Linda F. from Milwaukee with a war story to share! Just completed my biggest audit to date at a 150,000 sq ft office complex downtown. Been working this prospect for 8 months through referrals and finally got in the door. What I found blew my mind - they've been incorrectly billed on We Energies Rate Cg-5 for THREE YEARS when they should have been on Rate Cg-3 based on their load factor. The demand charges alone were costing them an extra $3,900 per month. Total recovery came to $47,300 in overcharges plus $3,900/month going forward. Property manager nearly fell out of his chair when I showed him the numbers. Sometimes persistence really pays off!
First audit war story - $47K find at office complex
Walt D. from Pittsburgh here. Fantastic find Linda! Rate schedule misclassifications are often the biggest wins. Did you have any trouble getting We Energies to process the refund? Some utilities fight back on multi-year corrections.
Walt, surprisingly We Energies was very cooperative once I provided the load analysis documentation. Took about 6 weeks to process but they paid the full amount without pushback. I think having everything properly documented upfront made the difference.
Arnold K. from Bismarck chiming in. Linda, how did you identify the rate schedule error? Was it obvious from the bills or did you have to dig into their actual usage patterns?
Arnold, it required analysis of their 15-minute interval data over several months. Their load factor was consistently running 65-70% which clearly qualified them for Cg-3, but they were being billed on Cg-5 which is for lower load factor customers. The bills didn't make it obvious - had to crunch the numbers.
Outstanding work Linda! Randy Dawson here - this is a perfect example of why interval data analysis is so critical. Many auditors just look at the bills but the real money is in understanding load profiles and matching them to optimal rate schedules. For newer members reading this, load factor is calculated as average kW divided by peak kW over a billing period. Higher load factors often qualify for better rates since the customer is using electricity more consistently. Linda, what percentage did you charge on this recovery?
Thanks Randy! I charged 45% of the total recovery which came to about $21,300. Property manager was thrilled since they're also saving $47K annually going forward. Already referred me to two other properties they manage. This one job basically made my year!
Leon W. from Albuquerque here. Linda, did you use any specific software to analyze the interval data or just Excel? I'm handling more complex audits lately and wondering about investing in specialized tools.
Leon, I use a combination of Excel and PowerBI for the analysis. Nothing too fancy but it gets the job done. The key is setting up templates so you can quickly calculate load factors, identify peak demand patterns, and compare rate schedule economics. Happy to share my Excel template if you're interested.
Irene D. from Dayton jumping in. Linda, this is inspiring! I've been doing mostly small commercial audits but stories like this make me want to target larger facilities. How did you initially approach this property? Cold call or referral?
Irene, this came through a referral from my insurance agent actually. He knew the property manager personally and made the introduction. Took 8 months of follow-ups before they finally said yes, but it was worth the patience. Sometimes you just have to stay persistent and professional.
Janet W. from Spokane here. Amazing story Linda! Just shows what's possible in this business. Did the property manager ask for any additional services after this success? Seems like you'd be their go-to person for anything utility-related now.