Field notes
How to read an interval meter extract without drowning in rows
Interval files look intimidating the first time they land in your inbox. Thousands of rows, timestamps that jump, and columns named differently by every utility portal. Start by confirming the interval length — fifteen minutes and thirty minutes behave differently when you chart peaks.
Next, plot a single typical weekday and a weekend day side by side. Facility operators in Bangkok office towers often discover that night base load tells a clearer story than the daily total. A chiller that never fully settles, or corridor lighting left on after 22:00, shows up as a stubborn floor under the curve.
Check for gaps before you trust any average. Missing hours around a meter change-out or a portal outage will flatten a peak that actually happened. Mark those windows in a notebook so they do not become part of your baseline later.
When you are ready for a fuller picture — multiple meters, tenant floors, and a written narrative for ownership — a Facility Energy Usage Report turns those early charts into something you can present without apologizing for the spreadsheet.