How to Properly Dispute an Energy Bill

Proving incorrect utility billings can be a daunting challenge for businesses. However, with the right tools, such as a power monitoring system, you can easily gather the data needed to dispute inaccuracies. By understanding how your utility generates monthly bills and implementing a shadow billing strategy, you can create a clear baseline for accurate billing. This proactive approach not only helps identify discrepancies but can also lead to significant financial returns. Discover how to effectively dispute your energy bill and ensure you’re not overpaying for your utility services. Read on to learn more!

Proving incorrect utility billings for your building or campus can be a difficult challenge. However, while the collection of data required for proof can seem daunting a simple power monitoring system can provide you with all the data you need. With this in mind, we explore a common way that companies cross-check their billings for inaccuracies.

How does the utility generate your monthly bill?

All commercial facilities have a utility revenue meter installed at the main electrical feed. This meter is primarily responsible for monitoring power consumption for the entire facility. Firstly, the meter data is what the utility uses as the basis for billing calculations. Secondly, your utility will apply your applicable tariff to the meter data. Lastly, the tariff hourly rates multiplied by meter consumption data results in your hour by hour billings.

Verifying the Utility’s Billing Calculations

Consequently, savvy businesses will install a power monitoring device to record the same power consumption as the utility’s revenue meter. The recorded data can be used to generate “shadow billing” information using your tariff. The shadow billing will give a precise calculation of what to expect when your real utility bill arrives. Proof of an incorrect utility bill starts with accurate shadow billing.

Providing the Proof

A power monitoring system will leverage the power monitoring device, accurate tariffs, and reporting capabilities to create and record shadow billings over time. Subsequently, this can be used to create a baseline for accurate billing by the utility and quickly highlight when discrepancies started. A clear and indisputable report to the utility will result in billing corrections, which in the case of large buildings or campuses can mean large returns on investment.

We Can Help

APT specializes in power monitoring system design, implementation, and service. If you’d like to learn more about establishing a system or updating an existing system onsite for obtaining the data you need, please contact us.

Ken Shaffer, Senior Project Manager APT

Share the Post:

Sub-Synchronous Oscillation: A Starter Guide for the AI Data Center Era

Sub-synchronous oscillation (SSO) is quickly becoming one of the most important and least understood power risks for AI-era data centers. This starter article steps into the theory behind SSO and why it matters, with the goal of giving you enough grounding to recognize the issue and ask better questions. Over the next few weeks, we will keep returning to this topic and dig deeper into the engineering side, from real data center examples to how monitoring, analytics, and design choices can keep these oscillations from turning into outages.

NFPA 70B: Why Your Annual IR Scan is Already Obsolete

The 2023 NFPA 70B update, now makes mandatory annual infrared (IR) thermography inspections, impacting OSHA compliance, insurance liability, and a number of other compliance factors. Learn how alternatives exist to manual scanning – enable continuous monitoring systems to replace costly on-site scans, turning your compliance strategy into a proactive reliability asset. Don’t let outdated practices hinder your facility; stay ahead of potential failures and enhance operational efficiency.