EnergyCAP® Express

Calendarization "smoothes out" utility bill usage and cost data by allocating it to the appropriate calendar month. 

Most utility bills do not cover an exact calendar month:

Calendarization is the process of splitting bills into the appropriate calendar month by estimating the cost and usage attributable to the portion of the bill that falls in each month.  Without daily meter readings the splitting can’t be exact, but it is reasonably accurate.

Why calendarize?  Calendarization provides better month-to-month and year-to-year comparisons by “smoothing out” data “bumps” caused by bi-monthly and quarterly bills, estimated bills, and variable length bills (28 days one month, 34 days the next).  The calendarized data is therefore more accurate when used in fiscal reporting, budgeting, auditing, accruals and energy performance evaluation.

Two methods of calendarization are used:

Simple average daily use and cost allocation:  When a meter is not weather sensitive, the bill is simply prorated into each month based on the number of billing period days.  A bill from 9/12 to 10/14 has 32 days (the first day counts, the last day doesn’t because the next bill begins on 10/14).  There are 19 days in September, so 19/32 of the usage and cost is allocated to September and 13/32 to October.

Weather (degree day) allocation:  When a meter is weather sensitive, the simple proration method described above is inadequate and provides faulty results.  A much more sophisticated method is used to prorate the weather sensitive portion based on the number of degree days in the appropriate billing period in each month, and to prorate the remaining non-weather sensitive portion based on the number of days.