Creating a gas measurement and monitoring plan for your industrial site
- Northmore Gordon
- July 9, 2019
- News
Gas costs are hurting business and have been for some time. Making informed and smart decisions using good data can help reduce operating costs. The measurement and monitoring of energy flows such as gas, steam, hot water, hot air or electricity is needed, however it can be technically challenging and often expensive.
For these reasons, a well-thought-out measurement and monitoring plan is an essential part of any industrial site, and can be achieved using a 5-step process:
Step 1 – Specify the goal and understand what is already known.
Step 2 – Prioritise what to measure.
Step 3 – Investigate and select energy management software and long term data storage
solution.
Step 4 – Specify and select suitable meters and their communication system.
Step 5 – Develop a budget and implementation plan
Step 1 – Specify the goal and understand what is already known.
This is the essential part of a metering and monitoring upgrade as it determines the useful data and how it will be used. Other equally valid goals could be:
- “Determine the Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the refrigeration system to assist in developing a business case for its replacement”
- “Understand how much one area of the plant costs to run”
- “Establish plant energy performance KPIs and track them”
Once the objective is clear, spend time determining what data is available and what additional metering is necessary. In many cases some metering is already in place but unused.
Step 2 – Prioritise what to measure.
Keeping in mind the initial goal, determine the highest priority energy flows that need to be measured. Start by building a preliminary energy balance on either the site, a specific utility, a plant area or an individual piece of equipment. It isn’t necessarily the largest energy users that are the priority.
Step 3 – Investigate and select energy management software and long term data storage solution
Before jumping in to select meters, consider how to collect and store the data, as well as who needs the information. The purpose of metering is to provide data that is usable, and insights are acted upon. Data collection may use a pre-existing data management or SCADA system, or a new online portal.
The range of people needing to access the data might range from plant operators, plant managers, energy managers, or compliance personnel.
Step 4 – Specify and select suitable meters and their communication system.
There are hundreds of different meters available on the market, and all of them have different benefits and drawbacks. Consider things like precision, repeatability, flow range, method of installation and format of the data being reported.
Step 5 – Develop a budget and implementation plan.
The budget and implementation plan of the metering and monitoring project must consider:
- Schedule of works to be completed.
- Plant down time and commissioning requirements.
- Communication and data storage installation.
- Safety of the works carried out.
- New procedures or responsibilities to utilise the data
- Meter validation and ongoing meter maintenance.
Meter validation is often overlooked. To test if the meter is accurate, first compare its data with what is expected, or with other meters up or downstream. At Northmore Gordon we often find meters in the field that have been incorrectly reporting energy usage for years!
Make informed and smart decisions about energy usage.
Acting on the data is what really matters. Software tools exist that are designed to aggregate data from industrial data management systems and present it in a way that is easy to understand. If information is easy to understand, it is more likely to be trusted and acted upon.
Northmore Gordon is passionate about helping large industrial and commercial customers increase energy productivity. We can help you design a metering, monitoring and energy management solution for your specific needs.
For more specific details on gas metering and monitoring, you might want to check out the NSW OEH publication co-authored by Northmore Gordon: “Gas Measurement and Monitoring Guide” or contact me.
Alex Holdsworth
Consultant, Northmore Gordon
a.holdsworth@northmoregordon.com
You may also like:
Welcome to our August & September 2026 Compliance Update.
Australian Certificate Markets – August 2026 Update
Where’s the value in renewable heat?
Latest Updates
Webinar – Buying renewable certificates across Asia-Pacific under SBTi and RE100
What we’ll cover Webinar details: Wednesday 11 November 2026, 1:00pm AEDT10:00am Perth, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan9:00am Vietnam11:00am Korea3:00pm New Zealand2:00am London (Wednesday 11 November)9:00pm New
Read More »Australian Certificate Markets – September 2026 Update
Price Summary Certificate Open Close Range Effective cap Movement / Reason PRC $3.35 $3.40 $3.35 – $3.40 $3.80 ▲ Held August’s gains ESC $29.00 $29.65
Read More »Northmore Gordon accredited as a GreenPower Renewable Gas Trader
Northmore Gordon is now accredited under the GreenPower Renewable Gas Certification to trade Renewable Gas Guarantee of Origin Certificates (RGGOs). This means we can buy
Read More »STC threshold set to rise from 100kW to 1MW
The Clean Energy RegulatorThe Clean Energy Regulator is the Australia Government body responsible for accelerating carbon abatement for Australia through the administration of the National
Read More »ASRS Group 3: are you in scope and don’t know it?
