What Is the '+' in WAGES+?
WAGES stands for Water, Air, Gas, Electricity and Steam - but at ACTENIQ, we go further. The "+" is where data becomes intelligence.
It represents the context, systems and insights that turn raw consumption into meaningful action. It's the difference between knowing that something is happening and knowing why it's happening - and what to do about it.
The '+' is our answer to an industry gap: monitoring platforms that track usage, but fail to deliver real-world decisions. When you bring operational context into the picture, energy monitoring evolves from a compliance tool into a performance driver.
Why Context Matters
Most energy and utility dashboards can tell you your numbers; but very few can tell you the story behind them.
A spike in electricity use means little on its own. Did it coincide with a process change? Did a pump or motor run outside its schedule? Was there a mechanical issue triggering inefficiency?
That's what the '+' helps uncover. It includes:
- Asset condition and health
- Shift schedules and production behaviour
- Control system activity
- Alerts and real-time rules that reflect your operations
With WAGES+ you gain visibility not just across resources, but across root causes.
Switchgear Failure: What Context Reveals
Consider a manufacturer running temperature-sensitive batch processes. One day, a main switchgear unit fails during a cleaning cycle. Without deeper insight, the failure appears isolated - a standard equipment fault; but once energy trends were overlaid with asset data, a pattern emerged. The incident happened just before the steam system restarted. That restart caused a load step the old switchgear couldn't handle. The unit had been operating close to capacity and internal thermal logs showed it had been heating up for weeks.
The result? A missed batch window, delayed delivery to a key customer and reputational damage.
WAGES+ could have prevented it:
- Deviation alerts on load profile
- Over-temperature warnings from panel sensors
- Steam system event correlation to detect risky load spikes
That's the power of the '+' - not just seeing what happened, but connecting events before failure occurs.
Other Examples of '+' In Action
- Air system demand spikes traced back to misconfigured valve actuation during line cleaning
- Excessive water use tied to overlong CIP rinse cycles on one operator shift
- Equipment running inefficiently on weekends due to forgotten manual overrides
- Gas burners running too rich during idle due to poorly tuned PID loops
These aren't energy stories. They're **operational stories**, revealed by good monitoring design.
Where Other Platforms Stop, We Start
Many platforms stop at giving you a kilowatt-hour number. ACTENIQ begins where they leave off.
- We combine usage with asset behaviour and control signals
- We create logic that reflects how your site actually works
- We support users who want real insight, not just another dashboard
It's why WAGES+ is so effective. It doesn't just measure - it informs. It doesn't just alert - it explains.
Final Word
The '+' in WAGES+ is where the real value lives.
It's what allows teams to prevent downtime, optimise operations and protect critical infrastructure. It bridges the gap between energy monitoring and engineering intelligence.
At ACTENIQ, that's what we're here to deliver. Because it's not about knowing what you used - it's about understanding what it means.