How to Audit and Analyze Utility Rate Schedules Quickly and Thoroughly If your role includes auditing and analyzing utility rate schedules, you know that the process is rarely quick—or easy. If you do the work yourself using publicly available sources, and if you do all of the heavy lifting yourself, then you likely never look
Eight Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing an Electric and Gas Utility Rate Database When it comes to choosing an electric and gas utility rate database, you have options. There are multiple vendors and multiple platforms on the market. Some are crowdsourced, others are compiled by paid professionals. Some are free, others involve a recurring monthly
The Value of Historical Data When Researching Utility Rates Electricity costs and gas costs are a major factor in today’s business landscape. Whether you are running a conference center or operating a manufacturing plant, you must pay careful attention to the price of electricity and gas. In order to analyze and optimize electricity and gas
Best Ways to Find Utility Data, Compared When it comes to finding utility data, there are a number of methods at your disposal. We’re not going to suggest that any of them is completely wrong, but some of the methods are certainly better than others. You essentially have three places to find utility rate data.
How Accurate is Your Utility Rate Information? If your company makes strategic business decisions based upon the price of electricity or natural gas, you know the value of accuracy. For utility rate data to be actionable, it must be accurate. You can’t trust data that’s incorrect or imprecise. You literally cannot afford to make decisions
Factors Affecting Natural Gas Pricing Many factors can influence the fluctuations of natural gas prices. Understanding what affects these changes is critical to helping your customers make informed decisions and invest in the best energy sources. At RateAcuity, we offer extensive data resources and trusted information to keep your company up-to-date on pricing, usage, and other
Natural Gas vs. Electric Cost Comparison Is gas or electricity cheaper? Energy suppliers need industry-specific data to identify the best solutions for their unique requirements and keep their consumers informed. As a third party that helps your customers manage their energy use and options, you do too. When you partner with RateAcuity, we provide essential
Demand Charges Explained: What Are They, and How Do They Work? Understanding the basics of energy billing is the first step to properly managing your facility’s energy usage. Commercial electricity bills consist of more than the total energy expenditure over a set billing cycle — they also include demand charges. In certain rate classes, territories
Unlimited Energy Deals Powering end users’ operations and keeping their processes running smoothly is a priority for energy suppliers. Many energy providers now offer unlimited energy tariff options to fit their customers’ unique energy needs. Is an unlimited electricity plan a good solution for energy customers’ needs? You’ll want to consider some key factors to evaluate
How Does Rate Design Effect You? Rate design is a major influence on your business’s consumption and investment decisions regarding demand response, energy efficiency and energy generation. In an ever-fluctuating market, your energy prices must reflect the true economic costs of the energy you receive. With the right rate design, you can even enhance your
Natural Gas Cost Per Therm Energy suppliers must ensure they efficiently use natural gas resources to meet end users’ needs. Natural gas costs per therm vary based on factors such as location, so you’ll need to know how these entities measure usage and bill their customers to determine resource costs. If you need to provide critical
Power Quality in Electrical Systems Power quality designates electric power’s quality status. The term refers to the electric power that drives an electrical device and the device’s corresponding ability to function with that power. Power flow should remain within specified frequency and voltage tolerances and adopt a pure sinusoidal waveform. Because no real-life power source
Utility Bill Management From variable rates to tiered systems, utility bills can be complicated and vary wildly from month to month. That’s why it’s essential to always have your latest utility bill information up to date and presented in an easy-to-understand interface that helps you examine trends between months, curb your energy usage and reduce
Why Are Your Utility Bills Inaccurate? When measuring the amount of energy your facilities use, it can be challenging to ensure the quantity you’re being billed for is correct. Between the massive amount of energy most businesses require to sustain themselves and the energy industry’s ever-changing rates, it almost feels as if utility rates are
Smart Energy Meters Smart meters enable customers to manage energy usage more proactively and a utility to provide a detailed analysis of customer’s energy use at different times of the day. More than 115 million smart meters are forecasted to be installed in the United States by December 2021, with 94.8 million already installed as of 2019. What Is
Increasing Electricity Bill? There are plenty of reasons your client’s electricity bill may be increasing. While they can take action to lower their rate consistently, the first step is figuring out why the bill has jumped. To help your clients start saving money, we’ve identified several causes of high household power usage and what consumers can do to lower their rate of use. What Causes a
Weather and Utility Rates The relationship between weather and utilities is multifaceted. Changes in precipitation, temperature, sea level and the severity and frequency of extreme events will affect how much energy is consumed, delivered and produced in the United States. Generally, the greater the difference between the thermostat setting inside and the temperature outside, the more energy your heating
The widespread view of energy as a fixed cost has endured in society for many years. This misconception makes it challenging for consumers to explore the numerous sources and types of energy available — even when they know energy savings are possible. When companies search for new energy-saving technology, the most significant impact can come
Coal and generated electricity have had a long-standing relationship, reaching back all the way to the first plant in New York in the 1880’s. It has been the single largest source of energy generation for the vast majority of that time, but for the last two decades has been ceding ground to alternative generating methods
Why Utility Tariffs Matter to Your Business As an electric or natural gas customer, all your charges are governed by utility tariffs. What Are Utility Tariffs? Energy providers charge their customers for natural gas or energy usage based on the information in a utility tariff. A utility tariff contains schedules of fees determined according to local government regulations.
