Changing the Global Unit for EnergyCAP Enterprise

This topic provides a procedure for changing the EnergyCAP global unit from the default MMBtu to another unit (Giga-Joules or equivalent kWh ).

This is most helpful for non-US EnergyCAP users who  need to track Global Usage Roll-Up in units of Giga-Joules (GJ) or equivalent kWh (EKWH).  To complete the procedure successfully, the user will need:

• Conversion factors to convert from one Unit within a Type to another Unit within the same Type.

EXAMPLE: For the ‘Energy’ Type, to convert EKWH to J, multiply EKWH by 3600000 and then add a constant of 0. To convert J to EKWH, divide J by 3600000 and then add a constant of 0.

• Conversion factors to convert from each Unit/Type to the new Global Unit/Type.  Specifically, a conversion factor will be needed between each Common Usage Roll-Up Unit and the new Global Usage Roll-Up Unit for each commodity being tracked by the user.

EXAMPLE 1: To convert Electric, in kWh, to Energy, in GJ, values in kWh must be multiplied by a factor of 0.00360, adding a constant of 0.

EXAMPLE 2: To convert Natural Gas, in Therms, to Energy, in GJ, values in Therms must be multiplied by a factor of 0.105587, adding a constant of 0.

NOTE: If any bills exist in EnergyCAP prior to changing the Global Usage Roll-Up units, an SQL Script (see Running Cleanbill for Historical Bills, below) will need to be applied to the EnergyCAP database to update those bills.

To change the Global Unit in EnergyCAP, follow the procedure below. 
! It is recommended that a backup of the database be performed prior to making this global change. !

1. From the EnergyCAP main menu, click Tools> Unit System (Commodities tab). Note that the indicated default Global Usage Roll-Up unit is MMBtu.
   
2. Click on the Units tab and scroll through the list of available Units to be sure that the desired Global Usage Roll-Up unit currently exists in EnergyCAP. For example, GJ may be in the list, but EKWH is not. If the Global Usage Roll-Up unit DOES exist, skip to Step #8.
3. If the desired Global Usage Roll-Up Unit DOES NOT currently exist, click on the ‘+’ button to add it. The Create Unit window will open.
   
4. Enter the Code, Display and Unit Type information needed to create the Unit, then click the OK button to save the new  unit.
5. Select/highlight the new Global Usage Rollup unit from the Units tab and locate the Convert To pane in the top right corner of the Units tab display. Then click the associated ‘+’ button. The Create Conversion window will open.
   
6. To add a new conversion for the new Global Usage Rollup unit, select the conversion energy type from the dropdown list. Then input the correct conversion factor formula (use multiplier and/or add an optional constant).  You will need to know, or look up, what the conversion factors are.
7. Repeat the previous step to add conversions for all units of the same unit Type.
8. Click on the Equivalencies tab and scroll down to confirm that there is NOT a record for Commodity = Energy, Class = Usage, Unit Type = Energy, and Default Unit = GJ or EKWH.
   
   If there IS such a record, select it, open the Properties for it and make it the Common Roll-Up and Global Roll-Up by clicking on the appropriate checkboxes. Then skip to Step #14 below.
   
9. If a record does not exist, click on the ‘+’ button to Add a new Equivalence for either GJ or EKWH. Select the Commodity, Class, and Unit Type. Also, click the Common Roll-Up checkbox from the General tab to make this combination a Common Roll-Up.
   
10. Also, click the checkbox from the General tab to make this combination the Global Roll-Up.
11. In the Relationships area, select Types and Units that can be made equivalent. Typically, the only Type selected is Use,  and most of the available Units are selected.
    
12. Click on the desired Unit (either GJ or EKWH) to activate the ‘Make Default’ button active. Then click the Make Default button.Once you have clicked on the Make Default Button, an asterisk appears to the right of the selected Unit to indicate that it is the default:
    
13. Click the OK button to save this Equivalence. A message box will appear to warn you that changing the Global Default may break required equivalency conversions.
    
    Click the OK button to acknowledge the warning.
14. From the Equivalencies tab, edit the properties of all records with an asterisk in the ‘Common Usage Roll-Up’ column. For each record, create a new Conversion to go from the default unit to the new Global Usage Default Roll-Up Unit. The example below shows the conversion from Electric, in kWh, to Energy, in GJ.
    
    
    
    Once these Equivalence Conversions have been entered, any bills entered into EnergyCAP will have their consumption converted to the Global Roll-Up Unit equivalence.
15. Click on the Close button to close the Unit System Editor window.
16. To perform a quick check to be sure that all commodities that you track have an Equivalence Conversion to the new Global Roll-Up Unit, open the Unit System Editor by selecting Unit System... from the Tools menu. The Commodities tab will show which commodities have a Global Usage Roll-Up and it will indicate what the unit is.
    

Running Cleanbill for Historical Bills

If there are bills in EnergyCAP that were entered prior to the Global Roll-Up Unit change, the related bill tables will NOT be automatically updated to reflect the change. Instead, the SQL Script below will need to be run on the EnergyCAP database, either using SQL Query Analyzer or the EnergyCAP Administrator program.

UPDATE BILL

SET bill.dirty = 1

GO

--

EXEC cleanbill