Buildings are easier to compare than to explain.
In commercial property the question is rarely how a system works. It is who used what, whether this building is worse than that one, and how to prove it to somebody who is being invoiced.
Allocation is a data problem before it is a billing problem.
Most disputes about tenant utility charges are not really about the rate. They are about the fact that the allocation was estimated, by square footage, by headcount, by a formula somebody agreed to years ago, and the tenant suspects it does not reflect what they actually used.
Submetering ends that conversation. When each suite has its own meter and the tenant can see their own interval data, the number stops being an opinion. It also protects you in the other direction, because a heavy user is no longer subsidised by everyone else.
Above the individual building, the same data supports portfolio comparison. Two similar properties with materially different energy intensity per square foot is a finding worth investigating, and it is invisible until both are measured the same way.
What commercial buildings monitor.
The measurements that support billing, budgeting and building operation.
Tenant submetering
Per suite consumption with its own interval history, so a statement can be backed up with data rather than a formula.
Common area allocation
House loads, lobbies, parking and lifts separated out and apportioned according to your lease terms.
Portfolio comparison
Energy intensity per square foot across properties, so outliers surface without anyone having to go looking.
HVAC and plant load
Chillers, boilers and air handling as their own category, since they usually dominate a commercial bill.
Time of use cost
Consumption priced against your actual tariff, including peak and off peak periods, expressed in dollars.
Monthly statements
Branded PDF statements per tenant, generated from the same data the dashboards show.
What building owners get from it.
The practical outcomes, separated from the technology.
- Defensible tenant charges. Interval data behind every line on a statement.
- Recovered costs. Loads that were quietly landing on the house account instead of a tenant's.
- Faster leasing conversations. Prospective tenants increasingly ask about metering and operating cost transparency.
- Vacancy accuracy. An empty suite drawing significant power is either a fault or an unmetered load, and both are worth knowing about.
- Plant scheduling evidence. Whether the chiller really needs to start at 05:00, settled with data rather than habit.
- Demand management. Visibility of the peak that sets your demand charge, while there is still time to affect it.
- Capital planning. Consumption trends that justify, or quietly refute, a proposed equipment replacement.
- Portfolio benchmarking. A consistent measure across properties that survives changes in occupancy.
Answers before you call.
The system produces the consumption data and the statements. Whether you may bill tenants directly for electricity, and what meter accuracy class is required, depends on your jurisdiction and your lease terms, that is worth checking with your counsel before committing to an approach.
No. A common approach is to meter the main incomer plus the largest tenants first, treat the remainder as common area initially, and add meters as leases turn over.
This is very common in older buildings and is the main practical constraint. Multi circuit branch meters can often separate suites within a shared panel without re wiring, though sometimes the honest answer is that a clean split is not possible without electrical work.
Yes, with role based access so each tenant sees only their own consumption. In practice this reduces billing queries substantially.
Each site collects locally and reports into a common historian, giving per building detail and a portfolio roll up. Buildings can be compared on energy intensity per square foot even when they have quite different metering arrangements.
How much of your building is estimated?
If tenant charges rest on a formula rather than a meter, that is usually where to start.
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