Meter levels and aggregation

At Mestro, we often throw around the term 'Aggregation' or 'At an aggregated level.' It's probably not a word you come across every day, so we have this article in hopes of answering all your questions!

Aggregation

Data aggregation is a process where data is summarized (or more generally combined) into new data. Often, it involves combining several different values into a total.

With this article, we aim to explain how data is aggregated in the portal, so you can understand how the data in the reports has been counted/summed up.

Meter Levels

To understand how data is aggregated from meters at the property level to the property group level, let's first go through the different meter levels available on properties in the portal.

In the Mestro Portal, there are four meter levels:

Main meter - the primary one visible. Meters at the property level usually have this level, as they refer to the entire property's usage. Data from these meters appears as the total usage at the property level.
Submeter - the secondary one visible. It's elevated to the total property level if there's no Main Meter.
Tenant meter - the third visible one. It's elevated to the total property level if there's no Main Meter or Submeter.
Other - only visible at the total property level if other levels are absent. Typically found on meters that we don't want to be elevated to a higher level.

Example:

A property has two Main Meters, three Submeters, and one Tenant Submeter for electricity. In the reports, the data present in the Main Meters will be aggregated and displayed as the total electricity consumption at the property.
A property lacks a Main Meter for electricity but has two Submeters and 10 meters at the Other level. In the reports, the data from the Submeters will be aggregated and displayed as the total electricity consumption at the property.

Note: Even if the property has buildings entered into the portal, the same logic applies. That is, when looking at the property's total or property group total, the aggregation logic is based on all meters present at the property, regardless of whether they're directly on the property or placed in a building. Therefore, it's not the highest level of each building that aggregates to form the property's total.

If you want to look solely at a building or a building component, the same logic applies within the building/building component concerning meter levels and aggregation.

Aggregation - Property Group Level

We gather data from the meters at the highest level for each type of measurement on the property – this becomes the property's total. Then, all the property totals are summed up, constituting the property group total.

Example:
We have a property group with two properties. One property has two Main Meters and one Submeter. The data from the Main Meters constitutes the property's total.

The other property has only two Submeters (no Main meters). These Submeters constitute the property's total.

The totals of the two properties are added together, forming the property group's total.

Aggregation and Tagging

Hoping you've grasped the concept of aggregation now and are excited to venture further into the aggregation jungle? If so, we introduce the final concept, namely tagging.

In the portal, you can tag (define) which meters correspond to property or operations-related energy/media use. You tag a meters use in the meter settings, under edit.

Once you've tagged your meters, in reports, you can choose to only view (toggle) data with the usage type/tag of 'property' or 'operations.'

If you toggle on 'property' usage type, the report will display the data aggregated at the property or property group level, tagged as property energy.

Therefore, the report only shows what's tagged as property energy, following the same logic in the meter hierarchy we've just discussed.

Example:

A property has three Main Meters, one of which is tagged as property energy, and a Submeter tagged as property energy. The report displays data from the Main Meter tagged as property energy in the total.
A property has two Main Meters (untagged) and three Submeters, with two of them tagged as property energy. The report displays data from the two tagged Submeters in the total.

Hope this sheds a bit more light! And if you're thinking, 'Hmm, not quite...' you're always welcome to reach out to our support or your account manager for further explanation!"