Demand Response: How Utilities Balance Energy Supply and Demand Demand response handles peak demand issues and enhances electric power system performance. Also called demand management, demand response tips the scale in favor of electricity users. Instead of keeping the balance by generating more power, demand response technologies reduce consumption on lights, dryers, electric water heaters,
How Working From Home Affects Your Energy Use Due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, more Americans are working from home than ever before. As people spend more time working from home (WFH), they are dipping into more household energy sources throughout the day. These include home office electronics, kitchen appliances and cooling, heating and lighting power
What is Utility Bill Auditing for Businesses? A utility bill audit is an inclusive review of a company’s utility invoices — water or sewage, waste, gas and electric — to evaluate rate plans and track billing errors. Other services such as internet, phone services and cable TV can also be considered utilities as they are
Subscription based rate plans are a relatively new pricing structure that allows a customer to choose their plan and pay a flat monthly rate instead of paying for their energy each month based on usage. Subscription services are growing at a huge rate, with more than $2.6 billion in sales in 2016, and growth of
Electric vehicles are a popular choice for new car buyers and will continue to grow in share of the auto industry. In California for example, there is a target to have all new purchased vehicles be electric by 2035. Edison Electric Institute predicts there will be over 7 million electric cars being used in the
Electricity is something that everyone purchases, but many people don’t take the time to think about how their rates are set. The process for determining and changing utility rates depends completely on the type of company. Investor-owned utilities are private companies that operate on a for-profit basis. They are usually owned by shareholders and their
Back in February, the state of Texas experienced an “Unprecedented cold weather event” that left millions without power while temperatures plummeted. Winter Storm Uri, predicted to impose a significant yet manageable strain on the power grid, instead led to the near-collapse of the state’s infrastructure and extravagant energy prices for days on end. For a
With every shift in national administration comes important changes. How a new presidency will affect different industries and markets is not always predictable. President Joe Biden’s energy plan will inevitably impact the energy sector, including utilities. Of course, campaign promises do not always become reality, but it’s important to understand the administration’s objectives. With pressure
It’s no surprise that the utility sector was not spared the havoc wreaked by COVID-19 on nearly every industry in 2020. In the case of energy utilities, there was a negative trifecta of sorts, causing them to generate revenue far below forecasts. Will 2021 see an effort by those utilities to recover some of their
Lightning strikes. A resounding crash echoes through the forest, and a flaming crack splits the length of a towering Oak. As the tree burns and the animals flee, a solitary figure strides hesitantly forward out of the darkness. The figure, cold and shivering, carefully approaches the burning tree and reaches out his hand to
Even though many industries struggled in 2020, Electric Vehicles have managed to increase their market share of new car sales around the world. In the United States, EV sales rose 9.9%. In the UK, EV sales tripled even though car sales as a whole declined to the lowest since 1992. Most impressively, 54% of Norway’s
Several of RateAcuity’s customers work as Energy Consultants, filling a vital role for many businesses with their expertise on the energy industry. They work to help companies reduce their utility costs by analyzing market trends and rate fluctuations, and they can achieve substantial savings for their clients. Energy Edge and Burton Energy Group are two
Electricity rates are partially dependent on which of various energy sources, such as oil, gas, coal or nuclear and renewable sources, are used to generate power in your area. Electricity rate trends can vary greatly depending on region or state. For example, Idaho has low retail rates because much of the state’s energy is generated
The term kilowatt-hour commonly arises in conversations about electricity. While this unit of measurement is used every day in the utilities industry, many people are unsure of what it is and how it works. So, what exactly is a kilowatt-hour? A kWh is a unit of measurement that is equal to the use of 1,000
