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Defining a Meter

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  rev. 2014-05-06        

To add a new meter within a facility, navigate to the Facility Node on the Facility Tree, and click the Add Utility Meter button.

 

                                    In campus arrangements, it sometimes happens that a meter can be located in one facility, but serves one or more other facilities.  Place the meter with the facility where it is physically located, regardless of the allocation of usage.

To edit an existing meter, navigate to the Meter Node on the Facility Tree and click the Edit Meter button. You can also move a meter to a different facility by using the Move Meter button.

 

                                                             

ManagingEnergy defines two categories of Utility Meters:

Physical Meter - A physical piece of hardware that produces regular readings.  The readings may be taken manually or electronically.

Virtual Meter - A meter for which the readings are calculated based on Physical Meter(s) and/or other Virtual Meter(s).  An example being a campus arrangement where there is one physical meter for a group of buildings virtual meters could be set up for individual buildings.

 

Physical Meter

The properties, set from the Add Utility Meter button, of physical meters are:

General Tab

Property

Description

Meter Name

A unique user-selected name up to 16 characters.  This name is used in several places in the user interface, so it should be chosen to be easily recognized by most users.  Do not use generic names like Elec or NatGas to name your meters.  A good practice is to use the Facility Code and Utility Type when naming a meter (e.g. 0016 NG1 as the first natural gas meter in Facility 0016).

Meter Type

Interval or Non-Interval.  Interval indicates frequent readings from a Smart meter, which are rolled up into monthly values.  Non-Interval indicates periodic readings, normally from invoices, which displace the monthly roll ups; the underlying interval readings remain visible in the Readings tab under the Meter.

Utility

Energy types:
Steam (Oil Fired)
Electricity
Fuel Oil 2
Propane
Waste Water
Steam
Natural Gas
Water
Fuel Oil 6
Fuel Oil 1
Chilled Water
Hot Water

These are ManagingEnergy predefined types.  If you need additional Energy Types please contact ManagingEnergy through online support.

Included in footprint?

Will the usage at this meter be included when calculating energy intensity, consumption totals, or emissions?  This factor comes into play where you have submeters and virtual meters, most commonly in multiple-tenant or campus arrangements.  Use this property to ensure that usage is not double-counted.

Included in footprint? is True by default.  Meters that are not included in the facility footprint appear as faded icons in the Facility Tree.

Notes

Any descriptive information on the meter.

 

Account Tab

Property

Description

Account

The Utility Account number associated with the meter.  This is how a Utility Account and Meter get attached, or associated, with each other.  Not all meters (in particular Submeters and Virtual Meters) are associated with accounts.

More than one meter may be associated with a single account, a common situation where utilities invoice for more than one meter on each invoice. Accounts must be linked to a tariff with multiple reading groups, which will enable all tariff calculations to take place within this one account.

The Account's Drop Down List is populated from Accounts set up from the Accounts&Invoices Module, and/or through the provisioning process.  The Account Name, not the Account Number is displayed in the Drop Down.  If the Drop Down List is empty it means that no Accounts have been created for that Utility Type for that Utility Meter Type, or Facility.

Sub-meters and Virtual Meters are not associated with Accounts.  Therefore, the Accounts Tab does not display when editing them.

Reading Group

Associates this Meter with a specific Reading Group in the Tariff. Important in instances where more that one utility is invoiced in a single invoice by the utility in order to keep the meters separate.

Meter Components Tab

Property

Description

Marginal Rate **

A unit cost used for calculating savings for opportunities and lighting retrofits.  For meters with more than one reading value (e.g. Consumption, Demand, Power Factor), there can be a marginal rate assigned to each reading.  Marginal rates can only be assigned to meters that are included in the building footprint. Marginal rates are not part of the rate tariff and are not used in invoice validation.

Serves Lighting

In the case of an electrical meter, indicates whether it serves lighting in the facility.  If true, the marginal rate for this meter will be used in lighting retrofit calculations at the facility.

In the case where multiple electrical meters serve facility lighting, ManagingEnergy will average the marginal rates.

 

                                    The Utility Provider associated with the Account must have Utility Tariff Components (non-User Defined), such as Consumption, Demand, or other physical unit values associated for Meter Components to appear here and allow the Marginal Rate and Serves Lighting fields to be set.

 

 

                                                               Physical Meters can be either Revenue Meters owned and read by the utility company, or Submeters owned and read by the facility owner.  The data structure and all analysis and reporting are exactly the same for these two meter types  The key distinction is whether or not the Physical Meter is attached to an Account.

 

** The marginal rate is a simplification used by ManagingEnergy because there is no way to predict which opportunities will eventually be implemented.  ManagingEnergy (or a human energy analyst) can't know in advance the exact cumulative impact of all implemented measures within the tariff structure in effect.  The marginal rate calculation is an industry standard which is considered sufficiently accurate for evaluating energy upgrade opportunities.

 



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