Comparing energy consumption across multiple locations: where do you begin?

Why comparing is so difficult

Locations differ on precisely the points that make a comparison difficult. Different suppliers and contracts, meters read in different ways, buildings that have nothing in common in size, function or opening hours. A bare total consumption per location then says very little: the largest building consumes the most, but that does not make it the worst building.

On top of that, invoices arrive per month or even per year, while the differences show up in the pattern: what happens at night, at the weekend, during the morning start-up?

Fair comparison starts with normalisation

A meaningful portfolio comparison corrects for the differences that do not matter, so that the differences that do matter remain.

• Correct for size: consumption per square metre makes large and small buildings comparable.
• Correct for usage: a building that is open six days a week should be judged differently from one that is open three.
• Correct for function: offices, shops and care locations each have their own normal.
• Use the same data source for everyone: quarter-hour values per meter reveal patterns that disappear on invoices.

What a portfolio overview delivers

Once all locations are measurable in the same way, the outliers stand out immediately. The building with a night-time baseload twice as high as comparable properties. The location where consumption barely drops at the weekend. The building where the installations start up hours earlier each morning than necessary.

That overview changes the conversations. Instead of a general savings target, a concrete priority list emerges: which locations first, which interventions there, and what they deliver. Towards owners, tenants and installers you also stand stronger with metering data than with gut feeling.

Practical first steps

Start with an inventory: which meters are there per location and who has access to the data? Unlocking metering data requires an authorisation; that is an administrative step, not a technical project.

Then set up a first benchmark with the locations that can connect fastest. Perfection is not the goal; the first comparison almost always yields useful questions straight away. Finally, assign ownership of the follow-up: an overview nobody looks at saves nothing.