When I was in second grade, a schoolmate friend of mine had a nativity set. While at her house one day, as I admired the little hand painted figurines of camels, shepherds, wise men, Mary, and Joseph, I noticed that the manger was empty. I asked my friend with great concern, “What happened to the baby Jesus?” She rolled her eyes and then smartly retorted to me, “Duh! It is December 22nd. He isn’t BORN yet.” In her house they took their nativity scene very seriously and, pre-Christmas, baby Jesus’s figurine was kept in the hollow Virgin Mary. When the family came downstairs Christmas morning, not only would the Christmas tree be loaded with presents, but the manger would be filled as well.
To this day, the lesson of good things coming in their own time resonates with me when I think about the availability of annual utility data for those of us who have the obligation of ESG Reporting.
Many of us work with third-party invoice processing groups who pay our utility bills, and we are dependent on them to supply us with the utility data. We are anxious to start our data verification process in early January and we are agitated when we look at our IT systems and do not see a full load of utility data. We need to take a deep breath and set expectations correctly with ourselves, our leadership, consultants and clients. We do not have all the data yet, so our EnergyStar Portfolio Managers, data systems, EDI feeds, etc. will be incomplete for now.
Let’s back into utility data timing so we can set reasonable expectations and give our invoice processing partners some grace. December is not over yet, so complete data cannot be gathered until January at the very soonest. However, do not expect the data on January 2nd when we come back into the office. Utility providers typically release the consumption and cost data on their schedules, not ours. This means we as an industry must wait for the billing cycle to complete. If we are lucky, the billing cycle completes 15 days after the service period ends. Bear in mind that many energy bills don’t run from the 1st to the 31st but rather run from the 15th to the 15th of the month (or thereabouts). This means that, for most of us on a 30-day billing cycle, we won’t have our 2023 total year data until end of January 2024 at best. If we have accounts on a 60-day billing cycle, we might not have data until end of February and if we have accounts on 90-day billing cycle, we might not have it until end of March.
So, I offer you this holiday wish: let us be as smart as my little friend (but nicer) as requests for data come in. Let us resolve in advance to set expectations as to what we will have and when. That way the people around us will know we are on it, and when they can expect our reports systems to be resplendent. Happy Holidays!
