subject: Forge Your Organization's Efficiency With Real Time Energy Metering [print this page] With the increasing energy use for many types of organizations at the present, challenges relevant to the use of energy are now faced by the major decision makers of enterprises. Decision makers of organizations of today are realizing the need to take actions in observing sustainable practices and mind the consequences of such energy use. Coupled with that responsibility, organizations are also burdened with high energy costs as well as ensuring energy security for future generations.
The company faces a strong call to become more sustainable and to cut back in every respect in the energy that the organization uses, as a consequence of the carbon emissions that result. Another challenge would be the high cost of energy use and its implications to energy security for future generations.
If there is so much pressure on an organization to realize the scale of its energy use and to make improvements, the quality of information available to decision-makers must be very high. It will not be acceptable to just use historical data as improvements in technology such as real-time energy metering can help use of best case practices.
As organizations of every shape and size face a twin pronged challenge when it comes to their use of energy, management should explore every opportunity to arm themselves with the best possible information and the highest quality data to enable them to take their best position. The company faces a strong call to become more sustainable and to cut back in every respect in the energy that the organization uses, as a consequence of the carbon emissions that result. Another challenge would be the high cost of energy use and its implications to energy security for future generations.
Real-time energy metering involves a dedicated network accessibility of data from meters throughout an entire system. Sometimes existing meters can be retrofitted, but at other times especially equipped meters are linked in order to capture data at specified intervals, for example every ten minutes.
An organization's energy liability and carbon emissions footprint is effectively the sum of its energy use for each individual corporate asset. Each asset of any consequence must be metered in its own right, so that its contribution to the problem is assessed. Unless that asset is optimally efficient, a position of true sustainability may not be achievable.
There are data loggers which can be be part of the real-time energy metering solutions which can help provide data to the central database where data can be analyzed. Reports are available on a micro analysis level, enabling the operator to make critical decisions and change the operation of the asset or assets in real-time, during the course of the billing cycle.
Energy utility bills have traditionally been a significant cost within an organization's monthly profit and loss statements. Without the use of real-time energy metering solutions and fully digitized reporting systems, it has often been historically difficult to match the utility bill with the actual energy used. Any errors evident would often go unnoticed and this would compromise a company's efficiency and sustainability challenge.
When real-time energy metering is used with digitized utility bill checking, organizations have found that they are able to compare actual use versus chargeable liabilities to an accuracy of less than 1/10 of 1 percent.
In a deregulated energy society, a company that is able to analyze its electricity and energy use due to real-time energy metering, may well be able to procure its energy according to a "best case" scenario through use of sophisticated energy profiles. Accurate metering would be a very big contribution in the ultimate aim for carbon footprint reduction.
