What interval data is
Interval data is the energy your meter recorded in each short period, usually every 15 minutes or every hour. Monthly bills tell you how much you used; interval data tells you when. Every whole-building fault rule reads it: the building that never shuts down, weekends that look like weekdays, baseload that creeps up, demand peaks that should not have happened.
Most commercial utility meters already record it. You are not installing anything, you are asking for a file the utility already holds.
How to get it
Log in to the utility account portal and look for a usage or energy-data page. The export is usually called interval data, usage data, or Green Button. Names vary by utility and change with portal redesigns, so the fastest path is often the business account representative: ask for "twelve months of 15-minute interval data for meter number X as CSV or Green Button XML".
Green Button is the utility-industry standard for sharing your own usage data, and it comes in two forms. Download My Data is a button on the utility portal that gives you a file (XML or CSV) you can send straight to Energy Agent. Connect My Data is an ongoing feed: you authorise a third party on the utility’s site once, and the utility then sends that party your interval data automatically as it is recorded. Connect My Data is what you would set up later for continuous monitoring; for a first analysis, the download is the simplest start.
- Ask for the finest interval available. 15-minute is best; hourly is fine; daily supports only a few rules.
- Ask for twelve months. Sixty days is the minimum for a confident result; two full years unlocks year-over-year comparison.
- Ask for every meter on the account, and say which serves which building.
- If the meter records kVAR or kVA, include those channels; they unlock the power-factor analysis.
What the file should look like
A CSV or spreadsheet with a timestamp column and one numeric column per meter. Energy Agent reads the unit from the header ("Main Meter (kWh)"), infers the cadence, and handles cumulative register readings by differencing them. Green Button XML is read directly, with import and export kept separate.
You do not need to clean the file. Energy Agent checks timezone, gaps, duplicate timestamps, frozen channels and unit mismatches before any rule runs, and tells you what it found.
Submeters
If the building has submeters, send them as extra columns or extra files. Each submeter re-runs the baseload, after-hours, weekend and peak rules on its own circuit, and a lighting circuit unlocks the lighting-after-hours rule. Main-versus-submeter balance also tells you what the unmetered remainder is doing.
Common questions
My utility only offers hourly data. Is that enough?
Yes for the meter rules and the occupancy inference. 15-minute data sharpens demand-spike detection and short-cycling on submetered equipment.
The export has a column of cumulative readings, not kWh per interval.
Send it as is. Energy Agent recognises a monotonic register and differences it.
Can I send a Green Button file straight from the utility?
Yes. The XML is read directly.