Set up real-time electricity usage and demand email alerts to immediately take action before excess utility costs have been incurred.
To configure alerts, follow these steps:
- Click on the bell icon in the top right corner of Optimize; the bell icon can be accessed from any page while logged into Optimize.
- Click on the plus icon on the top left of the “Configured Alerts” page to open the sidebar.
- Choose the building or meter for which you would like to configure an alert.
- Note: only one building or meter can be selected for a single alert. Users can create multiple alerts for a single building or meter, or for multiple different buildings or meters.
- Configure the alert:
- Select “Point" - the commodity you wish to be alerted to. Typically “Demand (kW)” is selected for a demand alert, however any available commodity may be selected.
- Select a threshold value (This is the value that must be surpassed to trigger the alert).
- Select a threshold period (This is the amount of time the selected threshold value must be exceeded to trigger an alert). Users can select 5-minutes, 15-minutes, or 1-hour. This threshold defaults to 15-minutes, as this can reduce false positives due to noise in the meter data.
- Select the schedule the alert should occur on. Alerts can be set up to only trigger during occupied periods, unoccupied periods, or for any time of day. The building schedule is used to determine whether the building is occupied or unoccupied.
- Click Save.
Example: A user wants to be alerted at any time when their building’s demand (kW) exceeds 1,200 kW for more than 5-minutes:
- Point: This user will select “Electricity Demand” under the Point dropdown menu, highlighted “A” above.
- Value Threshold: Since the user wants to know when their building uses more than 1,200 kW of demand they will enter “1,200” in the “Value Threshold” field.
- Threshold Period: The user will click on the dropdown menu under “Threshold Period” and select “5 min”.
- Schedule: The user will select “Anytime” under the “Schedule” dropdown.
Note: Demand alerts do not predict future consumption or performance, and will not predictively alert users if their chosen commodity is trending to exceed their threshold level. Only once the selected threshold value is surpassed for the continuous threshold period will the alert trigger.