Demand profiles
This point relates primarily to electricity. Knowing your pattern of electricity demand half-hour by half-hour through the working day, and understanding how these daily patterns differ on non-working days, and knowing how these patterns change seasonally, are important for various reasons.
Most directly, if you are able to modify your patterns of demand you may be able to achieve savings by reducing your transportation and capacity charges. Information about your demand profiles can also make negotiating supply contracts more effective.
Half-hourly electricity consumption data may be available from your electricity supplier, or you may prefer to engage a third-party operator to read your meter remotely on your behalf; this provides the added reassurance of knowing when your supplier has had to bill you on the basis of estimated data. This will not be evident from his bill. See also the more general information on checking utility bills
Elements of the utility management process
Top-level objectives
Temporary demand-profile recorder