Demand charges checked against the interval data behind them
Ratchets, peak windows, power factor adjustments and meter multipliers recalculated from 15-minute reads, not from the bill.
- of recovered dollars in cold storage come from demand errors
- 38%of recovered dollars in cold storage come from demand errors
- intervals per day checked for every demand-metered site
- 96intervals per day checked for every demand-metered site
- typical power factor threshold we test against, per tariff
- 0.90typical power factor threshold we test against, per tariff
- average bills affected by one bad ratchet peak
- 11 moaverage bills affected by one bad ratchet peak
See the peak that set the bill
One commissioning spike carried by the ratchet for eleven months.
- Billed peak
- 3,400 kW
- Operating peak
- 2,785 kW
- Ratchet exposure
- 11 months
- Power factor
- 0.850
- Threshold in this example
- 0.90
- Adjusted billing demand
- 889 kW
- Monthly PF adjustment
- $737
Example uses demand adjusted by threshold divided by measured power factor. Tariffs differ in threshold and formula; the audit applies each meter's own.
What demand audit covers
Part of the 38-check audit that runs on every bill line, every month.
- Ratchet basis
- Billing demand traced back to the peak that set it, and the peak checked against interval data and read history.
- Peak window
- Demand measured only during the hours the tariff specifies, not the whole day.
- Power factor adjustment
- kW and kVAR recalculated against the tariff's threshold and formula, including meters that never recorded kVAR.
- Meter multiplier
- Billing multiplier compared with the CT and PT ratios installed at the service.
- Coincident peak tags
- Capacity and transmission tags compared with your load during the system peak hours that set them.
- Connected load sanity
- Billed demand compared with what the site's equipment could physically draw.
Errors this catches
- Demand ratchet errorsBilled demand is set by a ratchet that uses the wrong percentage, a peak outside the look-back window, or a peak that should have been excluded.
- Power factor penaltiesA power factor adjustment is billed at the wrong threshold, from a faulty kVARh reading, or after corrective capacitors were installed.
- Meter multiplier errorsThe billing system multiplies register readings by the wrong constant, usually after a meter or current transformer exchange.
Questions we get asked
It helps but is not required. Where interval data exists we pull it from the utility portal or Green Button. Without it we use read history, the meter's register data and the utility's own load records requested during the claim.
Yes. Continuous Audit customers get peak alerts when a site approaches a new ratchet-setting peak, so facilities can shed load before it sets a year of billing demand.
We compute power factor from kW and kVAR for each billing period and apply the tariff's own threshold and adjustment formula, then compare with the charge billed.
More of the platform
Find out what your utilities owe you.
Connect bills for up to 50 meters. Get the findings report in about three weeks. Pay nothing unless money comes back.
- from bill access to first findings report
- 21 daysfrom bill access to first findings report
- of filed claims accepted by the utility in full or in part
- 94%of filed claims accepted by the utility in full or in part