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⚡ Electricity Monitoring

Electricity Consumption Monitoring: From the Main Meter Down to the Apartment

Argus EMS electricity monitoring starts at the transformer and main meter and reaches down to the sub-meters: instantaneous power, kWh index, day/peak/night distribution and tariff-based cost on one screen.

The Problem

One Line on the Invoice, Dozens of Loads in the Facility

The electricity invoice that arrives at month-end reduces the whole facility to a single figure. Which block, which floor, which chiller consumed what; how much of the consumption fell into the expensive peak band; how large the base load running through an empty building at night is - all of it disappears inside that figure. Electricity consumption monitoring is exactly this breakdown.

Argus EMS reads the field energy analysers and transformers over Modbus, derives consumption from the index difference and feeds the billing engine. The same data also feeds reactive penalty tracking and the month-end projection.

The Argus Solution

What Does It Provide?

  • Separate monitoring at main meter (transformer) and sub-meter level
  • kWh from the index difference - measured consumption, never derived
  • Day / peak / night bands totalled separately
  • Instantaneous power, current, voltage and power factor monitoring
  • Tariff-based cost plus line-by-line reconciliation against the invoice
  • Remote meter reading from the distribution company's AMR portal
15 min
Measurement granularity
G/P/G
Separately totalled time bands
Index
The single source of consumption
Modbus
TCP and RTU reading

How Does an Electricity Monitoring System Work?

An electricity monitoring system reads the energy analysers in the panels and the transformer measurement over Modbus TCP/RTU at regular intervals; it derives kWh consumption from the change in the active energy index over the period, reduces it to hourly summaries and converts it to cost using the tariff. Because the main meter and the sub-meters are monitored separately, consumption is visible at its source rather than only facility-wide. Electrical energy monitoring covers not just the quantity but also demand overruns, power factor and the day/peak/night distribution; those three headings form the table required for electricity invoice analysis.

Why Do Sub-Meters Matter?

If only the main meter is measured, a rise in consumption is visible but its cause is not. With sub-meters in service the rise can be attributed directly to a block, a floor or a machine. The gap between the main meter and the sum of the sub-meters is tracked as well: if that gap creeps upward, either an unmetered load has been added or a meter is failing to read.

Who Is It For?

  • Production and service facilities where electricity is the largest budget line
  • Technical management of multi-block malls, hospitals, hotels and residential estates
  • Facility management teams that have to allocate consumption per location
  • Free-market consumers who want to follow cost together with price

Related: main meter monitoring, power quality and energy monitoring and management system.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly does an electricity monitoring system measure?
Active energy index, instantaneous power, current, voltage, power factor and reactive indices are read at both main meter (transformer) and sub-meter level. Consumption is never derived: it is calculated from the index difference (period end minus period start), so the kWh on screen and the kWh on the invoice are produced by the same logic.
Do I have to replace my existing meters?
No. Energy analysers and meters that speak Modbus TCP or Modbus RTU are read directly; no rewiring inside the panel is needed. If a point has no communication an analyser is added there, while working points stay exactly as they are.
Can you separate day, peak and night consumption?
Yes. The three time bands are totalled separately from the hourly summaries. That split shows what moving a shiftable load out of the peak band is worth on the invoice as a measurement rather than an estimate.
How is invoice analysis performed?
Measured kWh is converted to cost using the period's tariff and the time-band distribution; on the free-market side the market price is included as well. When an invoice is uploaded, measurement and invoice are compared line by line — if there is a deviation, the line item it comes from is visible.
What if we have no remote access to the meters?
On some sites the main meter can only be read from the distribution company's AMR portal. The measurement is then taken through the portal and merged on the same screen as field data; the freshness threshold for portal-sourced data is evaluated separately, so it is not treated as an 'offline' field device.
Can peak demand overrun be tracked?
Yes. If the power defined in the distribution contract is exceeded, a demand overrun charge appears on the invoice, and that line item is independent of consumption — it is possible to use few kWh and still pay it. Argus EMS derives the period maximum demand from 15-minute average power values and shows where you stand against the contracted power; once a threshold is defined, an approach alarm is raised. This is why electricity monitoring covers not only the kWh quantity but the kW peak as well.

See Argus at Your Facility

Explore the system with your own data in a demo session.