly for the purpose of storing utility tariff data and calculating customer bills using data from these tariffs. The web service consists of several functions, described below. These functions provide a client with enough data to ultimately select and generate a monthly bill from any tariff in the TAP database. In order to integrate this capability with the current HES web site, a web service interface was added to the TAP database. This web service was implemented using the SOAP protocol.
Three groups of methods provide an interface with the TAP database. These include: Utility Listing Methods to allow the user to select his or her utility, Tariff Listing Methods to further select individual rate schedules, and Bill Calculation Methods to determine utility bills based on load data.
Utility Listing Methods – Accept state or ZIP code data, and return corresponding utility names and codes
Tariff Listing Methods – Return a list of available tariffs for a particular utility
Bill Calculation Methods – Return consumption, demand and fixed charges from consumption values generated by load processing module
A complete description of the SOAP schema and sample XML syntax can be found on-line at http://hes.lbl.gov/hes/ImplementingTAP.pdf