As I mentioned in my previous post regarding beginning the RateAcuity data accuracy program, we know no one is perfect and errors in the RateAcuity database will be discovered. Unfortunately, some errors have already been found. Having a customer find errors in the RateAcuity database has caused me some sleepless nights, but I want to
Anyone who’s compared their energy bills knows that electricity prices can fluctuate from month to month. But why is that? And what determines electricity prices in the first place? The cost of energy fluctuates so much that prices actually update by the minute, and you can find significant differences across locations. For instance, state electricity profiles
Commercial Energy Management Trends In the business world, it’s essential to manage your energy consumption carefully so you can streamline your budget and implement sustainable practices. Staying informed about commercial energy management trends and taking advantage of available data can help you do so. The Importance of Commercial Energy Management Why is it so important
In my last post I mentioned starting a tracking program so we can report our data accuracy to our customers and potential customers. I am excited to share with you that our program is underway! There were quite a few details to take into consideration when designing our accuracy program. Luckily for us we were
I have mentioned the critical importance of data quality in a few of my recent posts. This post is going to take a deeper dive into data quality. Why is data quality so important? According to Tom Redman (“the Data Doc), “Better data means fewer mistakes, lower costs, better decisions, and better products”. In fact,
In my last post, I wrote about what a data company is and what it is not. Now let’s discuss why you should use a data service company. There are many reasons to use a data service and I have already addressed some of these in previous posts, like how the team members that gather
As I previously mentioned, I have been thinking lately about what RateAcuity is as a company. Turns out the answer is simple. We are a data business. Period. So, what does that mean? We are defined as much by what we are not as what we are. We are not a SaaS (Software as a
As I mentioned in my last post, KFR Services is the parent company of RateAcuity. The inclusion of “services” in our name is not something that we take lightly. First and foremost, RateAcuity is a data services company. More about what a data services company means in a future post, though. Just as important as
In my last post, I wrote about the RateAcuity team and how we are unique. In this post, I am going to discuss our core values and how they help guide us each day. Core values is a phrase we hear of a lot. According to an article by Patrick Lencioni published in the Harvard
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately on what kind of company RateAcuity is. But I am concluding that who we are is as important as what we are. RateAcuity is a data company; although, I will get into that further in a future post. The “who”, the people, who make up the heart
While “going green” by reducing energy consumption or using renewable generation sources has become popular in recent times as the responsible thing to do to help the environment, let’s not forget it also helps save money. There are many ways people can go about helping the environment. Demand response programs are an attractive way to
More states are proposing and passing legislation to impose 100% clean energy. In February, Virginia became the most recent state adding to the growing list committing to 100% clean energy. Virginia joins California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Washington and Wisconsin, along with U.S. territories Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico
By Megan Geherin America isn’t generating electricity the way it did two decades ago. Recently natural gas has passed coal as the country’s leading source of electric generation. Renewables such as wind and solar have also made small but quick gains. However, each state has its own position with regards to the mix of electric
RateAcuity is excited to announce new report features requested by customers are now available. Enhancements include: Standardized Excel Report RateAcuity now includes a new report that will use a standard format for all schedules. The report will contain all possible output columns in the same layout each time, with relevant cells populated. Individual Effective Dates
The presenter, Stephanie Fetchen has compiled and expanded on her answers to the questions that came in during the Q&A session. All those answers can be found below, and if you have any further questions or would like to get in contact with Stephanie regarding Rate Acuity, electricity rates, or any other programs please contact
