Kevin from Savannah. New client runs a small commercial laundry operation out of a building that used to be a house. The utility never updated the account when the use changed — still billing on a residential rate. Residential sounds cheap but in this case it was not. The commercial rate had a lower per-kWh charge and the client would have qualified for a time-of-use variant that would have saved significantly on daytime washing cycles. Anyone else find residential-to-commercial reclassification opportunities?
Caught the utility assigning a residential rate to a commercial account
Tony from Providence. Yes, this happens a lot in urban areas where commercial tenants move into former residential buildings. The utility frequently inherits the old account setup and nobody corrects it.
Sam from Charlotte. The flip side also happens — I found a property being billed as light commercial when it was operating as a full residential apartment building with master metering. Very different rate implications.
Sam that is interesting. So the error is not always in the same direction?
Not at all. It depends entirely on the rate structures for that utility. In some territories residential rates are cheaper, in others commercial rates are. You have to know the local tariff to know which way the error is hurting the client.
Tony again. The most important thing is to verify the service classification matches the actual use of the property. Whatever the tariff implications, an account billing on the wrong use category is always worth flagging.
Glen from Green Bay. I always pull the account's original service agreement when I take on a new client. The use classification at service inception tells me whether anyone ever reviewed it and gives me a baseline to argue from if the current classification is wrong.