Riverside warehouse tenant is being charged power factor penalties through their lease pass-through. Southern California Edison bill shows "Power Factor Adjustment: $284." Building is on schedule TOU-GS-2. Power factor is 0.73. Landlord is allocating this penalty to all tenants based on kWh usage. Is this fair?
SCE Schedule TOU-GS-2 power factor penalties in Riverside warehouse
Carol - power factor penalties should be allocated based on who's causing the problem. If your tenant has good power factor (motors with capacitors, LED lighting), they shouldn't pay for other tenants' inductive loads. Need to look at individual power factor by tenant space.
Grace is right. In California, SCE's power factor penalties are substantial below 0.85. A 0.73 building power factor means some tenant has serious reactive power issues. Could be old motors, magnetic ballasts, or welding equipment.
Tenant has all LED lighting and new HVAC with power factor correction. Their space power factor is probably 0.95+. There's a machine shop in the building that's likely causing the problem. They have old welders and grinders.
Perfect example of why power factor penalties shouldn't be allocated by kWh usage. The machine shop might use 20% of the energy but cause 80% of the power factor problems.
Exactly. I'm recommending the landlord install power factor monitoring for each tenant or negotiate separate penalty allocation in lease renewals. Current allocation is unfair to tenants with good power factor.
Power factor penalty allocation is a complex issue in master-metered buildings. The fairest approach is individual power factor monitoring, but that requires significant investment in metering infrastructure. As an interim solution, consider allocating penalties based on connected motor load rather than total kWh usage.