Configuring meter alert rules

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In IBM® Envizi ESG Suite you can configure rules for each meter to automatically trigger alerts and issues when the rule conditions are met. Issues can be automatically assigned to users based on the rule type and severity, and email notifications can be enabled based on your organization preferences.

Understanding rules, alerts, and issues

Rules, alerts, and issues are separate but connected items that are used to automatically configure, detect, and manage meter data anomalies.

Rules define the conditions that are checked each time meter data is either loaded to the platform or periodically checked in the case of inactivity rules. When rule conditions are met, an alert is triggered.
Alerts are a record of the individual instances when rule conditions are met. They provide a history of how often a rule is triggered that helps inform the response to any anomaly.
Issues are the primary workflow object in Envizi ESG Suite for assigning, investigating, and resolving meter data anomalies. For more information about managing issues, see the related link.

When an alert is triggered for any rule, the system checks whether there is an existing unresolved issue for the rule:

If there is no issue, then a new issue is created and assigned to the appropriate notification contact or to an internal system user if a notification contact does not exist. Depending on your organization settings, an email notification will be sent to the notification contact.
If there is an existing unresolved issue, then the alert is added to the existing issue. To prevent email flooding, notification emails are not sent out for subsequent alerts. All alert instances linked to an issue can be viewed on the Issue Details page.

Configuring rules

The following types of rules can be configured:

Inactivity rules: Rules that raise an alert if meter data has not been received for a defined period of hours or days.
Absolute rules: Rules that raise an alert if a fixed threshold has been breached for any consumption or demand measure.
Variance rules: Rules that raise an alert if actual consumption or demand exceeds expected consumption or demand by a defined percentage threshold.
Performance rules: Predefined variance rules for typical building energy wastage scenarios that can be tailored to match building operating hours.

To configure rules, navigate to the rules setting page from the Meter Summary page. For more information, see the child links.

Setting up notification contacts

You can set up notification contacts so that meter related issues are automatically assigned to users when they are created. This is required if you want users to receive email notifications as soon as issues are created.

You can set up different notification contacts depending on the type of issue and the issue priority. When setting up notification contacts, choose the following settings:

For notifications related to inactivity rules, choose Inactivity Alerts.
For notifications related to absolute rules, choose Normal Alerts. These notifications are required only if you are not using variance rules in the same location.
For notifications related to variance rules, choose BEPA Alerts.
For notifications related to performance rules, choose BEPA Alerts.

Ensure that you select all priorities that apply to the rules you are creating. For example, if you create only notification contacts with standard priority, but you configure a rule with high priority, then the issue that is created will not be assigned to the notification contacts and will be assigned to the internal system user instead.

For more information about setting up notification contacts, see the related link.

Managing issues

When an alert is triggered, you can review the details of the alert in the Issue Details page. For more information about working with issues, see the related link.

Reviewing meter alert trends

You can use the Interval Meter Alert Summary pages to analyze trends in meter alerts that might help to identify locations and meters of interest.

To review absolute alert trends, access the Interval Meter Alert Summary page through the Interval Meter Alerts quick link on the Envizi ESG Suite home page or through the Monitor menu. In the Interval Meter Alert Summary page, you can also view all existing absolute rules through the Manage Rules grid and preview panel for each location.

To review variance or performance alert trends, access the BEPA Summary page through the Building Energy Performance quick link on the Envizi ESG Suite home page or through the Optimize menu. In the BEPA Summary page, you can also view all existing variance rules through the Manage Rules grid and preview panel for each location.