Intelligent utility data at your fingertips | Titan Energy

Written by Titan Energy | October 14, 2020

By automating utility data in a cloud-hosted app, Titan Energy Intelligence is set to boost sustainability initiatives

When a facility manager receives over 200 invoices a month to manually process, it can be overwhelming. The idea of inputting repetitive data and spending hours following up on utility billing errors is paralyzing. Plus it is difficult for the facilities manager to gather a clear comprehensive picture of how his portfolio of locations is performing.

Facility managers need to be able to answer “Which facilities are less energy-efficient than others?” and “Where are there opportunities to reduce spending?”

The trend towards automation and secure utility data management is being led by cities and towns tasked to publicly report sustainability benchmarks and reduce operational costs. Corporate and retail properties are also using data modeling to quickly analyze the effectiveness of a new HVAC system or a lighting upgrade.

An energy intelligence platform provides utility data management in a cloud-based program allowing centralized access to all utility data visualized in useful analytics. Common utility data invoices include electricity, natural gas, propane, oil, water, waste and recycling with historical and real-time analytics.

Utility data management allows cities, towns, retail, hospitality, healthcare, universities, and franchises to securely, efficiently, and cost-effectively control utility costs and achieve sustainability initiatives.

1. How much does it cost to process all this utility data?

Each month, businesses and municipalities pay for the utilities consumed as well as the direct and indirect expense of processing invoices. Each organization is slightly different in how they manage this data, but we will provide an example of direct, indirect and hidden costs.

Direct expenses of processing utility data invoices include printer toner, storage, postage and shipping costs. Indirect expenses include labor for employees performing manual data entry, stuffing envelopes, tracking down billing errors or charges and then following up with the utility on those errors. Hidden costs include potential late fees and potential negative cash flows.

Cost of processing includes (i) direct expenses (postage, printer toner, storage costs, shipping costs), (ii) indirect (employee costs for data entry, stuffing envelopes, tracking down errors and follow-ups) and (iii) hidden costs (waiting for confirmations, potential late fees, negative cash flows, slow mail). Divide by the total number of invoices processed to get the average cost of processing an invoice.

2. Part of a bigger picture, data can justify energy management strategies

Energy intelligence platforms can be rolled into an energy management strategy or be a standalone offering. The evolution of energy efficiency and energy procurement markets accelerated due to the proliferation of technology to manage and verify utility and building data. For example, when new LED lights are installed, the building manager can now easily justify that energy consumption has been reduced and track the return on investment. Utility data management takes on more importance when procuring commodities such as electricity and natural gas.

A smart energy management consultant will help determine the best commodity procurement plan for your needs based on their market knowledge and your goals. They can roll in the energy intelligence platform into the commodity contract and still save you money on your energy rates.

3. How does an energy management platform work?

An energy intelligence platform’s unique features make it a necessary tool for your team. Automating utility data management will help your team improve operational efficiency, prevent inaccurate charges, visualize your portfolios, performance, and make sustainability reporting easy.

The platform automatically centralizes utility bill data and, flags abnormalities to help avoid additional fees or incorrect charges. If you have solar or another on-site generation system, it can track net metering credits and other rolled over billing credits.

You can also map out your facilities by geography to easily visualize and benchmark energy trends by location. By having all this data at your fingertips, it allows you more quickly to analyze trends and implement corrective strategies.

4. Working towards sustainability goals in one click

Finding better ways to make buildings more energy-efficient and accumulate data is paramount. With sustainability reporting in a data intelligence platform, the user reduces the number of manhours plugging in energy generation sources and usage. Fully integrated utility generation data automatically calculates emissions data that can be exported to your GHG and ESG reports.

Achieving and maintaining ENERGY STAR certifications can be tracked in the energy intelligence platform. Each building is given a 1-100 score to indicate the building’s energy efficiency in comparison to its national peer set. The higher the score, the more efficient the building—with buildings at >75 eligible to earn the coveted ENERGY STAR certification.

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