The Future of Metering

Hey friends,

Before we shut down Nexus Labs’ consulting practice in early 2022, we had the opportunity to support one last building in Manhattan.

This building had more submeters per square foot, per floor, per system, and per tenant than any building I've ever seen. AND, perhaps predictably, all that data was barely being used.

We've talked before (most recently and comprehensively here) about how important utility data is for decarbonization and ESG goals. Figuring out how much carbon you emit today is the vital first step on the road to emitting zero.

But while whole building data (that comes from the utility) is vital, it falls short in many ways: it's delayed, it's not frequent enough, and it's not granular enough.

Enter the mighty submeter. Local energy codes have been requiring more and more submeters in new and retrofitted buildings. NYC's Local Law 88, for example, has required tenant submeters since at least 2015.

And IoT metering startups have leveraged Moore's Law to offer cheaper, more reliable, and easier-to-install submeters than ever before.

But just like I saw at the building in Manhattan, this combination of new tech + regulation isn't enough, is it? Pick a building from anywhere in the world, and you're still likely to find these common metering obstacles: 

• no submeters where they're needed
• submeters with erroneous or missing data
• submeters where no one knows what they're metering
• submeters that are siloed so you can't access the data  

Sustainability teams around the world respond by (1) guessing, or (2) hiring huge teams of analysts to make sense of all the noise (or lack thereof). They're spending time on data and reporting, not action. Then, reams of third-party auditors check their work and verify their assumptions. We're manipulating zeros and ones in Excel, not decarbonizing.

So what is the future of metering, given this status quo?

Trend #1: Software makes up for the lack of hardware

First, owners of existing buildings are unlikely to install submeters unless they're (a) required by code or mandated by law (such as the SEC in the United States) or (b) convinced there's an ROI on that capital cost. That means we'll continue to have a ton of buildings that are under-metered.

To combat that, software firms have developed ways to fill in the blanks with code instead of hardware. Our growing number of Marketplace Partners in the Energy Management Software category can help with that. They pull data directly from the utility or read it from an existing meter. 

Another example is automated meter disaggregation algorithms. Given utility data at 15-minute intervals (or more frequent), software can break down consumption by end use: HVAC, lighting, plug loads, etc.

Finally, a third example is our partner WattCarbon. Given monthly utility bill data (or even an annual estimate) and NREL's calibrated energy model database, their software estimates the hourly data.  

With all of these examples, it's not about having submeters on every single building and every single load, it's about learning from the buildings that already have those meters—then applying those learnings where there aren't enough meters. If you want to call it “AI and ML”, be my guest.

Trend #2: The infrastructure required to make use of submeter data

For the submeters we have, we don't need an estimate. We need to use the data!

Meter data supports many different use cases, including accurate reporting, tenant billing, project development, measurement & verification, fault detection, commissioning, occupant engagement, and probably more that I haven't even heard of.

So the future of metering that enables us to use these data for all types of use cases requires the right infrastructure. Namely, a robust network layer and a data layer that brings together siloed devices into a data model that fully describes what's being metered in context with the rest of the building's devices and systems.

Trend #3: Energy is important, but carbon is the future

Finally, the future of metering is one where the measurement is a means to an end: decarbonizing. That means it's not enough to know what you used at 101 Main Street at 10am on a Tuesday—you also need to know what the grid is doing at that time and whether your consumption is matched by your renewables or offset purchase.

All the technology use cases that meter data enables now need to be reimagined. Consider M&V, for example: Calculating "savings" is now a lot more complicated when the calculation includes not only what the building is doing and would have done but also what the grid is doing.

What metering trends are you seeing?

Contact us and let us know. 

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—James Dice, Founder of Nexus Labs