4 Ways to Turn Smart Meters’ Raw Data into Real Savings

Smart meters provide big data about a building’s energy usage — more than 35,000 data points per year! Here are four ways you can turn that raw data into opportunities to save energy and money:

1. Identify your building’s real energy-usage patterns.

The data provided by smart meters will reveal your building’s “energy signature” — its unique patterns of energy consumption. When you’re familiar with your normal energy-usage patterns, you can more easily spot abnormal, potentially costly ones. In addition, the smart meter data can help you quantify energy costs. After all, you can’t manage what you can’t quantify.

2. Match interval meter data to the actual cost of electricity.

To understand how to make the best use of interval data from smart meters, you’ll need to know some important facts about commercial electricity billing:

• On any given day, the hourly cost of electricity has been determined for the next day.

• The electricity rate for a given hour is determined by the market clearing price. Simply put, the market clearing price is the marginal wholesale cost to generate a megawatt of electricity for a given hour.

• Utility bills include both consumption charges (which are based on the total amount of energy used during a billing cycle) and demand charges (based on the highest peak capacity required during a billing cycle).
• A customer’s usage charges are calculated using a predefined rate class load profile, which utilities use to determine hourly utilization of the customer’s monthly meter read. However, this profile might not accurately reflect the customer’s actual hourly electricity consumption as monthly meter reads do not provide any calibration of actual use on a daily or hourly basis.

• On-peak and off-peak demand charges can differ by as much as 50%.

Smart meters measure your building’s energy usage — both consumption and demand — every 15 minutes (or less), 24 hours a day. You can analyze the captured data to determine your actual electricity usage during on-peak and off-peak times. With several months of data in hand, you have the documentation needed to validate your building’s energy usage to your utility provider. This proof should enable you to get a lower demand rate, which in turn, will reduce your overall cost of electricity.

3. Change energy-usage patterns by performing operations during less-expensive (off-peak) times.

For example, you might have maintenance employees change their schedule so that they polish the floors during off-peak times. In addition, if your utility has a demand response program, you’ll be able to participate in the program and enjoy its incentives because the smart meter data will document that you’re reducing consumption during times of peak demand.

4. Make sure your building’s energy-saving equipment is effective.

Using smart meter data, you can evaluate whether your current energy-saving equipment is actually reducing energy consumption in the building. If not, you can use your building’s energy-usage patterns to select the correct type of energy-saving equipment, such as a battery storage solution or a combined heat and power (CHP) system.

In its raw form, smart meter data is nothing but a pile of data points. However, with the help of tools such as ETS’s Web dashboard and smart apps, you can use that data to identify your building’s normal energy-usage patterns, determine your actual electricity usage during on-peak and off-peak times, optimize energy-usage patterns by scheduling operations for off-peak times, and make sure your building’s energy-saving equipment is effective.

[cta]How much money could you save by implementing smart technologies in your building? Contact ETS to learn more and schedule an energy-savings evaluation.[/cta]