Energy measurement methodology

Research cut-off date: 2026-07-22. Status: Phase 2, not yet written. This file states the scope of the work, the arguments it owns, and the research required to complete it. It contains no findings, because none have been sourced. See the changelog for phase status.

Scope

Specifies how an energy figure is measured or estimated and what must accompany it. Defines the accounting boundary, the instrumentation, the utilisation and batch conditions, the power usage effectiveness treatment, and the uncertainty reporting requirement. Distinguishes direct measurement from estimation and requires that the distinction be stated on every figure.

Research checklist

• Specify the instrumentation for direct accelerator measurement and its sampling rate.
• Specify how host, networking, and storage energy are attributed to a request.
• Specify the uncertainty reporting requirement and the minimum interval basis.
• Restate the eleven required conditions as a checklist a contributor can run against a candidate figure.
• Specify explicitly that no per-token energy figure may be published for an API-only model, and why.

Completion criteria

This file is complete when every checklist item above is closed and the quality-control checklist in the research methodology passes.