Monitoring and targeting from NIFES

Three of the training team's members specialise in M&T. Between them have skills and experience in every aspect from metering, through data collection to software development, analysis and reporting. All of them carry out field implementations and since (uniquely) every one of them was once an energy manager, they have a much better appreciation of your needs than any M&T software developer would have.

The NIFES approach to energy monitoring and targeting (M&T) is ideally suited to medium and large industrial and commercial users, even in situations where energy consumption is driven by factors that are difficult to quantify. We focus on the detection and avoidance of waste, as distinct from schemes designed purely to monitor invoicing and optimise tariffs and contracts.

Simplicity is the key

Simple reporting: in the M&T schemes which we help people establish, the first line of defence is the overspend league table (Figure 1, right), which in most cases would be reviewed each week. This simple summary ranks apparent excess consumptions in descending order of cost and thus provides a prioritised exception report. It takes no specific knowledge or training to produce or interpret such a report: all the user need do is follow up the most cash-significant issues. Indeed, it may often be that there are no significant issues to pursue, in which case the user can return to his or her other work.

The software we deploy includes a graphical target-setting and analysis tool, but this is not required for routine operation.


Figure 1: the overspend league table

Figure 2: structure of a typical M&T scheme 		Simplicity of data input: wherever possible, we tap into existing data structures such as meter-reading spreadsheets. This means that the user gets to keep his or her familiar tools, not just in terms of data input, but also any reports and charts that have become established practice. Figure 2 (left) shows the typical generic M&T scheme. "Data sources" usually consist of the client's existing energy management workbooks as mentioned above, but can include
  • data acquisition systems
  • other in-house databases
  • internet or intranet web pages
  • text files exported from other software

The box labelled "Transfer" will be a site-specific customized Excel workbook designed to retrieve required data by one or more of the methods listed above. The "data store" comprises one or more spreadsheet tables of regular weekly or monthly data in a format that our other standard M&T components can access.

Ease of implementation: setting up an M&T scheme can be a complex process. There is more to it than just supplying some software. Our specialists have industrial and commercial energy management experience, combined with the necessary software skills. In a typical project their role would be to:
  • Provide assistance and advice relating to:
    1. Making existing meter-reading regime more robust
    2. Establishing a flow of weekly production statistics, if possible using an automated method
    3. Obtaining historical weekly degree-day figures and arrange ongoing updates, using an automated method
  • Set up an Excel-based software scheme to provide core M&T functionality:
    1. Data input, processing and storage
    2. Analysis and target-setting
    3. Weekly overspend alerts
  • Participate in setting agreed "aggressive but achievable" operating targets for each monitored stream of consumption
  • Prepare support documentation
    1. Site-specific operating instructions
    2. Generic instructions for analysis tool
    3. Technical guidance on how to extend and modify the scheme
  • Provide training in the use of M&T:
    1. For operators concerned merely with routine data input and reporting
    2. For 'expert' users interested in target-setting and forensic analysis
    3. Short overview for other interested parties
  • One year's telephone/email support

To discuss your needs, please email Vilnis Vesma or call him direct on +44(0)1531 821350

And for the expert enthusiast...

We provide our graphical target-setting and analysis toolkit, with documentation and training, for the user who wishes to engage in analysis of consumption patterns relative to driving factors. This is the same toolkit that our M&T specialists use.

The toolkit includes two particularly useful charts for diagnosing adverse performance and finding low-cost energy-saving opportunities. They are:

  • the scatter diagram (Figure 3) which plots weekly consumption against its principal "driving factor"; and
  • the cusum chart, one important property of which is that it changes direction whenever the performance of the monitored stream changes for any reason.
In Figure 4, a period of excess consumption (upward slope) has been highlighted. In the analysis tool, this is done by clicking on chosen chart points. The corresponding points are automatically highlighted in the scatter diagram as well, and the red line in Figure 3 is the software's estimate of the best-fit line through the selected points. Comparison between the green and red lines shows how performance changed during the highlighted period, relative to lowest achievable consumption.

Figure 3: the scatter diagram. The horizontal axis represents the production throughput, weather, or other relevant driving factor
Figure 4: the cusum chart. Horizontal trend indicates on- target performance; upward slope indicates persistent over-consumption
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