Signals from the energy edge.
Notes on utility data, trustworthy systems, interoperability and the grid. How we think about the hard parts, and what we're building.
Commercial solar and your electricity bill: net metering, net billing, and demand charges
How on-site solar actually changes a commercial electricity bill: net metering vs net billing, banked credits and annual true-up, and why demand charges usually stay.
Using utility data to plan building electrification
Electrification lives or dies on the details in your utility data. Learn how load profiles, fuel splits and peak demand reveal whether a building is ready to switch.
A facility manager's guide to utility data
Energy is the largest controllable operating cost in most buildings. This guide shows facility managers how to turn scattered utility data into decisions that cut it.
Reading load profiles: baseload, peak and load factor
A load profile shows how a building actually uses power through the day. Learn to read baseload, peak demand and load factor, and what each one tells you about cost.
Energy benchmarks compared: CBECS, ENERGY STAR, BOMA
CBECS, ENERGY STAR and BOMA BEST answer different questions. Here is what each benchmark measures, how the scores are built, and how to use them together.
Carbon accounting software still needs clean utility data
Carbon accounting platforms apply emission factors well. They do not fix bad inputs. Here is why activity data quality, not the software, decides whether your emissions number holds up.
Data center energy and emissions reporting
Data center electricity demand is set to double by 2030. Here is how to report it properly: PUE, WUE, location-based and market-based Scope 2, and the metered data underneath.
GHG inventory boundaries: operational vs financial control
Before you count a single tonne, you have to decide what counts as yours. This is how the GHG Protocol organizational boundary works, and how the control approaches change your number.
Financed emissions (Scope 3 Category 15), explained
For banks and investors, Category 15 usually dwarfs every other emission source. Here is how financed emissions work, how PCAF attribution is calculated, and why data quality decides the number.
Utility cost allocation and chargebacks that hold up
Splitting a master-metered utility bill across tenants or cost centers only works if the method is defensible. Here is how allocation, RUBS, and submetering compare, and what data each needs.
How to read a commercial electricity bill line by line
A commercial electricity bill is three bills in one: supply, delivery, and demand. This walkthrough explains every charge, where errors hide, and what each line really measures.
Utility budgeting and forecasting from bill data
A defensible energy budget starts with clean bill history, not a percentage bump. Here is how to build accruals, forecast spend, and explain variance from the data you already have.
Energy procurement strategies for commercial buyers
Fixed, index, and block and index pricing each move risk to a different place. Here is how commercial buyers match a procurement structure to their budget and their load.
Electricity delivery and regulatory charges explained
The non-commodity side of your power bill: distribution, transmission, regulatory riders, and fixed versus volumetric delivery, plus why delivery can now exceed the energy charge itself.
How to reduce natural gas costs in commercial buildings
A practical playbook for lowering commercial gas spend: review how you buy gas, cut heating load with setpoints and controls, tune the plant, and track it so the savings hold.
Finding water and sewer overcharges on commercial bills
Sewer is often the larger half of a commercial water bill, and it is billed on water that may never reach the sewer. Here is where the overcharges hide.
Preparing utility data for an ESG audit
Assurance turns your energy and emissions numbers into claims an auditor can test. Here is how to make utility data assurance ready before the audit starts.
Utility bill management for multifamily portfolios
RUBS, submetering, and tenant billing decide how much of a rising utility bill an owner recovers. Here is how to manage the data behind cost recovery.
Offering Green Button Connect My Data as a utility
Green Button Connect My Data lets customers authorize secure, automated sharing of their usage data. Here is what the standard requires and how to implement it well.
Meter data management (MDM) basics for utilities
MDM sits between smart meters and billing, turning raw interval reads into validated data. Here is what an MDMS does, how VEE works, and why data quality matters.
Meter-to-cash: reducing utility billing errors at the source
Most utility billing errors start upstream, in the reads and data feeding the bill. Here is how the meter-to-cash cycle works and where to catch problems early.
Modernizing a utility Customer Information System (CIS)
A utility CIS runs meter-to-cash, but many were built before smart meters existed. Here is what modernization involves, what drives it, and how to de-risk the move.
Integrating utility data with ERP and accounting systems
How to get clean utility data into your ERP or accounting system: the integration patterns (file, EDI 810, API), what has to be true before you connect, and how allocation works.
Automating utility bill data entry for AP and energy teams
Manual bill keying is slow, error-prone and costly. What it really costs, why utility bills are harder than normal invoices, and how to automate capture and validation.
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