Entergy Louisiana client in Baton Rouge. Been auditing the base demand charges on Rate LGS for months. Everything checked out. Then I finally read ALL the riders and found Rider EDR ? Economic Development Rider ? which provides a 25% demand charge discount for qualifying businesses that have expanded employment by 10% or more in the previous 24 months. My client added 35 employees in 2023 (22% increase). They never applied for the rider. Estimated value: $14,400 annually.
Demand charge tariff riders that nobody reads
Evelyn ? riders and adjustments are where the real money hides. In Arkansas, Entergy has a similar Economic Incentive Rider that most businesses dont know about. I found a poultry processing plant that qualified for a 20% demand discount based on job creation. They had been eligible for 3 years and never applied. Entergy agreed to retroactive application for 12 months ? $26,000 credit plus $26,000 annual go-forward savings.
Arthur ? 3 years of unclaimed eligibility! Thats exactly why auditors need to read every rider in the tariff book, not just the base rate schedule. The riders are often in separate documents that arent attached to the bill.
Oklahoma Gas & Electric has Rider ECR ? Economic Development Cost Recovery ? that provides reduced demand rates for new or expanding commercial customers. Also has Rider IRER for renewable energy installations that includes a demand charge credit. Both are tariff riders that most clients and even many auditors never check.
AEP Texas has an economic development rider AND a military base support rider that reduces demand charges for businesses within a certain radius of military installations. Corpus Christi has Naval Air Station and the military rider has been available for years. Ive found three qualifying businesses that never applied. Combined annual demand charge savings of $42,000.
This thread should be pinned. In Utah, Rocky Mountain Power has riders for irrigation load management, interruptible service, and economic development that each affect demand charges. Most auditors focus exclusively on the base rate schedule and miss the riders entirely. I now include a tariff rider review as a standard part of every audit. Its added 15-20% to my total findings over the past year.
From the utility side ? riders are added through rate case proceedings and many stay on the books for decades. Utility customer service representatives often dont know about all the applicable riders because theyre trained on base rates. The rider information lives in the regulatory affairs department, not the billing department. Auditors who dig into the full tariff book find things that even utility employees dont know about.
Critical thread. Tariff riders represent some of the most overlooked audit findings. Economic development riders, military proximity riders, load management riders, interruptible service riders, and renewable energy riders all affect demand charges but are rarely auto-applied by utilities. The responsibility falls on the customer ? or their auditor ? to identify eligibility and apply. Every auditor should download the complete tariff book for each utility they audit, including all riders and special provisions. The base rate schedule is only the starting point.