Groups & Benchmarking

Groups & Benchmarking provides a powerful way to associate similar Places or Meters with each other for comparative and benchmarking purposes. Groups must be set up in EnergyCAP Enterprise in order to be viewed with EnergyCAP Online. All Groups in EnergyCAP Enterprise are either Place groups or Meter groups.

• Place Groups are associated with Places in the Facilities tree.
• Meter Groups are associated with Meters in the Facilities tree.

Once a group of either type is set up, reports based on data from the group can be viewed in EnergyCAP Online using the available PowerView tabs for Groups.

There are also two ways that Groups are set up and maintained in EnergyCAP Enterprise.

• Auto-Groups (identified by the blue folder icons) are defined and maintained automatically by EnergyCAP.
• User-defined Groups (identified by the yellow folder icons) are defined and maintained by individual users.

Typical groups include those Places/Meters sharing similar commodities, similar costs, similar building types, similar usage patterns, etc.. For example, Groups can be used to compare and report on:

• Cost per day associated with all buildings with natural gas meters
• Cost per area for all classrooms
• Unit cost of electricity for the “top 10” accounts
• Demand ranking for all electric meters

To use the Groups reporting capability in EnergyCAP Online:

1. Click the Groups & Benchmarking link from the Navigation pane.
2. Click the desired group icon to select it.
3. Click the top tab/link that corresponds with the data view desired (see below).

PLACE group tabs/PowerViews in EnergyCAP Online include:

• Cost/Area Rank—Displays a comparative bar chart with Annualized Cost Per Unit Area. Includes the average cost associated with the group. Then cost per day is divided by current square footage.

NOTE: In EnergyCAP, annualized cost or use is determined using the following calculation:
Annualized value (cost or use) = Bill totals for year * 365 / Number of Days
Where Number of Days = the lesser of:

1. The sum of the days in the bills OR
2. The difference between the largest bill end date and smallest bill start date.

• Use/Area Rank—Displays a comparative bar chart with Annualized Use Per Area (total square footage), and includes a bar for Total Cost for Billing Period Range.
  
• Demand/Area Rank—(used for Electrical commodities) Displays a comparative bar chart ranking group members from highest to lowest Demand values.
  
• Cost Rank—Provides comparative bar chart by Average Cost Per Day, and includes a bar for total cost for biling period range.
  
• Use Rank—Provides a comparative bar chart by Average Use Per Day, and includes a bar for total cost for biling period range.
  
• Members—Provides a list of group members, and includes links to the relevant Places associated with the group.

METER group PowerViews available in EnergyCAP Online are:

• Cost/Area Rank—Displays a comparative bar chart with Average Cost Per Day. Includes a bar chart for Total Cost for Billing Period Range.
  
• UnitCost Rank—Displays a comparative bar chart with Average Unit Cost). Includes a bar chart for Total Cost for Billing Period Range.
  
• Use Rank—Displays a comparative bar chart ranking group members from highest to lowest Average Use Per Day. Includes a bar for Total Cost for Billing Period Range.
  
• UnitCost by Cost Rank—Displays a comparative bar chart ranking members from highest to lowest Average Unit Cost. Includes a bar for Total Cost for Billing Period Range.
  
• UnitCost by Use Rank—Displays a comparative bar chart by Average Unit Cost. Includes a bar for Total Cost Per Commodity for Billing Period Range.
  
• Demand Rank—(Electric commodity only) Displays a comparative bar chart by Demand. Includes a bar for Total Cost for Billing Period Range.
  

NOTE: Available PowerViews for Place and Meter groups may vary by commodity and availability of data.