Alice from Glendale. Following up on an earlier thread about brewery rate class. My situation is slightly different — the brewery has a large production facility and an attached taproom that does significant retail business. Both are on one account. The production side might qualify for a food processing rate and the taproom side is clearly retail. The utility wants to treat the whole account as general commercial. Is there any precedent for splitting the classification on a mixed-use account?
Rate class for a brewery taproom vs production facility — same account?
Leo from Des Moines. Some utilities allow what they call dual use or split classification where different portions of a single meter's usage can be billed at different rate classes based on documented proportions. It is rare but worth checking your tariff.
The tariff does not seem to address it explicitly but it also does not prohibit it.
Leo again. In the absence of explicit prohibition I would make the request formally and let the utility respond. Their written response either grants it or gives you something to argue against.
Glen from Lexington. The more common path is requesting a separate meter for the production area so the two uses can be billed independently. The upfront cost of the meter installation has to be weighed against the ongoing rate savings.
Glen the separate meter idea is cleaner. The taproom and production area are actually in separate buildings connected by a covered walkway. Separate metering seems physically feasible.
Leo one more time. If you go the separate meter route get the production area under its own account number before you file the rate class request. Cleaner argument and less ambiguity about what load belongs to which schedule.