This letter / 01
The lower electricity total needed a better explanation
A lower consumption total is an observation. Explaining an efficiency result requires a comparison that accounts for the service and the conditions under which it was supplied.
I once made an operating result sound more conclusive than it was. At Vezquri Utility Services, electricity consumption fell from 1.2 GWh in one period to 1.05 GWh in another. The reduction was 0.15 GWh, or 12.5% of the earlier total. I presented that difference as evidence of an efficiency improvement. The customers' production had changed as well, and our account did not establish how much of the difference came from the operating work I wanted to recognise. The arithmetic did not need correction. My explanation did.
