ABSTRACT
Real-time energy metering opens the door to energy consumption analysis and management. The passive monthly readings of consumption traditionally associated with mechanical meters are replaced by active real-time energy measurements, including flows, demand, electric phase balance, chilled water differential pressures and temperatures, condensate return temperatures and alarm reporting conditions. In industrial settings, energy metering has tended to be part of the “floor” operation — in industrial processes, energy meters normally are quite visible to factory workers and their supervisors and managers. Real-time metering within a network application provides an opportunity for both service departments and customers to become energy managers. Real-time metering is both an engineering and an operational challenge. Engineering-wise, the challenge rises from defining the best meter locations to overcoming the difficulties inherent in communication networks, to integrating different metering applications into a common system, to integrating metering with other facility applications.
