Practice
Energy
The electricity bill is the contract nobody has read.
Every company above a certain size buys electricity in two pieces: the energy it consumes and the capacity it reserves in case it needs it. The second piece is called contracted demand, is chosen on the day of connection, and is almost never revised — even after the company changes machinery, changes shifts or scales down. You pay for it in full, used or not.
From there the bill becomes a small treatise: the tariff arrangement that sets the peak price, the surcharge that punishes the month of highest use, the power factor that charges for the energy a motor returns to the grid, and taxes calculated on a base already litigated to the highest court. One sizing error on a single parameter, dragged across five years, usually exceeds the saving from replacing all the lighting with LEDs.
Once the bill is in order, the conversation moves up a level: the free market, own generation, storage — energy stops being an expense and becomes an asset on the balance sheet. But the order matters. Migrating before correcting the demand means carrying the error into the new contract, this time with a lock-in and an exit penalty.
It is worth opening this month's bill and looking for three lines: contracted demand, measured demand and excess. If the measured figure sits well below the contracted one, you are paying for a reserve you do not use. If the excess appears frequently, the contract is too small and the surcharge has become a fixed item. Both situations cost dearly — and they are the same line, badly adjusted.
Project fee and a share of the saving obtained, measured against the bill for the same month of the previous year, adjusted for approved tariff increases — never against a projection. The basis for comparison is the bill the distributor issued, and it is auditable by either side at any time.
Official sources, at the exact point — the article of law, the service or the search you can use today. None replaces analysis of the specific case, which is our work.
Say in two lines what you need to resolve. An account manager replies personally, in business hours, and the conversation starts where it makes a difference.
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