Manufacturing
Energy use: what you will be asked for
The request rarely comes from a regulator: it comes from a client, in a format to be filled with data that is not yours.
For years energy was an invoice and little more. Now it shows up in large clients' questionnaires, in tenders and in the reports your own buyers request — nearly always with the same surprise: the data needed is not yours to give.
Who holds each piece of data
| What you are asked for | Who holds it | How it reaches you |
|---|---|---|
| Consumption per period | Your energy supplier | Invoices or their portal, in their format |
| Origin of the electricity | The supplier | A certificate you must request; it does not just arrive |
| Gas or fuel consumption | The supplier | Delivery notes and invoices, sometimes per supply point |
| An item of equipment's efficiency | Whoever installed or maintains it | In its technical documentation |
| What you do to reduce it | You | And it is the only part nobody else can provide |
Important
The second row throws many people: **your electricity being renewable is not proven by the invoice or by your supplier's marketing**. It is proven by a specific certificate, covering a specific period, which has to be requested and is not always issued on the spot. Whoever asks in October for a September report usually finds it arrives late, and there is no reconstructing it afterwards.
How to set it up once and not repeat it
- 1
One file per supply point
With its invoices, its contract and its certificates.
- 2
Download invoices monthly, not per report
Supplier portals have short memories.
- 3
Request the origin certificate as soon as the period ends
It is the slowest piece and the most forgotten.
- 4
And keep what you did to cut consumption
Equipment changes, schedules, maintenance: that is what sets you apart.
Watch out
What almost nobody anticipates when switching supplier: **the history stays in the previous one's portal**, and access is cut when the contract ends. If you are asked for three years of consumption and you switched a year ago, that stretch only exists if you downloaded it. Pulling the full history before closing the relationship takes twenty minutes and is unrecoverable afterwards.
When the one asking is a client
Worth knowing
What obligations you have on efficiency or energy audits, and how often, depends on your size, sector and country. **Your adviser determines that**; the point here is that when the question arrives — from whoever — the data is already gathered rather than chased.
›Is sending the invoices enough?
Rarely: they ask for aggregate figures per period, and someone has to add them up.
›What if we have several plants?
Per supply point, always. Mixing them means undoing it later.
›Is last year's figure useful?
For comparison yes, which is why the history is worth keeping.
A real case
The situation
A plant switches energy supplier and months later a client asks for three years of consumption.
What you do
- Downloads the full history before closing the previous contract
What you get
The report is filled from its own data, without depending on the portal of a former supplier.
The situation
The figure sits in invoices spread across the year.
What you do
- Gathers them as they arrive
What you get
The calculation is prepared without a campaign.
The situation
A supplier's figure is missing.
What you do
- Requests it and chases automatically
What you get
The deadline does not depend on somebody else's diary.
The situation
A figure is declared and no evidence is kept.
What you do
- Stores the evidence with what was declared
What you get
The later review has something to answer with.
The situation
Nobody knows how last year's was calculated.
What you do
- Records the basis alongside the calculation
What you get
The figure is explicable years later.
The situation
A client asks for the figure for a specific period.
What you do
- Checks that date's record
What you get
You answer from the archive.
This article answers
- asked for energy consumption data
- where do I get the plant's electricity use
- guarantees of origin for energy
- energy audit documentation