Skip to main content

Working With Reports

Reports are where you analyze the customer populations you create in FLEX Insights.

A Report brings together one or more Segments with the visualizations and metrics available in FLEX Insights. You can use Reports to understand energy consumption, explore load patterns and end uses, and compare different customer populations.

Creating a Report​

Create a Report when you want to begin a new analysis or bring together a particular set of customer populations.

To create a Report:

  1. On the FLEX Insights Home Page
  2. Select Create New within the Reports section.
  3. Give the Report a descriptive name.
  4. Select whether the report will be a comparison report or a total report:
    1. A comparison report quantifies differences between two segments.
    2. A total report allows for viewing of 1 to 5 Segments together with no differences.
  5. Select the Segments you want to include.
  6. Choose the Impacts or dashboard views relevant to your Report.
  7. Create the Report.

Impacts​

Impacts are the dashboard and data expressions of Segment populations in a Report. Each Impact looks at the same selected Segments from a different perspective, helping you understand who the customers are, how and when they use energy, and what contributes to that energy use.

FLEX Insights currently includes:

Customer Population helps you understand who is included in the analysis.

Load Shapes helps you understand how much energy customers use and when they use it.

Load Types helps you understand the end uses and technologies contributing to that energy use.

More Impacts coming soon

Opening a Report​

The Flex Insights home page contains the Reports available to you in FLEX Insights.

To open a Report, find it within the table and click on “Explore”

Use descriptive Report names so that you and other users can understand the purpose of the analysis when returning to it later.

Understanding the Impacts in a Report​

Impacts are the different ways you can explore the customer populations included in a Report. Each Impact answers a different type of question about the same Segments, allowing you to move from understanding who the customers are, to how they use energy, to what is contributing to that energy use.

Customer Population​

Customer Population Impact describes the individuals represented in the Report.

For each customer within a segment, view their location, identifiers, end-uses, energy consumption, disaggregated loads, and attributes such as equity identifiers or rate codes.

Load Shapes​

Load Shapes includes several complementary views to identify how customer populations use energy over time.

Average Day shows how 24-hour energy consumption changes across the year. Use it to identify seasonal changes and differences between populations.

Annual Usage shows every day within a year, helping you identify how energy patterns vary throughout the day and across seasons. Use it to identify patterns such as summer afternoon cooling demand, winter heating loads, evening peaks, or overnight consumption. Zoom in to find days/weeks of interest.

Load Duration orders electricity demand from highest to lowest. Use it to understand the relationship between peak and typical demand, how often a population experiences high loads, and how short- or long-term flexibility can mitigate peaking.

Load Types​

Load Types help explain what underlying technologies and related disaggregated loads are observed in a population.

FLEX Insights uses disaggregation to estimate the contribution of different end uses and technologies to customer energy use. These can include baseload, heating, cooling, EV charging, solar generation, discretionary loads, and other available DER load types.

Use Load Types to investigate the drivers behind patterns you identify in Load Shapes. For example, if Seasonal Usage Patterns shows a pronounced summer afternoon peak, Load Types can help you understand how much cooling contributes to that demand.

Moving between Impacts​

Impacts are designed to work together. You might begin in Customer Population to understand who is in a Segment, use Load Shapes to identify when and how those customers use energy, and then use Load Types to investigate what is driving the patterns you observe.

The Segments in the Report remain consistent as you move between Impacts, so you can investigate the same population from multiple perspectives without recreating your analysis.

Exporting Data​

When you need to continue an analysis outside FLEX Insights, use the available export option to download the underlying Impact data. Exports contain all relevant data within an Impact to support internal processes, reporting, and further analysis.

Certain populations require exports to be developed as a background process. Once an export is created, an email link will be delivered to your email address. Smaller exports can be delivered immediately within the platform.

Editing a Report​

You can update a Report as your analysis evolves.

For example, you may want to change the Segments included in the Report as you identify new populations worth investigating.

To edit a Report:

  1. Find the Report of interest within the FLEX Insights home page.
  2. Click on the edit icon (pencil).
  3. Add or remove Segments and/or Impacts from the Report.
  4. Select Save to apply your changes.

Updating the Report changes the populations available for analysis but does not change the definitions of the underlying Segments.

Deleting a Report​

Delete a Report when you no longer need the analysis.

Locate the Segment you want to remove within the FLEX Insights home page, select the red delete icon (trash can), and confirm the action when prompted.

Deleting a Report removes the Report but does not delete the Segments used to create it. Those Segments remain available for use in other Reports.

Next steps​

Once you are comfortable creating and working with Reports, you can use them to investigate specific questions about your customer population.

Continue to Analyzing Solar or Analyzing EVs for examples of technology-specific analysis, or see Comparing Populations for a deeper look at using multiple Segments together.