ENERGY BILL MANAGEMENT

Turning Energy Data into Business Value

The billing engine in an Energy Management System does more than just process meter readings and generate a utility bill —it transforms raw data into financial intelligence. By converting kilowatts (kW) and kilowatt hours (kWh) into dollars, billing engines help organizations unlock commercial insights, create potential revenue streams, recover costs, and drive accountability. It’s about making your energy data actionable, traceable, and ultimately, valuable to your business & financial stakeholders.

There are three core billing applications that unlock this business value:

Bill Verification

Bill verification involves configuring an EMS to generate a “shadow bill” and then comparing it to the actual utility bill. Any discrepancies between the two bills can lead to cost recovery, improved accountability, and more informed negotiations with utility providers.

Utility bills are often complex documents with many determinants. The data acquisition systems and billing engines that utilities use to calculate bills are complex and can be error-prone in some cases.

The goal is to meticulously check all calculations, ensuring that each line item is correct and justified. This includes verifying that measured values such as kilowatt-hours (kWh), demand (kW), and power factor are accurate and reflect actual consumption and demand profiles.

While bill verification is commonly associated with electricity, its application extends to other utilities as well. The same principles and scrutiny can be applied to bills for water, air, gas, and steam (often referred to as W.A.G.S.), ensuring that organizations are only paying for what they actually consume, and that all rate structures and charges are applied correctly. This comprehensive approach supports overall resource efficiency and cost control across all utility streams.

Tenant Billing

Depending on the jurisdiction…

However, energy billing is becoming increasingly complex. The modern energy landscape includes

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  • rapid electrification including EV charging

  • a mix of traditional and onsite generation

  • new tariff structures

  • exposure to energy markets with dynamic pricing

  • multiple tenants and internal departments

  • complex spaces with services and assets shared across energy consumers

billing energy accurately in the presence of these factors is a challenge.

Organizations are tasked with verifying third-party utility bills, recovering costs from tenants or business units, and ensuring all charges—from utilities to shared services—are distributed transparently and accurately. As energy systems evolve, so too does the need for flexible, data-driven energy billing that can accommodate distributed energy resources, dynamic pricing, energy market access and more.

Coincident peak support

ratchets

…fixed fees

taxes

…

UTILITY BATTERY STORAGE PLANTS

These provide Fast and Very Fast frequency response services in contingency and regulation FCAS markets.

VIRTUAL POWER PLANTS (VPPs)

VPPs often aggregate residential solar + battery systems, enabling smaller batteries to contribute to FCAS. VPPs typically participate in the Fast and Very Fast contingency markets.

GRID-INTERACTIVE INVERTERS & SMART SOLAR PV SYSTEMS

Some advanced solar inverters with grid-forming capabilities can also participate in the FCAS market.

These assets are typically used in the Fast and Very Fast markets.

Cost Allocation

COMMERCIAL & INDUSTRIAL LOADS

Some industrial and commercial customers can adjust loads in response to frequency deviations. Participation is via demand-side aggregators.

C&I loads are good candidates for the Slow or Delayed markets since they may take some time to ramp down.

How FCAS Works

This diagram also shows the different equipment needed to participate in the FCAS Market. It also illustrates the sequence of events that occur during an FCAS contingency event.

A critical component of an FCAS solution is a secure and resilient Operational Technology (OT) network. The OT network supports the communication and control of physical devices, systems, and processes involved in energy production, distribution, and management. Read more about the importance of OT Networks here.

Participating in FCAS markets is complex

There are several factors that make the FCAS market complex:

MEASUREMENT & VERIFICATION

Compliance with AEMO’s metering and verification requirements is essential for participation. With each FCAS event, participants must submit a Market Ancillary Service Specification (MASS) Compliance report with voltage samples (typically 50 ms or less) that proves they delivered to the specification of the market they bid into.

HOW TO SUCCEED

Choose a metering & reporting platform that reliably capture the data, process it and create the compliance report.

REVENUE UNCERTAINTY

FCAS prices fluctuate based on supply and demand, requiring optimization strategies to maximize returns. There are also dependencies between the FCAS and energy dispatch market that can create significant, unpredictable price swings due to the causer-pays clause.

HOW TO SUCCEED

Choose a proven monitoring & control platform with accurate price forecasting & market intelligence to optimize revenue while reducing exposure to penalties and costs.

SITE COMPLEXITY

DERs located at a commercial or industrial site may be part of multiple energy objectives in a value stack . For example, consider a site with battery storage, EV fleet chargers and solar panels. The site may want to optimize self-consumption and participate in the energy dispatch and FCAS market while at the same time, ensuring that the EV chargers are always available for maximum charging when any connected EVs are below 50% of charge. In this scenario, an advanced control system is required to ensure that correct amount of battery storage is bid into the FCAS market without putting the other objectives at risk.

