Could AI Spot Your Block’s Energy Waste?

For a managing agent overseeing dozens of buildings, the first sign might be an unexpectedly high bill. By then, the additional electricity has already been consumed, and explaining the cost can mean working backwards through readings, invoices and maintenance records.

That is a practical challenge where artificial intelligence could become useful.

An accurate bill does not tell the whole story

Checking an invoice and understanding a building’s energy performance are different tasks. A supplier may have charged correctly for every unit consumed, while equipment has been operating longer than necessary.

Where suitable half-hourly consumption data is available, comparing a block’s overnight demand with its previous pattern can reveal changes worth investigating. Have communal lighting controls been altered? Has ventilation started running for longer? Has new equipment been connected?

Higher consumption is not automatically waste. Weather, occupancy and EV charging can explain changes. The value of the information lies in helping the managing agent ask the right questions.

Where AI could help

Monitoring and usage alerts already exist. AI could make it easier to explore the information behind them.

Imagine asking: “Which blocks have seen the biggest increase in overnight electricity use?”

A useful system could identify the relevant properties, show the comparison periods and highlight patterns for further investigation. Across a large portfolio, that could help managers decide where to focus their attention.

It would still take someone who understands the building to establish the cause. A consumption pattern can suggest where to look, it cannot, on its own, prove that a particular pump or lighting circuit is responsible.

Built around property managers

At Advantage Utilities, our philosophy is straightforward: “You cannot improve what you cannot measure.”

That means establishing what normal consumption looks like, investigating changes and measuring again to see whether an intervention has worked.

It also underpins Advantage Analytics, our in-house platform built specifically for property managers, which helps users monitor consumption, track costs and understand patterns across their portfolios. Alongside it, Advantage Logics brings billing and consumption information together, supported by our team’s energy expertise.

We are exploring how AI could make that information easier to question and interpret. Reliable measurement already gives property managers a practical starting point today.

The next time a resident director asks why communal electricity costs have increased, a clearer understanding of the building’s consumption could make the answer easier to explain, and the next step easier to identify.

This article was written by Advantage Utilities Energy Procurement Specialists.