How Your Energy Consumption Data Helps the Software Work Better for You
We use your energy data to determine the emissions associated with the electricity and fuel you purchase. This enables the software to make specific carbon reduction recommendations based on your unique organization. Your customized implementation roadmap should only suggest improvements to energy systems that you own and include realistic, achievable projects specifically for your business.
Why your Energy Consumption Data is Used
In the field of decarbonization, there are two primary ways to calculate emissions associated with business activities: energy spend & energy consumption calculations.
Energy spend calculations are typically more straightforward and easier but can also be a bit more inaccurate. These calculations take the amount you spend on fuel and electricity and use two average values that make these calculations more inaccurate: average price per unit of energy (kilowatt hours, gallons, cubic meters, etc.) and average carbon emissions per unit of energy.
Energy is a volatile commodity. Using an average value (i.e., the average price of energy across a month) does not tell you exactly how much energy you purchased. As a business, this can have adverse effects on your decarbonization efforts. For example, you could have filled all of your fleet tanks when gasoline prices were at their highest price of the month. Using the smaller price per gallon average value will make it seem like you consumed more fuel than you really did, and in turn, create more emissions. Conversely, you may underreport the actual emissions you created.
Average emissions values can create data inaccuracies because they do not consider the engine or electrical appliance being used. For example, if you are still operating with 20-year-old appliances; your decarbonization efforts could start with upgrading said appliances. However, using modern emissions rates underestimates how much of an impact your actions could have.
Consumption Calculations are more accurate but can require more time to record the finer details from the start. Such details are, as mentioned above, the types of engines and appliances you use and the exact amount of how much energy you consume every month.
Once you calculate the energy consumption, analysis of emissions and decarbonization becomes easier. The time required to enter monthly energy consumption can be equal to entering how much you spend when reading your monthly bill. When enacting efficiency measures, you will see monthly reductions. If you choose to calculate emissions based on energy spend, you will have to drill down into the data every month asking questions such as: “Did my emissions go down because I used less? Was the average price paid for fuel lower than the price I actually paid? Did both occur? How do I attribute a percentage of reduction to my effort?”