HOW TO SUCCEED

Choose an advanced energy management system capable of real-time decision-making, predictive analytics, and dynamic load balancing to optimize performance across the multiple operational priorities.

The Bottom Line

An advanced energy management system will help ensure you maximize your revenue in the FCAS market.

Scenarios

Let’s look at some scenarios that show how an energy management system can optimize FCAS Market revenue.

INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING PLANT

A manufacturing plant operates several large electric furnaces and compressors, consuming significant power from the grid. By installing an energy management system (EMS), the plant monitors and controls these heavy loads. In the event of an FCAS contingency (such as the sudden loss of a large generation unit elsewhere in the grid), the EMS instantaneously reduces electricity consumption by temporarily scaling back non-critical furnace operations.

Every 5 minutes, the EMS bids the plant’s flexible load capacity into the FCAS market. When a contingency event occurs, the plant is dispatched automatically, providing rapid demand response by immediately decreasing load, thus stabilizing grid frequency. Through participation in this market, the plant receives substantial additional revenue streams, significantly offsetting operational costs.

The EMS continuously optimizes the bids by analyzing real-time FCAS pricing and plant load forecasts. This maximizes revenues, ensuring the plant responds only during financially beneficial intervals, increasing overall profitability while supporting grid resilience.

UTILITY-SCALE BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM (BESS)

A utility-scale Battery Energy Storage System, located near a wind farm, uses an advanced EMS to enhance revenues from participation in the contingency FCAS market. The EMS intelligently manages charging and discharging patterns based on forecasts of renewable generation, real-time grid conditions, and FCAS prices, ensuring maximum availability for contingency response events.

When a sudden drop in grid frequency occurs, the EMS instantly dispatches stored energy which injects power into the grid. This rapid frequency support is highly valued in the contingency FCAS market and commands premium compensation, significantly boosting the battery system’s revenue stream.

In addition to immediate dispatch, the EMS continuously optimizes battery cycling strategies, preserving battery lifespan and efficiency while maximizing FCAS participation. As a result, the battery system achieves higher returns on investment, while enhancing grid stability.

LARGE DATA CENTER FACILITY

A large commercial data centre, consuming substantial electricity for cooling and IT infrastructure, uses an EMS for onsite energy efficiency and to participate in the FCAS market. Through real-time monitoring and control of cooling systems, backup generators, and energy storage units, the EMS identifies flexible load and generation capacities suitable for quick response to contingency events.

When the grid frequency experiences sudden drops due to unexpected outages elsewhere, the EMS activates load shifting measures, such as temporarily adjusting cooling system setpoints or quickly initiating backup generation. This reduces the facility’s draw from the grid, promptly contributing to frequency stabilization efforts.

The EMS continuously analyzes grid conditions and FCAS market signals, dynamically adjusting bids and participation strategies. This ensures optimal financial returns from FCAS payments, enabling the data centre to turn its existing infrastructure into a profitable asset, while contributing to the reliability and resilience of the wider electricity grid.

VIRTUAL POWER PLANT (VPP)

A Virtual Power Plant (VPP) aggregates multiple residential and commercial sites equipped with rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems and battery energy storage systems (BESS). Using an energy management system (EMS), the VPP coordinates hundreds of distributed assets to collectively participate in the FCAS market. By continuously forecasting generation, load, and storage capacity across all sites, the EMS determines available flexible capacity for bidding into the FCAS market.

When a contingency event occurs, batteries across the VPP discharge stored energy into the grid as they have been programmed to do by the EMS. Simultaneously, the EMS may also adjust solar inverter outputs where possible to increase the overall FCAS contribution. This approach significantly boosts the VPP’s revenues.

The EMS dynamically updates its FCAS strategy by continuously monitoring site loads, battery state-of-charge and solar output forecasts. This maximizes revenue for individual asset owners within the VPP while maintaining site reliability and asset health.

Solutions

  • ION Power meters are the most accurate & intelligent power meters available, measuring thousands of power quality and energy variables and transmitting them to the software system.

  • For non-critical loads or circuits, we supply basic meters that provide all the necessary measurements to support energy and electrification management

Electrical Metering

EnergyX® Platform

  • The EnergyX® cloud platform contains all energy management & electrification applications in a single portal, supporting multiple sites, users, languages and timezones.

  • EnergyX® Edge Kits provide onsite monitoring & control and a secure connection to the EnergyX® cloud platform.