Got a medical office complex in Atlanta (Georgia Power territory) that's being billed on commercial rate but I think it should qualify for institutional/medical rates. It's 80% medical practices with some pharmacy and lab services. Anyone know how Georgia Power classifies these mixed-use medical facilities?
Medical Office Complex Rate Classification Issues
Darrell, Georgia Power can be tricky on this. They typically require 75% or more of the facility to be direct patient care to qualify for medical rates. Labs and pharmacies usually count, but administrative offices don't. You'll need to show square footage breakdown and maybe even tenant lease agreements to prove the usage split.
Ed's right about the 75% rule. We had a similar situation with a medical complex in Savannah - ended up having to exclude the building management office and parking structure from the calculation. Saved the client about $1,800/month once we got the rate reclassification approved.
Perfect, thanks both. I've got the tenant list and it looks like we're at about 78% medical use if we count the lab correctly. Going to prepare the rate reclassification request - this could save them significant money on both energy and demand charges.