Correct as at 13 September 2026. If your company is a large proprietary company, you may be legally required to report under Australia’s mandatory climate
Read More »Beyond annual matching: The evolution of time-stamped RECs
For more than a decade, Renewable Energy Certificates (RECsI-RECs, GOs, TIGRsTradeable Instrument for Global Renewables (TIGR) Registry is an online platform for tracking and transferring renewable energy certificates (RECS), enabling developers to generate,verify and sell RECs. The registry is run by APX, a US company that provides infrastructure for environmental markets around the world., LGCs, ZNECs, J-Credits) have underpinned global renewable electricity procurement. By purchasing RECs equivalent to
Read More »Get in touch
Australia
1300 854 561 (Advisory)
1300 878 500 (Certificates)
Melbourne
Suite 1, Level 4
607 Bourke Street
Melbourne
VIC 3000
Singapore
Singapore
1 Keong Saik Road,
Singapore 089109
Stay up to date
mailto:%20info@northmoregordon.com https://twitter.com/northmoregordon https://www.linkedin.com/company/northmore-gordon-pty-ltd https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdGc6mABpL2XxVUCrVjYQ1gAlternatively, complete the form and we will be in
touch with you.
Services
- Energy Audit Services
- M&V Services
- EEO Assessments
- Corporate Energy and Carbon Management
- Grants and Program
- Strategic Energy Sourcing
- Virtual Energy Manager
- Climate Active Certification
Sectors
- Animal Processing
- Chemical Processing
- Commercial Buildings
- Food & Beverage
- Manufacturing
- Mining
- Oil & Gas
- Pharmaceutical & Health Products
- Public Sector
- Waste & Wastewater
- Wood, Paper & Cardboard Processing
Upgrades
- Boiler Upgrades
- Commercial Lighting
- Hot Water Systems
- Mid Scale Solar
- NABERS
- Public Lighting
- Refrigerated Display Cabinets
- Solar PV Small Scale
- UPS
Certificates
- Live Certificate Prices
- International Renewable Energy Certificates
- Tradable Instrument for Global Renewables
- Australian Carbon Credit Units
- Energy Savings Certificates
- Large-scale Generation Certificates
- Small-scale Technology Certificates
- Victorian Energy Efficiency Certificates
Government Schemes
Helpful Links
Images on This Page
-
https://px.ads.linkedin.com/collect/?pid=3718913&fmt=gif
(no alt text)
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ng-logo.svg
(no alt text)
-
https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/ab047677377528d869c6355437d1cc98219cfbe4094f611943be2f75fe112a4e?s=96&d=mm&r=g
Picture of Northmore Gordon
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/creating-gas-measurement-1.jpg
Gas measurement - piping - Northmore Gordon
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Compliance-Update-–-November-2025-300x139.jpg
(no alt text)
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Markets-update-news-WEB-300x139.jpg
(no alt text)
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Renewable-Heat-banner-300x139.jpg
(no alt text)
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/webinar-banner-1-300x139.jpg
(no alt text)
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GreenPower_Renewable-Gas-Certification-300x139.jpg
(no alt text)
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/SRES-changes-banner-300x139.jpg
(no alt text)
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/shutterstock_2761180357-300x168.jpg
ASRS Group 3: Are you in scope and don't know it - ASRS Reporting Standards - Northmore Gordon
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Time-stamped-RECs-300x139.jpg
(no alt text)
-
https://northmoregordon.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/ng-logo.png
(no alt text)