Auditing a VA hospital in Phoenix and they're getting charged $1,800/month for "emergency power standby service" even though they have their own backup generators. APS claims it's for grid stability during outages. This seems bogus to me - anyone seen similar charges at other VA facilities?
VA Hospital emergency power charges - legitimate?
We fought that exact charge with APS three years ago for a different hospital. Turns out there's a specific tariff provision for critical facilities that requires dual redundancy. Even with onsite generation, they still need grid backup. Pain in the ass but legitimate.
Damn, was hoping you'd say we could challenge it. $21K per year adds up fast. Did you find any way to reduce it or get credits for when their generators are running?
No luck on credits, but we did get them to verify the capacity was sized correctly. They were paying for 500kW standby when they only needed 350kW. Saved about $400/month.
Omar and Cliff are right - emergency power charges for hospitals are tricky. The key is making sure the capacity matches their actual critical load requirements. I've seen facilities paying for way more standby than they need.