Utility consumption analysis

Edit online

Utility Bill Analytics has organizational level consumption analysis tools that include consumption analysis dashboards and analytical reports.

Access the consumption analysis dashboards from the organizational level Verify menu, or if you are a group level user, from the Consumption submenu on the Group Summary page. Other analytical tools are available at a location or account level, for example, the performance dashboard.
Note: The consumption analysis dashboard focuses on consumption and intensity rather than cost. It does not include any cost information, so you can perform utility data analysis even if all the cost information is not captured in IBM® ESG Suite.

You can use the consumption analysis dashboard to do the following tasks:

  • Identify outliers, variations, and anomalies, for example, you can identify unusual data patterns in utility consumption data, such as unusually high consumption intensity, material variations in utility consumption, or unexpectedly high consumption. For each anomaly, you can drill down into consecutively greater detail, right through to bill images.
  • Rank and prioritize issues, for example, you can rank locations by severity of issues by using various criteria such as percentage variance. Therefore, you can focus on the anomalies that represent the greatest cost-saving opportunities.
  • You can combine utility data with other data sets, such as corporate KPIs, to screen out less significant data and focus on anomalies that have a material impact on your consumption.
The analysis is achieved through variance checking and then followed by peer benchmarking. It is based on normalized calendar month billing data, and by using locations as the comparison entity. To start the analysis, first define the analyzing criteria:
Current Period
The time period over which the utility billing data is analyzed, for example, from Oct-2015 to Dec-2015
Comparison Period
The time period to be compared with, which might be the same time period last year, or just the previous time period for example, compare with last quarter
Account Styles
Whether the analysis is focused on all account styles or a selective account styles only, for example to look only at large market Electricity accounts
Groups
It is important to choose one or more groups that have locations of similar type to perform the analysis. If the locations involved are of different use in nature, for example, branch office compared to manufacturing factory, then the result of comparing them to each other might not be effective.

After you select the analyzing criteria from the user interface, the dashboard calculates the variance, absolute values and intensities for each location, and ranks them in each chart and grid. The analysis result is displayed in bar charts so that any anomalies or outliers can easily be identified. The dashboard also provides a table view of all the data points being analyzed, from which you can rank and prioritize issues by using various criteria that suit your purpose for example, rank all locations by cost variance percentage.

Similar to the cost analysis dashboards, three consumption analysis dashboards are available for each utility type, which are all similar. The only main difference between them is the type of utility data that is being analyzed:
  • Consumption Analysis - Electricity
  • Consumption Analysis - Natural Gas
  • Consumption Analysis - Water
If you can't see all three dashboards available under the Consumption menu, mostly likely it is because your Envizi ESG Suite data set does not contain the associated type of utility data, for example, no water data.

Intensity analysis

The intensity of each location is calculated as total consumption divided by the total KPI metric value for the selected period.

For example, if the selected KPI is By Floor Space, then the intensity value is calculated as electricity consumption kWh / Floor Space m2 for the selected period.

If the KPI metric is of type Instantaneous, then an annualized intensity value is calculated. Instantaneous KPI metrics normally have the same value throughout the year, and the values for each month are weight averaged rather than aggregated to get a yearly value. Floor space is a typical example of an instantaneous KPI metric. For example, if, a location consumes 1,000 kWh electricity for the month of March and its floor space is 500 m2, then the intensity value for the location for the month of March is calculated as outlined in the following sample:
(1,000 kWh / 500 m2) / 31 days in March * 365 days in the year = 23.55 kWh / m2 per year

The annualized intensity value enables you to compare and benchmark locations with each other regardless of their reporting period, whether that is one month, one quarter, or half a year and so on.