Glossary

Core platform concepts

EnergyCAP

A powerful energy management software application for managing utility bill data, tracking consumption and costs, and reporting on energy performance across a portfolio of buildings and facilities.

EnergyCAP modules

Standard modules available to all users:

• Dashboards and Maps
• Sites and Meters (sometimes called the Facilities tree or Facilities hierarchy)
• Accounts (sometimes called the Accounts tree or Accounts hierarchy)
• Bills
• Groups and Benchmarks (create groups, view benchmarks of groups)
• Vendors and Rates

Licensed features (require additional subscription):

• Chargebacks
• Interval data
• Emissions

Database

The physical location of a customer's data and configuration.

Datasource

A customer's unique identifier that points to a virtual space where a customer's data and configuration are stored and managed. Each customer has their own datasource.

Sites and Meters hierarchy

One of two primary data views in EnergyCAP (also called the Facilities hierarchy or Facilities tree). It contains organizations, sites, spaces, and meters in a tree structure that reflects the physical layout of a facility portfolio. Typically used by Building Operations or Energy Management staff.

Accounts hierarchy

One of two primary data views in EnergyCAP (also called the Accounts tree). It contains accounts and cost centers in a tree structure used for financial tracking and reporting. Typically used by Finance or Accounting staff.

Organization

Organizations group related sites to help manage and report on energy data. Organizations let you:

• Group sites
• Restrict user access
• Act as filter in reports, bill lists, and dashboards

Site

Sites can represent a physical or logical place with properties such as size, location, and age. Sites can have a type of Building, Campus, Complex, Park, Parking, or Site.

Sites are the parents of meters and spaces and the children of organizations. A site cannot be under another site.

Sites have area, a weather station, and a primary use.

Space

Spaces help you organize your site hierarchy and manage interval data submeters without affecting main site totals. They provide an optional layer between sites and submeters, preventing double-counting.

Cost Centers

Cost centers are folders that group accounts. You can nest cost centers to build a hierarchy. Cost centers are used to restrict user access in the Accounts hierarchy.

Custom fields

Custom fields exist for many objects and let you track extra details and upload important documents or images for your organization.

Custom fields also let you build your own groups, which you can use in reports and dashboards.

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Meters

Meters

Physical or virtual devices that measure utility consumption (for example, electricity, water, gas). Meters are typically attached to sites or spaces. They can represent physical utility meters that track information from an external utility vendor using imported or manually entered bill data, virtual chargeback meters, or any resource type with or without an associated cost. The EnergyCAP API may refer to a meter as a data point, especially when working with interval data.

Chargeback meter

Sometimes called a virtual meter. A logical meter created to allocate or calculate usage and costs, often based on formulas or submeter data. Not associated with a physical utility meter.

Calculated meters

Calculated interval data meters are meters that contain a single primary channel, and that channel is a calculated channel. These meters do not hold their own interval data; instead their values are derived from other meters.

Submeter

A secondary meter that tracks usage for a subset of the load measured by a main meter, often used for tenant or department chargebacks.

Commodity

A meter tracks resources such as electricity, natural gas, water, or steam. These tracked resources are also called commodities. The commodity is assigned to the meter when it is created. Over 50 different commodities are available.

Rollup unit

The common unit of measure used for a commodity in rollup reporting. A rollup unit is required because vendors may use different units on bills (for example, kWh and MWh for electricity). Typically expressed in KBtu or MMBtu for energy commodities.

EUI (Energy Use Intensity)

Energy use intensity is calculated by dividing total commodity energy use by the total floor area of a site. EUI helps compare energy performance across buildings of different sizes and is found on the Normalization tab in the Sites and Meters module.

EUI plots all energy commodities (excluding water, refuse, etc.) and provides a rolling 12-month average trend line. A 12-month average EUI is essentially the same basis used by the EPA for ENERGY STAR ratings.

Deregulated account

In a deregulated energy market, a single meter may be served by two separate vendors: a supplier and a distribution company (LDC). This results in two accounts linked to one meter. Typically, both bills display the same use, so use on the supplier account is set to informational only to avoid double-counting in rollups and reports.

Supplier

In a deregulated energy market, the vendor responsible for the generation and sale of energy (electricity or gas) to the end customer. The supplier is distinct from the LDC, which handles physical delivery. Both may send separate bills for the same meter.

LDC (Local Distribution Company)

The utility company that owns the wires, pipes, or poles and maintains and reads the physical meters. In a deregulated energy market, the LDC handles delivery of energy but not the supply. Also called the distribution vendor. When a meter has both a supplier and an LDC, it is configured in EnergyCAP as a deregulated account with two accounts linked to one meter.

