Metering and monitoring planning

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What this article reported

Assessing and understanding your current energy metering helps you identify gaps in your business's systems and shows you how improving your metering systems could help cut energy use and costs and improve your operations.

Through the metering and monitoring planning initiative, we are providing up to $1.5 million to support NSW businesses to identify their gaps and take steps to address them.

How we can help

Connecting you with specialists

To develop your metering and monitoring plans, we have selected several service providers who will partner with you to assess your facility's metering and monitoring needs. Your service provider will then develop a new plan that includes costed proposals and recommendations to improve your metering and monitoring system.

Providing financial support to cover the cost

We are providing up to $15,000 per metering and monitoring plan, depending on your facility's annual spending on non-transport energy. This is paid directly to the service provider responsible for your plan.

We have also provided grants for metering and monitoring plan implementation.

How to apply

We're excited to help NSW businesses develop metering and monitoring plans. To get involved and arrange for an assessment, follow these steps.

Check your eligibility

To be eligible for an assessment, you will need to:

If a metering and monitoring plan is for a commercial building:

Expressions of interest here

How to use this information now

Before relying on a grant, confirm the current round, applicant and project eligibility, eligible expenditure, co-contribution, assessment process, closing date and evidence obligations. Build the technical case so the project remains understandable with grant support shown separately.

Separate source-reported facts from forecasts, targets and commentary. For a current project, retain the official source, version, effective date, assumptions and decision record in the evidence file.

What is metering and monitoring planning, and why does Northmore Gordon emphasize it as a starting point?

Metering and monitoring planning establishes the measurement infrastructure needed to answer operational or investment questions about energy use. We emphasize it because useful data collection requires defining the decision first, identifying equipment boundaries, and assigning data responsibilities before installation. Without this planning, sites often deploy meters that produce data no one uses. The NSW Government's metering guidance connects business-needs definition with system procurement, installation budgets and functional specifications. Planning avoids the costly mistake of measuring the wrong variables at the wrong intervals.

What financial support is available for metering and monitoring planning in NSW, and how is it structured?

Up to $1.5 million is available across the program. Individual businesses can access up to $15,000 per metering and monitoring plan, with the funding paid directly to the service provider developing the plan. Eligibility requires operating in NSW, spending more than $200,000 annually on non-transport energy per site, having a complex energy system, and having no existing plan completed under this program for a similar facility. Commercial buildings must have base-building energy consumption addressed and an occupancy certificate issued before 1 January 2022.

How should a metering plan be designed to ensure the resulting data actually supports decision-making?

Begin by specifying the operational or investment question the data must answer, the equipment or site boundary, and who will use the information. Establish data responsibilities before installation—including data ownership, access rights, export procedures and how equipment changes will be recorded. Match the measurement period to the operating cycle, particularly for seasonal or variable operations. Create a handover that specifies what question each report answers, who reviews it, and what happens when anomalies are found. Start proportionately: collect information necessary for the decision and required evidence standard, then extend where additional data has clear use.

What common pitfalls should businesses avoid when planning metering systems?

The most significant pitfall is leaving measurement planning until immediately before installation, which can make intended analysis difficult or impossible. Leaving the original problem unresolved by creating an attractive dashboard without assigning responsibility for reviewing it and acting on anomalies also undermines value. Combining data collected at different intervals, in different units or with unclear timestamps without understanding their meaning can render analysis impossible. Record whether readings are interval energy, cumulative register values or power measurements. Set data responsibilities, including time-zone and daylight-saving treatment, before installation to prevent later disputes over data interpretation.

How does Northmore Gordon's metering and monitoring planning relate to their broader energy optimization services?

Metering and monitoring is the foundational stage in our six-stage delivery approach. It sits within the 'Assess' stage, which identifies opportunities and missing evidence through energy audits, utility benchmarking, forecasting, metering and monitoring. Without reliable data from a well-designed metering plan, subsequent stages—building the investment case, capturing funding value, delivering projects and measuring verification—cannot be executed credibly. We delivered metering and monitoring planning, purchasing support and installation oversight for Bulla Dairy, illustrating how they connect this work to implementation and performance support.

What should businesses prepare before requesting a metering and monitoring assessment from a service provider?

Prepare a project brief describing the site's actual problem, available evidence and the operational or investment decision requiring data. Include site locations, operating constraints, business context and the decision deadline. Provide existing energy bills or interval data, production records, available SCADA data and equipment details. Flag missing data, major shutdowns and operational changes. If the metering plan may support certificate schemes, disclose previous incentives and clarify timing-sensitive pathways. Our project-brief guidance recommends creating a dated list of any prior studies, applications or equipment changes, since new measurement planning must work within the actual chronology of events.

Can metering and monitoring planning funding be combined with other energy project funding sources?

Funding sources—grants, certificates, finance arrangements and internal capital—should be assessed separately and their compatibility checked explicitly before combining them. Grants, certificates and loans have distinct eligibility requirements, approval conditions and timing. Do not assume that two incentives can be combined because they have different names or purposes. Before combining support streams, check restrictions in each programme and how project costs, outcomes and environmental attributes are allocated across sources. Document which prior assistance or contractual commitments might affect new applications. Using a funding-status register to distinguish discovered, assessed, applied, conditionally approved and approved amounts helps prevent unsupported promises in the investment case.

What responsibilities should be assigned once a metering and monitoring plan is implemented?

Assign explicit ownership: a management sponsor, site energy owner, operations representative, data owner and project owner—roles that may overlap in smaller operations. Define who can approve investigations, capital expenditure and operating changes. Record who checks whether completed metering produces the intended outcome. Create a short handover specifying the question each report answers, the person responsible for reviewing it and what happens when anomalies are found. Establish a routine operational check (for data gaps and abnormal behaviour), a monthly energy review and periodic management reviews. This transforms measurement from a technical installation into a governance discipline that supports actual business decisions.

Why is the operating cycle critical when planning measurement periods?

Seasonal and variable operations require representative data covering the full range of conditions under which the investment will operate. Early planning and a complete operating cycle matter because leaving measurement until immediately before equipment installation can make the intended analysis—whether for baseline establishment, savings verification or operational troubleshooting—difficult or impossible. If a facility has significant seasonal variation, single-shift versus multiple-shift operations, or production fluctuations, measurement must capture those patterns. The NSW Government's measurement and verification guide emphasizes that project timing and complete data cycles are essential to credible evidence. Nordmore Gordon's project work reflects this principle.

What outputs should a comprehensive metering and monitoring plan include?

A comprehensive plan should include costed proposals for metering infrastructure improvements, recommendations for addressing identified gaps, and an implementation roadmap. It should specify which decision each proposed meter will support, equipment boundaries, required measurement intervals and data quality standards. The plan should document data responsibilities, including ownership, access rights, export procedures and how equipment changes will be recorded. It should define performance indicators—such as total consumption, cost, peak demand and energy per production unit—with clear boundaries and reporting periods. The plan should include a post-implementation review process and identify operational or investment questions the data will answer, ensuring measurable outcomes rather than orphaned hardware.

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