Demystify the Utility Bill: Understand and Reduce Costs

One of the most common concerns building managers have about energy costs is understanding the energy bill itself. Wading through a complex bill with hard-to-understand terms raises a string of questions:

• What am I being charged for?
• Why is half my bill not related to actual energy being consumed?
• What are utility tariff distribution charges and transmission fees?
• What is my third-party supplier charging for that my local utility is not charging for?

Why is this so complicated?

With so many players governed by so many rules, it’s no wonder building owners and managers often give up trying to bring down those bill totals. Fortunately, ETS experts offer Load Advisory Services that can bring both clarity and savings to your energy bills.

Understand your energy costs

Utility charges are grouped into two categories: utility tariff distribution charges and supply side costs. Here are a few reasons those charges might not seem clear:

• Tariff charges apply for the use of your local utility distribution network. In deregulated jurisdictions, end users can choose licensed third-party suppliers to procure their energy requirements. But those end users must continue to pay the local utility tariff charges to access and sustain the local distribution network.
• Energy rates aren’t just applied to the actual amount your building uses. Utility bills include consumption charges and demand charges for both energy usage and capacity requirements to provide services at maximum peak hours.
• Multiple other factors come into play.
  • Utility tariffs dictate how peak demand capacity is calculated and charged.
  • Supply-side commodity expenses are based on wholesale market rates that also include charges based on consumption and peak capacity to deliver energy to the utility network.
  • Suppliers typically offer fixed and variable market rates.
  • The local utility provides supply services governed by tariffs that can be variable or seasonally fixed depending on the utility jurisdiction.

Confused yet?

Break down the bill

Most building managers don’t have time to become experts in energy consumption and load balancing. That’s where ETS comes in. ETS Load Advisory Service looks at all aspects of your service and billing, from contract to rates to taxes to actual usage.

After recommending installation of a utility-approved smart interval meter, we can measure your building’s real energy signature to determine actual usage and true peak demand. In addition, we perform a detailed historical utility bill distribution rate audit and an audit of your third-party energy supplier contracts. We assess your rate structure and provide analysis and insight to help you understand

• your local utility rate class assignment.
• your building’s true peak demand and base load.
• the dynamic relationship between power and gas consumption within the building to reduce expenditures of both.
• optimal rate structures tailored to building-specific operations and mechanical equipment.

This service locates errors and overcharges to get immediate savings. And more important, it looks at contracts and options for changing agreements in order to ensure accuracy and provide long-term savings reflecting the actual energy requirement specific to each property. We review the conditions of those contracts, the rates providers are charging, and any non-commodity embedded costs. We even investigate and solve meter usage anomalies.

ETS Load Advisory Service is designed to not only give you information, but educate you so you have the power to take control of utility billing.

[cta]Want to make your building energy efficient but don’t know where to start? ETS can help! Contact us to learn more and request a feasibility study.[/cta]