Skip to main content
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now! Learn more

Reply
mekkern
Regular Visitor

Calculating consumption column using EARLIER function

I have power meeter readings from from 61 (M05-M65) sensors reporting every 10 min for a one week period, a total of 70875 records in my excel table. A meeter reading is reported for each sensor along with a time stamp.

 

Capture.PNG

 

I use the following formula to calculate a collumn with the difference between two consecutive meeter readings for a sensor to determine the power consumption for that sensor in that interval:

 

Increment_ = (IF(
ISBLANK(
calculate(
MAX(LCU_data[Power meter (Wm)]); ALL(LCU_data); LCU_data[Pole]=EARLIER(LCU_data[Pole]); LCU_data[RTC]<EARLIER(LCU_data[RTC])));0;
LCU_data[Power meter (Wm)]-calculate(MAX(LCU_data[Power meter (Wm)]); ALL(LCU_data); 
LCU_data[Pole]=EARLIER(LCU_data[Pole]); LCU_data[RTC]<EARLIER(LCU_data[RTC]))))

 

No suprise i run out of memory.

 

If i delete data from all but one sensor in excel and then import as a smaller table and alter the code accordingly i get what i want:

Increment_ = (IF(
ISBLANK(
calculate(
MAX(M05[Power meter (Wm)]); ALL(M05); M05[Pole]=EARLIER(M05[Pole]); M05[RTC]<EARLIER(M05[RTC])));0;
M05[Power meter (Wm)]-calculate(MAX(M05[Power meter (Wm)]); ALL(M05); 
M05[Pole]=EARLIER(M05[Pole]); M05[RTC]<EARLIER(M05[RTC]))))

 

Capture.PNG

I cant make individual tables for each sensor, but is there a way to do this calculation sequentially per sensor and not get into the issue with the EARLIER function running out of memory when performed on the whole table?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
DAX0110
Resolver V
Resolver V

I would suggest doing this in the query editor with the following general steps :

 

1. start query1

2. sort by Pole and RTC columns (only if they aren't already sorted)

3. add an index column

4. add a custom column called "previndex" with the formula:  [index] - 1

5. duplicate the query to query2

6. merge query1 and query2 on query1[previndex] = query2[index] and query1[Pole] = query2[Pole]

7. calculate the difference between the two [Power meter (Wm)] columns

 

 

View solution in original post

1 REPLY 1
DAX0110
Resolver V
Resolver V

I would suggest doing this in the query editor with the following general steps :

 

1. start query1

2. sort by Pole and RTC columns (only if they aren't already sorted)

3. add an index column

4. add a custom column called "previndex" with the formula:  [index] - 1

5. duplicate the query to query2

6. merge query1 and query2 on query1[previndex] = query2[index] and query1[Pole] = query2[Pole]

7. calculate the difference between the two [Power meter (Wm)] columns

 

 

Helpful resources

Announcements
Power BI DataViz World Championships

Power BI Dataviz World Championships

The Power BI Data Visualization World Championships is back! Get ahead of the game and start preparing now!

December 2025 Power BI Update Carousel

Power BI Monthly Update - December 2025

Check out the December 2025 Power BI Holiday Recap!

FabCon Atlanta 2026 carousel

FabCon Atlanta 2026

Join us at FabCon Atlanta, March 16-20, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM.

Top Solution Authors