- Product Spotlight
Up to 30% of a Facility’s Energy Use May Be Unaccounted For Without Submetering
- By Emily Hagel
Most facility managers know how much they spend on electricity each month. But do they know exactly where that energy is being used?
For many industrial and commercial facilities, the answer is no.
While utility meters provide an overall picture of energy consumption, they often fail to reveal how individual systems, processes, or departments contribute to energy costs. Without this visibility, a significant portion of a facility’s energy use can go unaccounted for, making it difficult to identify inefficiencies, reduce costs, or optimize operations.
The Hidden Cost of Limited Visibility
Your utility bill tells you how much energy your facility consumed, but it doesn’t tell you which equipment, production lines, HVAC systems, or processes are driving that consumption.
As a result, facilities often discover they have:
- Equipment running unnecessarily during off-hours
- Inefficient motors and pumps consuming excess energy
- Unexpected demand spikes
- Process changes that increase energy consumption
- Power quality issues impacting efficiency
Without detailed monitoring, these problems can remain hidden for months or even years.
What Is Submetering?
Submetering involves installing additional power meters throughout a facility to monitor energy consumption at specific locations or equipment.
Rather than viewing energy usage as a single number from the utility meter, submeters provide detailed insights into:
- Individual production lines
- Motor control centers
- HVAC systems
- Pumps and compressors
- Data centers
- Tenant spaces
- Critical electrical loads
This granular data helps facilities understand exactly where energy is being consumed and identify opportunities for improvement.
Why Facilities Are Investing in Submetering
Submetering transforms energy data into actionable information.
With the right monitoring strategy, facilities can:
Identify Energy Waste
Identify Energy Waste
Submetering often reveals equipment operating when it shouldn’t be, inefficient processes, or systems consuming more energy than expected.
Solutions like Accuenergy and Socomec power meters provide real-time visibility into electrical consumption, helping facility managers pinpoint where energy is being used and where opportunities for savings exist.
Reduce Operating Costs
By monitoring specific loads and systems, facilities can make targeted improvements rather than relying on assumptions.
DENT Instruments offers portable and permanent monitoring solutions that make it easier to conduct energy audits and identify hidden sources of waste throughout a facility.
Improve Equipment Performance
Unexpected increases in energy usage can serve as an early warning sign of developing equipment issues.
Power quality monitoring solutions from Dranetz help facilities identify voltage disturbances, harmonics, and other electrical events that may contribute to equipment inefficiencies or premature failures.
Support Sustainability Goals
Accurate energy data is essential for tracking energy reduction initiatives, sustainability programs, and ESG reporting efforts.
By leveraging advanced metering and monitoring technologies, organizations can establish measurable benchmarks and document progress toward their energy management goals.
Make Better Capital Investment Decisions
Submetering helps justify equipment upgrades by providing measurable data on current performance and potential savings.
Rather than replacing equipment based on age alone, facilities can use actual performance data to prioritize investments where they will have the greatest impact.
Beyond Digital Monitoring: The Role of Electrical Instrumentation
While advanced digital power meters provide detailed analytics, traditional electrical instrumentation still plays an important role in many industrial environments.
Sifam instrumentation products continue to provide operators with reliable, easy-to-read measurements for critical electrical parameters, complementing broader monitoring strategies and helping maintain visibility into system performance.
You Can't Manage What You Can't Measure
One of the most common challenges facilities face is assuming they know where their energy is going based on experience alone.
In reality, energy consumption patterns often change over time due to equipment wear, process modifications, production increases, and operational shifts.
Submetering provides the real-time visibility needed to make informed decisions based on data rather than assumptions.
Whether it’s an Accuenergy meter monitoring a production line, a Socomec solution tracking facility-wide energy consumption, a DENT energy audit uncovering hidden inefficiencies, a Dranetz analyzer identifying power quality concerns, or Sifam instrumentation providing critical electrical measurements, the goal remains the same: greater visibility into your electrical system.
Getting Started with an Energy Monitoring Strategy
A successful energy monitoring program doesn’t require metering every circuit in a facility. In many cases, organizations achieve significant results by monitoring key loads and critical processes first.
At Lakeland Engineering, we help facilities implement power monitoring and submetering solutions tailored to their operational goals. Through partnerships with industry-leading suppliers including Accuenergy, Socomec, DENT Instruments, Dranetz, and Sifam, we provide the tools and expertise needed to help organizations better understand their energy usage, improve reliability, and uncover opportunities for cost savings.
