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About Energy Usage

What Does Energy Usage Offer?

The Energy Usage application contains several graphical and tabular representation of your meter and billing data. It is intended to provide a simple at-a-glance summary. For more detailed analysis, we suggest you download your data via the Download tab and construct graphs tailored to your own specific needs.

Below you will find:
Software Requirements to Use This Site
Energy Usage Demonstration - Guest Logon
Understanding the Graphs and Consumption Data 
Graphs Available
Consumption Graph
Load Profile Graph 
How to use the load profile information
Power Factor Graph
Load Factor Graph
Tabular meter reading data
Tabular billing data
Downloadable Data
Why are some readings estimated?
Reconciling the data to your energy bill
Contract Maximum Demand (CMD) and Power Factor Warnings
Guest Log-on and Full Registration 
 

Software Requirements to Use This Site

The Synergy web site is designed to work with all 'standards compliant' web browsers.  Some parts of the site, notably the Energy Usage application and My Account, also require high levels of security (128 bit encryption) and a suitable version of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to enable the interactive graphing tool to work. 

Details of the software and links for this can be found on the Technical Requirements page.
 

Energy Usage Demonstration - Guest Logon

If you have not yet registered to use the web-site you may still see how it works and how it may be able to help your business.  You may do this by selecting the 'Log on as a Guest' link after you open the Energy Usage application. You will then be able to view all the graphs and data for this example site and see how it can help you.

To get access to your own meters and account, please contact your Account Manager,  the web administator on (08) 6212 1641 or use one of the other ways to contact us on our Contact Us page.

 

Understanding the Graphs and Consumption Data

How the graphs work

The graphs allow you to view the specific half-hourly meter readings by moving the mouse over the graph itself. On the Load Profile, Load Factor and Power Factor line graphs a vertical line will appear at the mouse pointer and move with it.  As you move the mouse the legend, to the right of the graph, gives the reading for each half hour (in the upper part) and the day totals (in the lower section).

The legend also shows the time of Maximum kW, Maximum kVA and the Power Factor at that Maximum kW as well as the contract limits for Maximum Demand and Power Factor. These limits also appear as a fixed line across the relevant graph.

The status of each half-hourly reading also appears as Normal, Estimated or Power Outage.

NOTE:  To see this in operation, if you are not a registered user, go to the Energy Usage application and
click the 'Log on as Guest User' link after the application opens.

The following graphs are available:

Consumption (kWh), Load Profile (kW), Power Factor and Load Factor.

Consumption Graph

The consumption graph shows the On-Peak and Off-Peak energy consumption over the selected period. This shows the relative split of On-Peak and Off-Peak power usage and may be useful where a time-of-use tariff is being charged and a more favourable rate is offered when load is shifted into off-peak times.  The graph defaults to a single day view showing the half-hourly readings (as seen above) but if you have selected a period greater than one day it will graph the data as peak and off-peak proportions of the daily figures (as seen below).

Load Profile Graph

 
This graph in effect provides a historical record of the daily, weekly, monthly and yearly pattern of use and hence it reflects a company's processes and modes of operation.

The graph illustrated shows the maximum and minimum kW demand for each day.

You can also select a weekly or daily period and in these cases the graph shows the kW demand recorded at each half-hour.

How to use the load profile information

Knowing your load profile canassist you with energy management. The load profile gives your kW power demand at various times throughout the day and hence it will show how changes in your operations or processes affect the demand for electricity. It can also be used to tailor your company operations to take advantage of lower energy prices at certain times of the day, leading to better energy management and cost savings.
The Load Profile identifies the periods of peak demand, which may indicate opportunities for load management.

Power Factor Graph

Power Factor is a measure of the efficiency of utilisation of electrical power under load - ideally it should be 1 (or 100%).

The Power Factor is expressed as kilowatts (kW) divided by kilovolt Amperes (kVA). It is usually calculated in 30 minute intervals for billing purposes. 

Typically, businesses contract to maintain a Power Factor of a nominal amount, such as 0.8 for example, as specified by Codes. A value less than this nominal amount implies that electrical power is not being efficiently utilised and may attract a financial penalty in the form of a power factor correction charge.  Your account manager will be pleased to help if you are having power factor problems.

Load Factor Graph

Load Factor is a measure of how constant one's energy consumption is over a specified period. The Load Factor is calculated as the Average kW Demand divided by the Maximum kW Demand for that period.  For these graphical purposes it has been calculated on a daily basis.

A constant flat load (ie with no peaks and troughs) has a Load Factor of 1, as the average and the maximum demand are equal.

Tabular meter reading data

The raw meter reading data is available in tabular form and, in the example below, shows the daily readings for this meter.

Double-clicking any day on this list will give you the half-hourly readings used to calculate the daily total.

You can then swap to any of the graphs except the Load Factor graph and see a graph of the same data.
 

Tabular billing data

A tabular display of the billing data is also available (click the "View  Bill Data" option). This data is based on the bills issued in the selected period and shows the total bill amount and key consumption details for that bill period. 

NOTE: The figures displayed here may differ sometimes from your actual bill as GST is not included and at times there may be miscellaneous adjustments that are processed after the bill has been issued.

Downloadable Data

Tabular meter readings and billing data may be downloaded from the web site. 

For most customers there are about 3 years of half-hourly meter reading data and 5 years of historical billing data available. 

This may be downloaded for your personal use.

Why are some readings estimated?

Half hourly readings are taken throughout the day and transmitted to us overnight usually via the mobile phone network.  Communication problems and other factors sometimes cause a reading to be 'missed' and show up, incorrectly, as a zero.  To enable us to display a full load profile graph, for example, without misleading zeros in it, the reading for the missing half hour will be estimated based on same half hour in the previous week (or one before that - if the previous week was a public holiday or not valid for some other reason).  Readings will not be estimated during power outage occasions, as these are a valid zero and this will also meant that these can then be easily identified.

The estimating of these half hour readings has no effect on your electricity account, as this is determined by a meter reading taken at one point during the month, not by adding up the individual half hourly readings.

Reconciling the data to your energy bill

The half-hourly meter reading data depicted on the load profile graph or the tabular data, may not strictly match your bill data for the following reasons:

• For large customers, bills are often based on the average readings of two or three meters, to ensure the accuracy of the bill, whereas the data displayed is from only one of these meters.
  
• The half-hourly readings from your meter are (under normal circumstances) posted to the web site each day, whereas the reading for your account is calculated at the meter and transferred separately to Synergy, usually once a month. The time of the day at which this monthly reading is taken varies and it is not possible to indicate the exact start and end time of this reading period on the graph.
  
• To provide the continuous line needed for a load profile, it is occasionally necessary to include an estimated reading where an individual half-hourly reading is suspect for some reason. See also the heading "Why are some readings estimated"

Contract Maximum Demand (CMD) and Power Factor Warnings

The availability of this data on the web site makes it possible for us to notify you of times when your site does not meet the CMD and power factor limits where these have been included in your contract.   

Every time your energy demand approaches to within 5% of your CMD, or exceeds it, or where the Power Factor does not reach the minimum limit on any day, a warning is posted on the Warnings page.

You may view these warnings at any time or you can also trigger an email to warn you of these possible contract violations by ticking one or both boxes just above the warnings list. 

Guest Log-on and Full Registration

If you are not already a registered user and would like to see how the graphs etc. in operation then select the 'Log on as a Guest' link after you open the Energy Usage application.  

If you would like further explanation about the interpretation of the graphs or data on this site please contact your Account Manager  or the website administrator . 

To become a registered user you may contact your Account Manager, the web administator on (08) 6212 1641 or email us using the form on the Contact Us page.