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Accounts

Accounts

Are the foundation of the Accounts module.

• Used to track consumption and generate invoices containing the account number, service address, use, and amount owed.
• EnergyCAP accounts receive bills for one or more meters.
• Are associated with a single vendor.
• Can either be a vendor account or an internal chargebacks account.

Account GL Record

Account GL Record is available, but it is not a best practice to use this feature. The Meter GL Record and associated subcodes are most often used with accounting reformatters.

Account code

In some contexts (for example, the bill import Advanced File Format), 'account code' refers to the account number—the value that must match the utility bill. This is different from the account name, which is a flexible user-defined label.

Account name

The account name is the common label for the account.

Account number

The account number should match the exact account number on the bill including spaces and other characters.

Account alert

Displays if the bill's date range falls within the alert's effective period. Add it on the account page.

Account memo

Displays for all meters linked to an account. Add it by editing an account.

Alias

You can add up to five aliases per account and vendor to reduce kickout errors when importing bills.

GL Record and subcodes

GL Records and subcodes help you store and export billing information to an accounting system. Twenty subcodes are available per account/meter relationship.

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Vendors and Rates

Vendor

Vendors provide utility service to meters and are linked to accounts. There are two types of vendors in EnergyCAP:

• Utility company
• Interval vendor (used to generate chargebacks)

Vendor alias

An alternative name or identifier for a vendor. Up to five aliases can be added per vendor to reduce kickout errors when importing bills where the vendor name on the file does not exactly match the vendor name in EnergyCAP.

Rate schedule

A rate schedule defines how charges are calculated for a meter. A rate schedule typically matches the rate shown on the vendor's utility bill and is located in the Vendors and Rates module. Only one rate schedule can be assigned per meter at a time.

Rate version

A time-stamped snapshot of a rate schedule that allows you to track rate changes over time. Create a new rate version when an existing vendor makes a rate change affecting all accounts using that rate.

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Bills module and billing terms

Bills

Official records of utility charges, typically issued monthly, containing consumption, cost, and service period details.

Bill header

Top-level details on a bill, including account number, bill date, period start/end, total amount due, and vendor. You can configure what header information is required or optional.

Bill line / Bill line item

The individual line items on a bill (charges, use, fees). A bill line has several parts:

• The caption (you can control)
• Bill line type
• Values for the bill line type (use and/or cost)

Bill line type

Previously called Observation type. Bill line type represents the most granular level of detail on a utility bill such as charge, cost, demand, tax, etc.

Summary bill

A summary bill from a utility provider is basically a consolidated invoice that rolls up charges for multiple service accounts into a single document. A summary bill typically results in multiple bill transactions.

Bill entry note

Displays during manual bill entry for a specific meter. Add it on the meter's Properties page.

Bill note

Add a note to any bill during manual entry or include the note in a bill import file.

Accrual

An accrual is a gap-filling estimate used to close out a fiscal period before the actual utility bill is received.

Currency

System currency - Used for reporting because it shows all cost data rolled up and compared consistently. System currency is set in Data Reporting Settings and is used in reports, dashboards, and when viewing bills.

Source currency - The currency assigned to a bill. You can manually change it for an individual bill when entering or viewing the bill.

Advanced file format

A structured bill import file format used to import bills into EnergyCAP. The Advanced File Format supports A/C/E and V/P/R flags that control how the system handles bills with matching start date, end date, and account code when importing into an open batch.

A/C/E and V/P/R

Flags used with the Advanced File Format when importing bills. These flags help the system decide how to handle bills with the same start date, end date, and account code when importing bills into an open batch. (All bills in a pending batch are marked as void until the batch is closed.)

Batch

A collection of records (such as bills or transactions) processed, imported, or manually entered into the system as a single unit and tracked as a unit in EnergyCAP.

Bill import formats

Bill import formats help you import a bill file that always has the same format. Map your columns, and the same mapping is applied each time you upload the file.

Bill list

Bill lists help you find specific bills and take actions on them. You can share bill lists with others.

Bill workflow settings

Bill workflow settings let you configure how the system handles utility bills. Including managing bill headers, bill import, bill export. This option is locked and cannot be edited when you subscribe to Bill Capture.

Split account charges

You can configure how to split account level charges when you import bills. It is helpful to review your cost category configuration before configuring your split account charges.

Audits

Bill audits automatically examine bills for accuracy and unusual patterns. A bill audit flags a bill for review.

