Just finished auditing a mid-size church in Jacksonville on FPL. They were on a commercial demand rate when they should have been on a general service non-demand rate. Their peak usage was only 18 kW but they were paying demand charges every month. Switched their rate class and got a $6,800 refund going back two years plus about $340/month in ongoing savings. The pastor nearly fell out of his chair.
Churches — surprisingly high error rate
Churches are goldmines for this. Most of them are on whatever rate the utility defaulted them to when the building was first wired. Nobody ever reviews it. I've audited about 15 churches in the Atlanta area on Georgia Power. Found errors on 11 of them. The most common issue is exactly what you described — demand charges on a building that only hits peak usage for a few hours on Sunday morning. The rest of the week the building is barely drawing any load.
Churches are excellent small commercial clients for a few reasons. First, the error rate is genuinely high because nobody on the church staff has utility billing expertise. Second, every dollar you save them goes directly to their mission, which makes the sale very easy — you're not just saving money, you're helping them serve their community. Third, churches talk to each other. One successful audit at First Baptist leads to referrals at Second Baptist, the Methodist church down the road, and the Catholic parish across town. I've seen members build entire practices around faith-based organizations.
Don't forget to check their tax exemption status on the utility bill. I found a Church of Christ in Tulsa that had been paying sales tax on their PSO electric bill for 8 years. They were tax exempt but nobody had ever filed the exemption certificate with the utility. Got them a $4,100 refund and eliminated about $45/month going forward. Took me 20 minutes to find and the church was elated.
Great point about the tax exemption. I didn't even check that on my church audit. Going back to look at it now. And Randy, the referral chain is real — the pastor already asked if I could look at the bills for two other churches in their association.