Automating Utility Data
Currently there is major focus in all industries on the net zero carbon agenda which in turn is driving the need for businesses to get control over their fragmented data. It is no longer an option to ignore the carbon impact of your business as pressure is being applied by institutional investors, supply chains and end customers. Climate impact can ultimately only be measured by utilising solid underlying data, and this is so often ignored.
The traditional way in which utility data is collected is through teams of people in energy bureaus manually retrieving invoices, either through the post or via downloads and then manually inputting data into rudimentary systems or excel spreadsheets to perform a series of validations, then passing these invoices to the clients accounting teams to get paid. This method means larger costs and more inefficiencies. The data is also not readily available and is subject to error through human inputting therefore less reliable to the end users of the data.
When Etainabl was founded a major focus was on addressing the problem of extracting utility data with the use of modern technologies. We have developed a unique automatic data collection tool named Captur. This allows organisations to save large amounts of time which would otherwise be lost to manually collecting and extracting the data. Consequently, this enables Etainabl to offer a truly valuable user experience at a fraction of the cost of a traditional bureau service. Key features of our automated solution include:
Data scraping via web browser
Utility invoice extraction using AI
Receiving utility data direct from suppliers
Data Scraping
Manually tracing and downloading utility invoices can take up a large amount of administration time. This is why within Etainabl we have created automated scrapers that you can manage from within the platform. Users can enter utility supplier login credentials and set scrapers to look into their supplier portals automatically on a daily basis, if an invoice is detected that is not already present in Etainabl the scraper tool will download the PDF and inject it into the system. This saves users larger amounts of time that can be spent on effecting change rather than administration.
Utility Invoices
Once a scraper has performed its task of retrieving an invoice Etainabl then uses modern machine learning combined with AI to read and extract key data points from utility invoices without the need for human interaction. The data from the utility invoices is checked using a series of automated validations to ensure that information contained is correct. This data and a copy of the PDF is then passed into the system and can be used for a range of reporting purposes while having the PDF retained as primary evidence of consumption.
Utility Data from Suppliers
Import smart meter data (HH data) automatically from your nominated data collector for deeper analysis and reporting functions of a building's actual operational performance. For Customers with on site data being collected from Building Management Systems or Sub-Metering Systems, we have a number of solutions deployed for integrating these data streams into the Etainabl software.
If you are struggling with data collection or are interested in automating processes to reduce cost and ultimately streamline your route to net zero get in touch with us at contact@etainabl.com or visit www.etainabl.com for more details.