Flagged bill

A bill that has been marked for review as a result of a bill audit or manual flagging. Flagged bills can be reviewed and resolved from the Flagged Items module.

Statistical outlier

A bill or data point identified as significantly different from expected values based on historical patterns. EnergyCAP uses statistical analysis to surface outliers for review.

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Interval data (licensed feature)

Interval data provides a more granular view of use and demand. It is time-series usage data recorded at regular intervals (for example, every 15 minutes), used for analysis, outlier detection, and demand tracking.

Three types of readings:

• Source readings
  Unprocessed by EnergyCAP.
• Computed readings
  Computed readings have rules and units applied.
• Summarized readings
  The summarization method is applied to the computed readings in each time interval. The smallest time interval is 5 minutes. Summarized readings are snapped to the clock and are used for reports, widgets, and Trend Insights.

Calculated channels

A calculated channel lets you combine readings from different sources to create a custom data stream. You can use readings from the same meter or fixed constants to build formulas that meet your specific reporting or analysis needs.

Channel

A channel stores interval data for a specific type of measurement. Each meter can have multiple channels to track different types of interval data.

Interval data connectors

Connectors let metering systems that aren't directly compatible with EnergyCAP send interval data to the application through its APIs.

Interval data import

You can use a reading import profile to import meter readings for one or more meters at one time.

Reading

A recorded value from a meter that indicates usage at a specific time (e.g., kWh for electric meters).

Routes

Some organizations read meters in a specific order each month, this is known as a route.

Submeter

A secondary meter that tracks usage for a subset of the load measured by a main meter, often used for tenant or department chargebacks.

Trend Insights

Trend Insights shows actual meter data from your primary value channel or demand channel, alongside a forecasted range based on historical patterns. This feature helps you detect use or demand trends and is available for meters with supported data.

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Chargebacks (licensed feature)

Chargebacks help you allocate utility costs within EnergyCAP by turning a single vendor bill into detailed internal bills. Other terms you might hear: cost allocations, campus distributions, or tenant bills.

Bill calculations

Bill calculations generate a new bill based on the meter's configuration. Calculates use and cost independently and is configured directly on the meter.

Bill splits

Bill splits distribute a utility bill to multiple destination meters and is configured at the account.

• Static percentage split – Each destination receives a fixed percentage of the source bill.
• Dynamic percentage split – The percentage allocated to each destination varies based on measured usage.

Chargeback meter

Sometimes called a virtual meter. A logical meter created to allocate or calculate usage and costs, often based on formulas or submeter data.

Chargeback workflow

A chargeback workflow helps you group together and run similar chargeback steps in a specified order each month.

True-up transaction

A financial adjustment used to reconcile chargeback amounts against actual costs, typically at the end of a billing or fiscal period.

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Analysis and reporting

Dashboards

Give quick visual insight into your utility bill data. You add and configure widgets to a dashboard. Dashboards can be shared internally or made public.

Maps

Maps help you quickly locate your facilities and view high-level metrics.

Powerview

Powerviews are the charts and graphs you see throughout the application.

Widget

A visual component added to a dashboard that displays a specific metric, chart, or data summary.

Report

Reports help you analyze data and cover a wide range of topics. Reports can be exported as PDF, XLSX, or DOCX and can be configured with filters and saved for reuse.

Report Designer

A tool within EnergyCAP that allows users to create and customize report formats and layouts.

Report subscription

A configured schedule that automatically delivers a report by email on a recurring basis.

Report distribution

A feature that allows a configured report to be automatically sent to one or more user groups on a scheduled basis.

Topmost filter

A report filter that limits returned data to objects under a specified location, cost center, or collection in the hierarchy. Particularly useful when chargebacks are in use, to avoid double-counting use and cost.

Legacy reports

Older report formats identified by a two-letter prefix (for example, AN01, BL10, YY07). Support for legacy reports will be removed at a future date. Not all customers have access to legacy reports.

My Saved Reports

A personal folder within the Reports module where you can save configured reports for quick re-use.

Calendarization

Calendarization more accurately allocates utility bill use and cost to the appropriate calendar month by prorating the cost and use by day. Calendarization is required because most utility bills start and end dates don't correspond to the exact calendar month.

Normalization

Normalization adjusts your energy use data by applying weather conditions from a selected comparison year to all bills. This removes weather as a variable, making it easier to compare energy use across years.

Weather Data Depot

An EnergyCAP resource used to identify a typical degree day year to use as the normalization comparison year. Extreme weather years should be avoided.

Meter group

Automatic or manual grouping of meters to use for comparison in the Groups and Benchmarks module or as filters in dashboards, reports, and bill lists.

