Commercial electricity
Utility bill audit
A utility bill audit checks what you were billed against the rate schedules your utility files with the regulator. The most common finding is not an arithmetic error — it is being on the wrong rate schedule for how you actually use power, which repeats every month until someone catches it.
What an audit actually looks for
| Finding | Why it happens |
|---|---|
| Wrong rate schedule | Your usage changed but the schedule never did. A business that shrank below its utility's demand threshold keeps paying demand charges it no longer owes. |
| Demand billed above the meter reading | Some schedules set a floor on billing demand, or recalculate it from your load factor. You can be billed for demand you never drew. |
| Sales tax on exempt usage | Electricity used directly in manufacturing is exempt in many states. The exemption is claimed, not automatic. |
| Meter multiplier errors | A transformer-metered account applies a multiplier. When it is wrong, every bill is wrong by the same factor. |
| Riders that no longer apply | Tariff riders get added at connection and rarely removed when the circumstance that justified them ends. |
Why most auditors won't take a small account
The established firms — UtiliSave, OEO, Navigate Power — work on contingency: no fee up front, and 30% to 50% of whatever they recover. It is a fair model, and it has one structural consequence. A recovery of $2,000 at 40% is $800, which does not cover six to eight weeks of manual review. So the model only works on accounts large enough to justify the labour, and everyone smaller goes unserved.
We charge for the analysis rather than a share of the finding. That means we can tell you your bill is correct — which is the answer more often than the industry likes to say out loud — and it means an account too small for contingency is still worth running.
An audit is not an energy audit
These get confused constantly, and they are different services. An energy audit inspects the building: insulation, HVAC, lighting, and where heat escapes. Utilities and state agencies often provide them free. A utility bill audit never looks at the building — it compares your bill against the tariff and finds what you were charged that the tariff does not support.
If your bill is high because the building leaks heat, an energy audit is the right call. If it is high because of how you are billed, no amount of insulation will fix it.
How to read your own bill first
- 1.Find the rate schedule code on the bill — something like GS, DM, DS or GP. It is usually near the account number, in small type.
- 2.Find your peak demand in kW and your usage in kWh for the month. Not every commercial bill shows demand; if yours does, that number drives more of the bill than the rate does.
- 3.Divide monthly kWh by peak kW. That is your load factor, and it is what decides whether your schedule is the right one.
- 4.Pull twelve months, not one. A single month tells you almost nothing — the question is whether your usage pattern still matches the schedule you were put on.
The part that takes real time is the last step nobody lists: pricing that same usage under every other schedule you qualify for, which means reading the utility's filed tariff. That is the work we automated.
What you get back
- The exact rate you're paying, next to what's available in your territory
- Your savings in dollars per month and per year — not "up to 30%"
- Whether your demand charge, not your rate, is the real problem
- Your contract end date and whether switching now costs you a fee
- A direct link to the supplier and a walkthrough, so you can make the switch yourself
One page. Back to you in 48 hours.
Send my billFree, and we don’t take commissions from suppliers.
Where we can price a bill today
In Ohio, Ohio Edison and Duke Energy Ohio. In Texas, Oncor and CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric. All four from tariffs filed with their state commission and read in full. AEP and AES in Ohio, and AEP Texas and TNMP in Texas, are not priced yet — outside the four we'll tell you what we can read from the bill and what we can't. See what each Ohio utility charges.
Common questions
What is a utility bill audit?
A review of your commercial utility bills against the rate schedules your utility has on file with the regulator, looking for the wrong rate class, demand charges you shouldn't be paying, meter and tax errors, and charges that don't match the tariff. It is a billing review, not a building inspection.
What does a utility bill audit cost?
Most firms work on contingency and take 30% to 50% of whatever they recover, which means they only take on accounts large enough to be worth several weeks of manual work. We charge for the analysis instead, so the answer is the same whether or not it finds money.
How long does a utility bill audit take?
The established firms publish six to eight weeks. Most of that is manual review and correspondence rather than analysis. Ours comes back in 48 hours because the comparison against the filed tariffs is computed.
Is a utility bill audit the same as an energy audit?
No, and the two get confused constantly. An energy audit inspects the building — insulation, HVAC, lighting — and recommends efficiency upgrades. A utility bill audit never looks at the building; it checks whether what you were billed matches what the tariff says you should have been billed.
Can I audit my own utility bill?
Yes, and for a simple account it is worth trying. You need your rate schedule code from the bill, twelve months of usage and peak demand, and your utility's filed tariff. The work is comparing your usage against every schedule you qualify for — which is exactly the part that takes a person a day and a computer a second.
What do auditors find most often?
Being on the wrong rate schedule for your usage pattern, demand charges on an account that no longer needs demand metering, sales tax charged on a portion that qualifies for exemption, and meter multiplier errors. The first one is the most common and the most expensive, because it repeats every month until someone notices.