Demystifying Your Energy Costs: Your FAQs Answered
Are you looking to take control of your energy costs and make informed decisions to save both money and the planet? Our Energy Cost and Information Tool (ECT) is here to help you do just that. We understand that navigating the world of energy management can be complex, which is why we’ve compiled a short list of the most frequently asked questions about the ECT.
Whether you’re a seasoned energy manager or just starting to explore the possibilities of optimizing your energy consumption, this quick start FAQ guide is designed to offer insights, dispel any doubts, and empower you with the knowledge you need to make informed choices. Let’s dive in and unravel the world of energy cost management!
1. How do you obtain Electric Metering Data?
Ezenics takes a purely software, no hardware installation approach to obtaining your data. There are typically two ways to get electric meter data. The first involves a direct connection to the Utility Interval Metering data via an API, such as Green Button, or through a connection to the Utility’s portal. The second method involves connection to an onsite building meter or submeter using an API, database connection, or standard building connectivity protocol, such as BACnet or Modbus.
2. How are my Electric Rates kept up to date?
Ezenics has a large database of thousands of Commercial and Industrial Electric Rates. To keep rates up to date, we subscribe to a third-party feed that provides notifications when PUC filings are made for rate changes in the US.
3. How does Ezenics account for site-specific rate information, such as franchise fees or location-based taxes?
During the onboarding period, Ezenics reviews each of our client’s accounts’ invoices to determine site-specific taxes and fees and incorporates them into the account/site-specific configuration.
4. Does your platform provide de-regulated market costs?
Yes, the Ezenics system integrates with the APIs of most wholesale pricing markets to account for de-regulated market generation costs.
5. How do you accommodate for complex rates?
Utility rates can be extremely complex; taking into account time of use periods, stepped rates, rider charges, seasonality, basic service charges, site-specific charges, ratchet charges, etc. (we’ve even seen demand charges to the effect of taking the higher of the max demand of the past 12 months x 0.8 or the average of the demand during the peak periods for the four summer seasonal months). Ezenics has created a flexible database that defines each of these complexities for each rate – including incorporating seasonality, time of use, stepped rates, varying units of measurement, multi-variable charges (such as ratchet charges), and more. Ezenics takes your utility interval metering data and processes it each hour into charge bins that have been defined based on these complex functions and then combines this data into pre-defined reporting periods (daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonally).