The Utility Rates They Are A-Changin'

As a lifelong energy nerd, it’s easy to forget the utter bewilderment most customers face when confronting their utility bills every month. In a recent conversation with a prospective customer, that frustration boiled over. As the business owner described how his utility bill was up 20% last month, he said simply “But the worst part is – I have no idea why.” Well, it’s possible that there’s actually a worse-worst part, because it turns out the increase was nothing that customer did. Across California and in many other states, utility rates are on the rise. In the last few months, the big California utilities have rolled out demand charge increases of 15 to 19 percent. And there’s no indication that those increases will end anytime soon. As the utilities have to inspect and upgrade tens of thousands of miles of power lines to reduce fire risks, prices are going up.

As the California Public Utilities Commission pushes the utilities to develop rates that include hourly prices (yes, prices that change every hour, or even every few minutes), rates are getting ever more complex for commercial customers. Humans have better things to do than respond to frequent changes in electricity prices; fortunately, intelligent software designed for this purpose can keep energy costs under control even as rates become more complex.

Oh, and one more update:

Introducing the DemandEx Savings Estimator: Over the last few months, we've been busy perfecting this new tool for you and we are so excited to now launch it. Fast and easy to use, our DemandEx Savings Estimator allows you to see instantly how much you could save with DemandEx. The tool takes into account your utility's rate structure, your building type, and your utility bill to produce a close estimate of your savings. Check out our tutorial below to see how the tool works: