An energy audit is the diagnostic that governs every downstream investment decision. Before capital is committed to generation, we establish a defensible baseline: where energy is consumed, when demand peaks, and how tariff structures penalize that profile. Without this, levelized cost of energy (LCOE) projections are guesswork.
Instrumentation and data acquisition
We deploy revenue-grade CT clamps and power-quality loggers at the main switchboard and major sub-circuits, capturing voltage, current, power factor, and harmonic distortion at 15-minute resolution for a minimum 14-day window. This interval data is reconciled against utility NMI records to validate accuracy within a one percent tolerance.
Power factor below 0.95 and total harmonic distortion above 5% are flagged immediately, as both inflate apparent demand and trigger network demand charges that no solar array will offset.
Modeling and LCOE projection
Validated load curves feed a generation model using site-specific irradiance (GHI/DNI) from satellite-derived TMY datasets, accounting for tilt, azimuth, shading, and a 0.5% annual degradation assumption. The output is an hour-by-hour overlay of generation against demand, isolating self-consumption ratio from export.
- Sub-circuit consumption ranking and idle-load (parasitic) quantification
- Tariff and demand-charge optimization analysis
- Power factor and harmonic distortion assessment
- Site-specific generation model with self-consumption ratio
- Ranked retrofit register with payback and IRR per measure
Deliverable and decision support
The audit concludes with a ranked register of interventions, each carrying a discrete payback period, internal rate of return, and tonnes of CO2-e abated. Measures span no-cost operational changes through to capital retrofits, allowing finance to sequence spend against hurdle rates rather than vendor enthusiasm.
Crucially, the audit de-risks system sizing. Oversizing wastes capital on exported energy at low feed-in tariffs; undersizing strands demand on the grid at peak rates. Our measurement-first method routinely identifies 12 to 31 percent of consumption as avoidable before any generation asset is sized.