Site group

Automatic or manual grouping of sites to use for comparison in the Groups and Benchmarks module or as filters in dashboards, reports, and bill lists.

Benchmark

A performance comparison metric calculated across a group of sites or meters, used to identify outliers and track relative energy performance.

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Energy performance

Cost Avoidance

Cost Avoidance is the Measurement and Verification of energy and cost savings because of energy management projects.

Energy projects

Energy projects help you track summary data for energy initiatives.

ENERGY STAR

A U.S. EPA program that rates building energy performance. EnergyCAP supports ENERGY STAR submissions and uses a 12-month average EUI as the basis for scoring, consistent with EPA methodology. Meters must be linked to a site (not an organization) for ENERGY STAR submissions.

Renewable tracking

A feature for tracking renewable energy sources and generation, such as solar or wind, within EnergyCAP.

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Emissions module (licensed feature)

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. EnergyCAP's Emissions module tracks and reports on greenhouse gas emissions associated with utility consumption.

Emissions sources

An emissions source consists of a group of records detailing a shared origin and quality of greenhouse gases. An emissions source defines the factor sets used to calculate emissions from utility consumption.

Records

Individual data entries within an emissions source that specify the emission factors for a particular greenhouse gas and time period. Records make up the detailed content of an emissions source and are used to calculate total emissions.

Collections

A grouping mechanism in EnergyCAP used to organize sites or meters for emissions reporting and filtering. Collections let you define custom subsets of your portfolio to use across reports and dashboards.

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Budgets (part of Accounting feature)

Budgets requires a subscription to the Accounting feature.

Budget

A forecast of utility use and cost for a fiscal year created within EnergyCAP. Budgets are compared against actual billing period data in Powerviews and reports.

Budget version

A single iteration of a budget. Multiple versions can be created per fiscal year, with one version active at a time. The active version is used in Powerviews and budget comparison reports.

Budget worksheet

An Excel file downloaded from EnergyCAP that allows users to adjust forecasted values. The adjusted worksheet is uploaded back to EnergyCAP to update the budget. White columns are user-editable; gray columns should not be changed.

Site Forecast worksheet

A simplified forecast tool available without the full Budget feature. Creates a use and cost forecast based on one year of calendarized data. Cannot be uploaded to EnergyCAP or used in reports.

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User and access management

Database

The physical location of a customer's data and configuration.

Datasource

A datasource is a customer's unique identifier that points to a virtual space where a customer's data and configuration are stored and managed.

User (visitor/contact)

A person with access to EnergyCAP's platform, either internally or externally. May be an admin, analyst, or casual viewer.

User role

A set of permissions assigned to a user that determines which modules and features they can access and what actions they can perform.

User group

A collection of users that can be used for report distribution, sharing, and access control purposes.

Onboarding

The guided process of bringing a new customer live on the system, including configuration, training, and data import.

Data Mapping

The process of aligning source data fields (for example, from bill files or interval data feeds) to the corresponding fields in EnergyCAP.

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Bill Capture terms

Bill Capture

A managed service platform within EnergyCAP that automates the retrieval and processing of utility bills on behalf of customers.

Enrollment

The process of adding new account(s) to be managed for Bill Capture service. This is typically an onboarding activity which adds all planned accounts; however, additional enrollments may occur throughout the life of the customer.

Transactions

Number of unique account/meter relationships in each bill. For example, if a bill contained two meters, that would be considered two transactions.

Transaction type

A classification that identifies whether the bill transactions are live, historical, maintenance, or setup enrollment.

Bill acquisition method

A classification that indicates the method by which the utility bill transaction was retrieved such as web download, mail redirect, PDF upload, EDI, electronic transfer, etc. Previously called File Type.

Bill acquisition partner

The partner or technology responsible for acquiring and retrieving the bill.

Bill processing partner

The partner or technology responsible for extracting the data from the bill.

Adjustments

The process for identifying bill transactions that should not be billed, typically due to an error on EnergyCAP's part.

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Setup and configuration

Setup spreadsheets

Excel-based templates used to bulk-create or update EnergyCAP objects (such as sites, meters, or accounts) by uploading the completed file into the system.

Units of measure

The units associated with commodity data in EnergyCAP, such as kWh, therms, gallons, or pounds. Units are assigned to meters and bill lines and can be converted to rollup units for consistent reporting.

Global units

A standardized unit of energy measurement used for cross-commodity reporting in EnergyCAP (typically KBtu or MMBtu). Used in EUI charts and other multi-commodity views.