Energy
Contracted demand is paid in full
Reserved capacity is charged used or not — and it is almost never revised.
Every high-voltage consumer unit contracts a capacity with the distributor — contracted demand, measured in kilowatts. That reservation is chosen on the day of connection, usually with a generous safety margin, because at that moment nobody wants to be responsible for a shutdown. After that, the company changes machinery, changes shifts, automates a line, closes a shed. The operation changes several times; contracted demand almost never does. And it is charged in full every month, used or not, because what is paid for is the reservation, not the consumption.
The trap has two sides, which is why it survives so long. Contracting too much costs dearly in silence — a line on the bill nobody questions because it has always been there. Contracting too little costs dearly with noise: exceeding capacity carries a surcharge, and the shock of the first month tends to produce a hasty decision in the opposite direction, usually to a figure even more generous than the original. The result is an oscillation between two errors, each overcorrecting the last, and an average nobody has ever calculated.
What makes this subject attractive is the asymmetry between effort and effect. There are no works, no investment, no engineering project: there is a request to amend the contract with the distributor, based on the metering history already on record — the same history that reaches the company every month, printed, and goes straight into the file. Energy is, alongside tax, one of the two bills a company pays religiously and never audits. The difference is that the electricity bill comes with the evidence inside the envelope.
The test, with this month's bill in hand: find contracted demand and measured demand. Then repeat for the previous twelve months — the distributor provides the history. If there is a persistent gap, you are paying for a reservation you do not use, and the adjustment takes effect almost immediately. If there is recurring excess, the problem is a different one and also costs money. In either case, the answer is in a document already on your desk — which is perhaps the most irritating detail of this note.
Diagnosis with defined scope, timeline and price; every thesis classified by risk, in writing, before any decision of yours. Execution follows the administrative route, with a calculation trail — and remuneration falls on realised benefit.
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.
No thesis moves forward without its classification written beside it. That is what separates a survey from a promise.
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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