Started a new client yesterday — large church campus in Tulsa on PSO. Pulled the first bill and immediately saw the problem. They're on a commercial demand rate with a 15 kW demand charge but their actual peak demand hasn't exceeded 8 kW in 3 years. They should be on a non-demand general service rate. The demand charges alone are $1,870/month that they shouldn't be paying. Going back 3 years that's $67,320. Found it in literally 10 minutes of looking at the first bill.
Found error on first day — $67K
Those are the best ones — when the error jumps off the page. The church doesn't know the difference between a demand rate and a non-demand rate. They just pay whatever the bill says. Nice catch Ed.
This is why demand charges are always the first thing I check on any commercial bill. If the customer's peak demand is consistently below the threshold for the demand rate, they shouldn't be on it. Simple check, huge payoff. And churches are particularly prone to this because their peak demand only occurs for a few hours on Sunday. The other 160 hours per week the building is barely drawing any load.
Filed the claim today. PSO acknowledged the error and said they'll process the rate change and refund within 60 days. My fee on this will be about $20,000. Not bad for 10 minutes of work. Of course, the 15 years of training that led to those 10 minutes wasn't free.
Ha — love that last line. "10 minutes of work plus 15 years of expertise." That's the business right there.