Running into a brick wall with Xcel Energy on a large manufacturing audit. They'll give me 12 months of bills but won't provide interval data, meter test records, or even confirm the CT ratio without a formal discovery process. Customer doesn't want to escalate to PUC complaint yet. How do others work around these situations? Can I do a meaningful audit with limited data?
Handling utilities that won't provide detailed records
Cecilia - frustrating but not uncommon. Start with what you can verify from the bills themselves: rate schedule application, basic demand calculations, any obvious tariff violations. For interval data, check if the customer has their own monitoring system or EMS that captured usage patterns. Sometimes that's more accurate than utility data anyway.
Had similar issue with Duke Energy last year. Try requesting records under different categories - sometimes they'll provide "meter reading history" when they won't give "interval data". Also check if they have an online customer portal with more detailed info. The CT ratio should be on the nameplate or you can calculate it from comparing actual vs. billed demand.
Document everything about their refusal to cooperate - dates, names, what specifically was requested vs. provided. If you do find errors with limited data, it strengthens the case for compelling full records through regulatory process. I've seen utilities suddenly become more cooperative when they realize their stonewalling is being documented.
Check the utility's tariff - most have specific language about customer access to their own records. Some utilities interpret this narrowly but legally they usually have to provide data about the customer's own account. Might need to cite specific tariff sections in your request.
Update - tried Tom's suggestion about different request categories and it worked! Xcel provided "historical meter readings" with 15-minute intervals going back 18 months. Apparently there's a difference between "interval data" (which requires engineering approval) and "meter reading records" (customer service can provide). Found $23K in demand billing errors already. Thanks everyone!