Energy Management Dashboard
Introduction
Organizations can now optimize power consumption, reduce operating costs, and support global sustainability initiatives by leveraging the insights provided on the Energy Management Dashboard. The dashboard provides visibility into energy usage trends and sustainability metrics, empowering organizations to make informed, data-driven decisions.
At the core of the Energy Management Dashboard are the energy metrics, which use data from two sources: Electricity Maps and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Electricity Maps offers real-time and historical insights into carbon intensity (kg CO2/kWh), energy mix, and renewable energy percentages. The IEA complements this with historical data on carbon emissions and electricity rates (e.g., USD/kWh), filling gaps where real-time data is unavailable. Initial estimates from power plants and energy providers are refined over time for greater accuracy.
In addition to external data sources, the dashboard collects power consumption data from connected devices to represent overall system power usage, including device energy consumption and associated power losses. Depending on the device model and manufacturing batch, power data is obtained from onboard sensors or estimated when direct measurement is unavailable. For more information, see Device Power Reporting.
The following are some of the key benefits of using the Energy Management dashboard:
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Energy Insights: Get insight of how much energy your network consumes, measured in kilowatt-hours (kWh), broken down by switches, networks, and time periods.
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Environmental Impact: Measure and track the carbon footprint of your organization in kilograms of CO2 equivalent (kg CO2e).
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Cost Optimization: Estimate energy costs in USD and identify opportunities to reduce expenses.
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Sustainability Goals: Align your organization with corporate and regulatory sustainability objectives to drive effective action.
Accessing Energy Management Dashboard
Before You Begin
Enabling Energy Management (Early Access Program)
Enabling this feature will grant your organization access to the Energy Management dashboard and its early access capabilities.
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Log in to your Meraki dashboard using your Meraki account credentials.
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In the left-hand navigation menu, go to Organization menu.
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Select Early Access from the menu.
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Browse the list of available early access features.
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Scroll down to find Sustainability Early Access.
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Toggle the opt-in setting next to Sustainability Early Access to enable this feature for your entire organization.
Procedure
You must first enable the Energy Management feature through the Early Access program, as outlined in the Before You Begin section.
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From the Organization menu, select Energy Management.
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Select a network. From the Network Picker, choose a specific network or select All Networks to view aggregated energy usage, energy cost, and emissions data across all networks within your organization. When a single network is selected, metrics are filtered to show data only for that network.
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Select a month. From the Month Selector, choose a month for which the data must be displayed. By default, the dashboard shows data for the previous month. Currently, you can only select data for one month at a time.
4. View the usage data in the widgets. The dashboard consists of three main widgets:
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Summary: Provides an overview of energy consumption, cost, and carbon emissions for the selected network(s). If "All Networks" is selected, the summary displays aggregated data for all networks within the organization. The arrow in the summary indicates a change in metrics compared to the previous period.
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A red arrow pointing upward indicates an increase in cost, energy use, or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
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A green arrow pointing downward indicates a decrease, suggesting improved efficiency or a reduced environmental impact.
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These visual indicators help users assess trends and take corrective actions to optimize energy use, reduce costs, or minimize environmental impact.
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Energy Consumption, cost, and emissions: Displays top energy usage trends with options to view trends by device categories, networks, devices, sensors, access points, cameras, switches, security appliances, or cellular gateways.
Depending on your selection in the Top energy usage dropdown, you can view metrics for the top five items (e.g., top five networks or switches), and select "View All" to access a paginated list of all available items in the chosen category.
The image below shows a paginated list of items. The paginated page includes a search bar that enables you to quickly filter and find specific devices, networks, or other items.
- Total energy usage and cost trends: The Total Energy Usage & Cost Trends section provides a clear overview of your organization's energy consumption and related expenses for the month selected using the Month selector. Energy usage is displayed in kilowatt-hours (kWh), enabling you to monitor and compare energy consumption across selected networks or devices. The Cost tab displays the corresponding energy expenses, helping you analyze spending patterns and identify opportunities for cost optimization.
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Total emissions trends: The Total Emissions Trends section displays the trend of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over time, measured in kilograms of carbon dioxide (kg CO₂). This metric reflects the total amount of CO₂ equivalent emissions generated by energy consumption across your selected network. Tracking GHG emissions helps monitor environmental impact and supports sustainability initiatives by providing insights into how energy usage contributes to overall carbon footprint.
Device Power Reporting
Device power reporting indicates how power consumption data is collected and displayed for various devices. Depending on the device model and manufacturing batch, power data may be derived from onboard hardware sensors or calculated using estimation methods when direct measurement is not available.
Actual Data
Actual sensor-based power reporting is available only on device models and manufacturing batches that include power monitoring components. These sensors provide accurate representation of device power consumption.
In certain situations, even devices designed with power sensors may not report actual values. In such cases, the system may fall back to estimated values.
Estimated Values
Estimated power values are used when actual sensor data is unavailable or not supported. Estimation methods ensure that power consumption information can still be presented, helping maintain visibility into device power usage across the network. Power estimations are calculated using one of the following methods:
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System Energy Estimation: For devices powered using Power over Ethernet (PoE), system power is estimated based on the PoE output power reported by the upstream device. If upstream PoE data is not available, a static, model-specific value is used. This static value is determined based on the typical operating characteristics of each device model.
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PoE Out Energy Estimation (Switches Only): For supported switch models, total PoE output power is estimated using the PoE output data that the switch itself reports.
Power Reporting by Device Types
Devices listed in the table provide actual sensor data. For devices not listed, or those without available sensor data, estimated values are provided.
| Device Category | Devices Providing Actual Data |
| Wireless Access Points ( MR and CW Models) |
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| Cisco Meraki Wired Security and SD-WAN Appliances (MX and Z Models) |
Meraki (MX and Z Models)
Cisco SD-WAN Appliance
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| Cisco Meraki Cellular Gateways (MG Models) |
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| Cisco Meraki Switching (MS Models) |
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