Demand Billing for Utilities

[ZooCity]

Just gotta vent- what a scam... we are paying 3x more per kwh because we are on "demand" billing.  Our 1750 sf shop uses about 13-25k kwh per month.  We have no recourse whatsoever on this. 

I call b.s. on that.  Our last bill would have been 137.82 for electric at standard rates but instead it's 357.53.  Yay!

I do understand how a super large operation would stress out the grid, leaving the utility provider to incur the costs of being able to bridge these surges and peak usage times but nobody has explained to me why/how our shop is defined as such or where that line is drawn.

[Dottonedan]

That's scary to me. Didn't realize the potential to be charged more " because you use more".
Even "if" you used 10% more than last year or 10% more than the average business, they charge you At a higher rate?  That seems like thievery.

[Prosperi-Tees]

Ours is time of use penalties. During a certain time if the day rates double or worse. Makes me want to print graveyard shift

[Ryan]

I know from what we getted billed they take some sort of "average" and if you use more then that, you get hammered on billing. totally agree it seems stupid. I believe ours is a total use for a month, not a particular time. I haven't seen our 3 phase bill, but with my press running full bore its using about 130-140 amps...I'm sure its not going to be pretty

[ZooCity]

They explained it to me that they take the highest amount you used out of all the readings and use that to bill you for the day.  It gets read or whatever every 15 minutes.  They said, in a really big shop you could turn on one bank of lights at a time, one machine at a time, every 15 minutes to keep from having one big pop but that's seriously dumb to have to do that and wouldn't you peak still be your peak regardless?

I'm not clear on how this is legal.  I signed nothing that said "we're going to hose you for 3x the kwh we charge everyone else b/c you have a 'business' service" when our new service and meter were installed.

Energy groups must have pushed this through the utility regulators at some point, probably long ago, not sure how long this has been the norm. 

A little more is ok with me.  3x more?  eff that.  Why should I give anyone hundreds of extra dollars per month for no actual reason?

[Northland]

Just gotta vent- what a scam... we are paying 3x more per kwh because we are on "demand" billing.  Our 1750 sf shop uses about 13-25k kwh per month.  We have no recourse whatsoever on this. 

I call b.s. on that.  Our last bill would have been 137.82 for electric at standard rates but instead it's 357.53.  Yay!

I do understand how a super large operation would stress out the grid, leaving the utility provider to incur the costs of being able to bridge these surges and peak usage times but nobody has explained to me why/how our shop is defined as such or where that line is drawn.

using your numbers:
-- if you used 13000 KWH, you're paying $.027 per KWH
-- if you used 25000 KWH, you're paying $.014 per KWH
In either case, your electric bill is a bargain... most people are paying $.10 to $.14 per KWH

[JBLUE]

You guys would love So Cal Edison..... Yeah right. I dont even ask about the electric bill anymore.

[inkman996]

Sheesh we pay $.14+ not counting peak, its insane paying for electric in this crummy state that has only one player in the game.

[mk162]

we average $.19 by the time you toss all the extra fees in.

It's a rip. 

[ZooCity]

I wish.  I added a zero with the nomenclature there.

This bill was 0.27 per kwh.

[aauusa]

We are at .13 per kwh

[inkman996]

we average $.19 by the time you toss all the extra fees in.

It's a rip.

Yep same here, there is so many other line items tacked on it easily gets in to the $.20+ range. Peak times is way way higher as well. Funny thing is we are in the only town in the whole state that generates its own power, so we are actually cheaper than NU which controls the entire state minus Wallingford. Here is the kicker, Wallingford generates so much extra power they sell it to NU which in turns sells it to their customers at much higher rates, thats total BS if you ask me.

[mk162]

Ha, I know fedex has a depot that sells power back to the utility company.  Most of their draw is lighting, so they have the roof space for tons of solar panels.  Imagine what they would produce if they were better than about 6% efficient.  It's not worth it for a building like ours...lots of draw, small footprint.

[Northland]

I got cha electric bill.... right here.
Well it's not mine, but my employer pays over $10 million a year.
We buy our electricity at  the "transmit / transform" level of 120,000 volts.
We have two incoming feeders and a substation on the property.
A typical daytime load is about 20 megawatts/hr (20,000 KWH)

The good news...
Our "blended rate " fee is about $.072/kwh
Blended rate is based on day use (peak), night use (off-peak) and demand charges.

We almost installed a 13 megawatt combustion turbine about 7 years ago... it would have provided cheap electricity and about 100,000 pounds of steam/hr.   We use steam year round (heat in the Winter & spin turbine chillers during the cooling season).
We couldn't get it funded by the executives... it would have paid for itself in less than  5 years.

[ZooCity]

So get this, my home electric usage is actually similar this time of year, 12 000-19000 kwh.  Same service amperage size too.  The only difference is the shop is 3ph. 

$0.27 shop   $0.11 house.