Protect yourmarginat the meter.

An industrial utility audit is a utility bill audit focused on the billing patterns unique to manufacturing and industrial facilities: heavy equipment loads, demand charges, power factor penalties, and rate classifications that were often set decades ago and never revisited. Manufacturers are frequently billed on a general commercial rate schedule when their actual usage profile would qualify for a lower industrial rate, a misclassification that, left uncorrected, compounds every month for years.

Why manufacturers are especially prone to utility billing errors

• Demand ratchet clauses set a minimum billing demand based on a facility’s highest usage spike in the past 11 to 12 months, meaning a single anomalous event — an equipment test, a startup surge, a temporary malfunction — can inflate demand charges for nearly a year afterwards.
• Power factor penalties are charged when a facility draws more current than it productively uses, and are often based on outdated equipment data that no longer reflects what is actually on the floor.
• Heavy machinery, multiple meters, and round-the-clock shift operations are common in manufacturing, all of which increase both energy spend and the number of places a billing error can occur.
• Rate class assignments are typically set once, when service begins, and rarely revisited. A facility that has changed equipment, output, or operating hours since then may now qualify for a materially cheaper industrial rate class it was never moved to.

Why this matters more now

Industrial electricity costs are under increasing pressure nationally. In a rising-cost environment, a rate classification or demand-charge error that was merely wasteful five years ago becomes significantly more expensive today, which is part of why a periodic audit matters even for facilities that were reviewed and found clean in the past.

UtiliSave’s track record in manufacturing

• UtiliSave’s manufacturing clients range from multi-billion-dollar food manufacturers with hundreds of U.S. locations to single-facility pharmaceutical producers.
• UtiliSave’s manufacturing work covers both billing-side recovery, such as rate class and tax errors, and the demand and power-factor charges specific to heavy industrial equipment.