Reducing energy costs starts by understanding what’s driving your energy use.
Your organisation is typically billed for its hourly consumption patterns and peak demand for energy, so monitoring both your consumption (kWh) and demand (kW) is vital in reducing energy costs.
You may be familiar with monitoring your kWh consumption in the Breakdown tab of our Wattics dashboard and through your electricity bills, but it’s now time to get started with the analysis of your kW load demand data and much more in the Raw Data tab of our Wattics dashboard.
Try out Raw Data analysis now
Don’t be scared by what you see, what you are looking for is very specific:
- Peak demand (max kW value over period and what time it occurred), to find out if you are being overcharged with your MIC (Maximum Import Capacity) charges. You need to select the meter that monitors your entire site first.
- Overnight demand levels, to compare to daily levels and find out if more equipment could be switched off)
- High consumption hours (when demand starts to increase and decrease), to find out if it matches your business hours
- Down-time periods (e.g. lunch time breaks, week-ends), to find out if your staff operates equipment efficiently
- Unusual demand peaks (e.g. peak at night or drop during the day), to find out if electrical have been left on or has failed
Sometimes a daily kWh figure does not reflect what’s happening during the day. Now that you know how to identify what’s really happening (and what shouldn’t), you can:
- Go back to your staff and call for action (awareness campaign to switch off equipment when not in use during breaks, over night and at weekends)
- Go back to your supplier or energy consultant and ask them to revisit the MIC (Maximum Import Capacity) you are registered for to reduce your electricity bills
- Set up alerts in your dashboard (static alerts or Sentinel alerts) to be notified when abnormal demand is detected
- Revisit your BMS and timer settings throughout your site to align them with business hours and space occupancy (major potential savings on HVAC and Lighting)
If you need to forward your findings to colleagues or management, you can export all the graphs by clicking on the Export icon at the top right of the graph and select an export to image, PDF or CSV file.
Try out Raw Data analysis now
Of course, we are always there should you need clarifications on how to use your energy management dashboard, so please feel free to get in touch with us at any time.
Anthony Schoofs