Multi-site utility spend fails in a specific and predictable way: it is large enough to matter and small enough per invoice that no single person is accountable for it. The audit below is the version we run before a Business onboarding call.
Step one: build the meter inventory
List every account number, meter, service address and provider you are billed by. Most operators discover at this stage that they are paying for at least one service at an address they no longer occupy. It is far more common than it sounds.
Step two: normalise by site
Divide each location’s monthly cost by its square footage or its operating hours. Outliers are the point of the exercise. A site running 40% above its peers is either operationally different in a way you can name, or it has a problem you have not found yet.
Step three: check demand charges
On commercial electric accounts, demand charges are billed on your single highest fifteen-minute usage peak in the period — not on total consumption. A single equipment start-up can set the charge for an entire month. This is the line item most often misread as fixed when it is in fact the most controllable number on the invoice.
Step four: diary the contract end dates
Put every supply contract expiry in a shared calendar with a ninety-day warning. Auto-renewal into a default rate is the most expensive thing that can happen to a commercial energy account, and it happens silently.
Martin Reyes
Chief Operating Officer