---
id: KB-IU-013
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/manufacturing/energy-use-what-you-will-be-asked-for
idioma: en
categoria: sector-industria
subcategoria: energia
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-NO-016, KB-IU-005, KB-IU-010]
citadoPor: [KB-CN-035, KB-IU-026]
---

# 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._

**Responde a:** asked for energy consumption data · where do I get the plant's electricity use · guarantees of origin for energy · energy audit documentation

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.

> [!WARNING]
> 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

**En corto**

- It usually comes in their format, not yours: fill it from what you already keep.
- It asks about specific periods, so the data has to exist month by month.
- And it will come back next year: setting it up once serves every time after.

> [!NOTE]
> 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.

## Ejemplos

**A plant switches energy supplier and months later a client asks for three years of consumption.**

- Downloads the full history before closing the previous contract

→ The report is filled from its own data, without depending on the portal of a former supplier.

**The figure sits in invoices spread across the year.**

- Gathers them as they arrive

→ The calculation is prepared without a campaign.

**A supplier's figure is missing.**

- Requests it and chases automatically

→ The deadline does not depend on somebody else's diary.

**A figure is declared and no evidence is kept.**

- Stores the evidence with what was declared

→ The later review has something to answer with.

**Nobody knows how last year's was calculated.**

- Records the basis alongside the calculation

→ The figure is explicable years later.

**A client asks for the figure for a specific period.**

- Checks that date's record

→ You answer from the archive.