From Meter to Dashboard: How to Turn Your Energy Data into Actionable Insights
Dear Readers,
Using energy efficiently means creating transparency. Only when measurement data from various sources is consolidated and clearly presented can costs be reduced, processes optimized, and CO₂ emissions sustainably lowered. This is exactly where visual energy by KBR comes in: the software combines precise measurement technology with intelligent data processing – transforming signals into actionable insights you can put to work immediately.
Precise Measurement Technology: How Your Signals Enter the System
The foundation of any energy management system is measurement technology. KBR measuring devices capture values with precision directly at the relevant points – from the main meter to individual machines. In combination with expansion modules, they can even measure all types of energy: from compressed air and heat to fuel. The devices communicate via standardized serial and Ethernet interfaces, ensuring seamless and reliable signal transmission.
This raw data is automatically imported into the energy data management system visual energy. All measurement values are collected, validated, and processed in real time. Plausibility checks detect outliers or missing signals, ensuring high data quality – even for your audit. In addition, process indicators such as production volumes, runtimes, or shift data can be integrated. This allows energy and production data to be directly linked, enabling the creation of meaningful KPIs – such as energy consumption per unit produced or per machine hour.
Structures and Balances: Understanding Energy Flows
Once the data is available in visual energy, it can be precisely mapped according to the company’s organizational structure. The system allows you to hierarchically represent plants, sites, distributions, or cost centers and directly link them to the recorded energy flows. This makes it visible where energy is used efficiently within the company—and where action is needed.
For deeper analysis, various tools are available. In balance views, you can transparently track energy flows—clearly visualized with Sankey diagrams. Which amounts enter at a given point, how are they distributed, and where do losses or waste heat occur? Additionally, visual energy calculates key metrics such as energy consumption per unit, specific CO₂ emissions, or consumption per square meter. These KPIs form the basis for assessing efficiency potentials and making developments measurable over time.
Design Dashboards Freely: From Live Monitoring to Management Reporting
The heart of visual energy is the dashboard designer. Here, you create your energy views exactly as you need them. The editor provides a free workspace where you can place various elements—called widgets—via drag and drop. These include level-time charts, bar graphs, heatmaps, KPI fields, trend arrows, traffic lights, map views, and even Sankey Diagrams. Each widget can be customized individually: colors, sizes, axis labels, and display formats are fully configurable and can be adapted to your corporate design. You can also import all previously created types of diagrams.
Interactive Logic and Flexible Dashboards for Every Target Audience
A key advantage is the interactive logic view. Here, you can flexibly link measurement values and key figures—for example, connecting a live measurement point with a calculated reference value or grouping meters by cost center. This creates dashboards that don’t just display data but reveal real connections. You can even show or hide fields and charts depending on your data.
Dashboards can be created in different versions: a live dashboard for technicians displaying current consumption values, peak loads, and alarm notifications; an analysis dashboard for energy managers with key figures, consumption data, and historical comparisons; or a reporting dashboard for management focusing on costs, efficiency improvements, and sustainability. All views can be customized and shared with other users at the click of a button or automatically sent as reports. Forget one-size-fits-all—make visual energy your system.
Three Tips for Greater Efficiency with visual energy
A particularly effective tool is working with reference values. By defining target values for plants or locations, you can immediately detect deviations. The system automatically alerts you when consumption deviates from the target—enabling early identification of leaks or inefficient equipment. At KBR, this method quickly uncovered a water pipe leak, and the repair saved over one cubic meter of water per day.
Equally important is monitoring peak loads. Short-term consumption spikes often lead to high additional costs. visual energy makes these peaks visible, assigns them to specific times and processes, and provides the basis for countermeasures such as load management or load shifting. With the peak load report, visual energy automatically generates an analysis that records the highest power peak within the selected measurement period, including the date and time. Additionally, the report shows which feeders contributed the most to this peak. This gives users a quick overview of which equipment or machines were primarily responsible for the peak load.
Additional safety is ensured by monitoring residual currents. This allows you to detect deviations in electrical networks early, protect equipment from damage, and increase operational safety—a crucial factor in sensitive production environments.
Conclusion: From Data to Knowledge – From Knowledge to Efficiency
With visual energy, you keep track of all your energy data—in real time, across multiple locations, and tailored to every target group. You create transparency, reduce costs, and make energy efficiency measurable. This way, you take the crucial step: from meter to dashboard—and from data to knowledge that drives your company forward.
Whether you’ve been using visual energy for some time or are looking to implement a modern energy management system in your company, we are here to support you. Don’t hesitate to contact us or join one of our seminars. We look forward to hearing from you!
P.S.: visual energy version 5.2 will be released soon—with even more useful features and smart extras. Stay tuned!
Yours, Jonas Klaus
Technical Editor
KBR GmbH