The use of energy within the corporate world is subject to twin significant challenges these days. Management must be able to arm themselves with the best information to enable them to meet these challenges. Any information and data that they gather must be of the best quality. The two challenges facing an organization are of course the need to cut back on energy use, due to the sheer cost of buying this energy in the first place and secondly, their need to be seen as both active and sustainable, due to the perils that energy rated carbon emissions represent.

Decision-makers at the highest level of an organization have had their hands tied to a certain extent as they have not been party to the best quality information, enabling them to make the smartest decisions. Real-time energy metering is a much more palatable solution when compared to a reliance upon historical data sources. Best case scenarios can now be addressed.

Real-time energy metering involves the establishment of a network to gather data from meters within an entire system. In some cases these meters would be retrofitted, or alternatively specially equipped meters are used to capture data at intervals of 10 minutes or so.

Cumulatively, each and every asset that an organization possesses is responsible for the sum total of the company’s energy liability and greenhouse gas emissions. Improvement should therefore start at source, as each asset should be metered individually during a search for optimal efficiency.

Real-time energy metering solutions rely on data loggers to provide such data to a centralized database. When this information is received, it is analyzed to a considerable degree before being presented with a report. Microanalysis is then possible, enabling an operator to make critical operational decisions, maybe changing, in real-time, the operation of an asset, during its 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.

It’s possible to compare utility bills to actual usage through real-time energy metering and digitized utility bill checking. Organizations have found that they are able to compare to an accuracy of less than 1/10 of 1% in many cases.

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 is an essential first step in what is certain to become a battle to reduce the corporate carbon footprint.

Daniel Stouffer has much more information about real-time energy metering and how a visit to www.verisae.com can be of use to you.