More than 1,500 Manhattan customers run on Con Edison steam, and few can check what is on the bill. A UtiliSave audit checks the math.
A steam bill shows one number: the amount due. Behind it, Con Edison counts 15 or more billing factors. Four of them are worth knowing about.
Register readings are converted into billed steam using a meter constant. On one Manhattan account, Con Edison applied a constant of 1 instead of 0.1 after a meter exchange, and 51% of the steam billed that month was never used.
Con Edison sets a correction factor for each of 25 pressure districts and applies it to your bill. It publishes neither the factor nor a district map, so a customer cannot check it from published information.
Your bill includes an adjustment based on weather data. When UtiliSave asked whether Con Edison rounds that data, it received two different answers: not rounded, and rounded.
Peak demand is part of the bill, so a single spike matters. On one account, a spike from a steam main shut-off in the area was billed as the customer’s own peak demand.
We asked Con Edison, in Case 25-S-0741, how a customer can verify a steam bill. Its answer:
“Customers can capture their register readings and recalculate the bill.”
Con Edison, answering UtiliSave in Case 25-S-0741
Recalculating the bill takes a pressure correction factor Con Edison doesn’t publish, about 2.6 million data points per pressure transmitter over three years, and a weather formula Con Edison has explained two different ways. Con Edison says even that data won’t produce one customer’s monthly factor.
In practice, that means an error on a steam bill is hard to catch from the outside. Few owners or managers can do that math. UtiliSave does it for you.
A UtiliSave audit checks the math behind the number:
When an audit finds an error, we document it and pursue recovery directly with Con Edison, as in our other audits. On the account below, that produced a credit plus overpayment interest.
Con Edison issued a credit, plus overpayment interest, for both errors.
UtiliSave is a party to Con Edison’s steam rate case (Case 25-S-0741) and was a filer in the one before it (22-S-0659). That puts us where Con Edison’s steam rates and billing rules are set. Our CEO has testified before the PSC in Con Edison’s electric, gas and steam rate cases.
UtiliSave has worked in utility data optimization since 1991, has recovered more than $700M in hard-dollar savings and refunds, and provides core services to over 16,000 properties nationwide. Our experience spans 475+ tariff jurisdictions. Ask us for actual savings reports and case studies of success.
Con Edison says customers can capture their register readings and recalculate the bill. As described above, that takes a pressure correction factor the utility doesn’t publish and a very large volume of data. A UtiliSave audit does that work for you.
Any owner or manager whose building runs on Con Edison steam. More than 1,500 Manhattan customers do, and few have the data to check the bill themselves.
On one Manhattan steam account, our audit found a wrong meter constant after a meter exchange and a steam main shut-off spike billed as the customer’s own peak. Con Edison issued a credit, plus overpayment interest.
A UtiliSave audit is free to start, and you owe nothing unless we recover. There is no retainer and no upfront cost.
Ask us for actual savings reports and case studies of success. You can also browse our case studies and savings reports.
A UtiliSave audit checks the math most customers never see.
Start a Free AuditUtiliSave provides utility bill auditing services, which are not legal services. Case results are examples; outcomes vary by account. Sources: Con Edison filings and exhibits, NYS PSC Case 25-S-0741; coned.com.
