In the vast majority of buildings there is a lack of data on how the facility and spaces within it are performing. Without measuring the attributes of the building we can’t properly manage the building. Electrical metering is one way to measure and obtain data to manage the electrical load. Smart power strips are another method to monitor and manage dense electrical plug loads. Finally, Power over Ethernet (PoE) management software is a tool to address low-voltage power to IT, telecom and security devices. These three solutions cover a substantial portion of the electrical load and allow a building owner to identify the power being provided to the building, and tenants and spaces within a building. Such data is the foundation of actionable information that can be used to minimize the major cost directly affecting the operating expenses and the overall value of the building. These solutions can also be used to pinpoint problems and to maintain occupant and user satisfaction.

Electric Meters
Metering and meter reading is a well developed field for utilities but the experience has been with legacy metering systems. The legacy systems are static in how often data is gathered, limited in what can be monitored and only provide one-way communication. For example, older meters can provide information on how much electricity was used but cannot tell you when it was consumed. Smart meters gather data in real-time or near real time and can provide not just usage data but information on outages, malfunction, quality, etc. They may also have the intelligence to react to demand response, the key communications between the building and the electrical grid which allows the building to react to different prices for energy consumption based on the time of day and the season.

There are generally two types of power meters for buildings. One is for monitoring and measuring power to the whole building. The others are submeters, meant to measure usage for specific spaces, tenants or electrical circuits, primarily to allocate or bill-back the cost of electric power to those who consumed it

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