Electric Rate Analysis

Client
Large Hospital campus and associated clinics located in Missouri. 

Scope
The hospital had been growing for some time and added a network of new clinics, specialty functions, and outpatient facilities to keep up with their growth.  With that growth came additional new electric, gas, and water accounts and meters.  The hospital knew they were overspending for these utility services, but they did not have the expertise to optimize their utility accounts and spend.  They hired Energy Impact to perform a full scope utility analysis including:  tariff rate analysis, demand load data analysis, metering proficiency analysis, as well as a retro cost recovery.

Methods

Energy Impact began the project by conducting an economic analysis which included:

• tariff rate analysis, comparing the current rate against the other various rates offered by the applicable utility providers
• thorough analysis of the client’s systems and facilities, which included a detailed on-site tour in order to gather the specifications on the main hospital building along with the multiple outbuildings and clinics.
• Created an optimized demand load analysis by cross-referencing the data from the tariff rate analysis with the building schematic. This was extremely beneficial, as we were able to determine exact demand load increments, which we broke out into 15 minute intervals.
• Used the aforementioned analysis for a retro audit to determine the potential for a retro cost recovery

Result

For the main hospital building, Energy Impact’s overall analysis determined that they would be better suited on a different tariff rate.  We also identified sub-metering opportunities – when presented to the utility provider, the provider agreed to share in (a majority) of the installation costs.  We also presented the demand load analysis to the utility provider, and with their cooperation, we effectively lowered the hospital’s overall demand load, which had previously been the largest expense on their utility invoices.  Energy Impact’s rate full scope utility audit determined that the client could save $78,000 per year, which equated to an 18% average annual savings.  As a last step, Energy Impact identified over $170,000 in retroactive utility costs that we were able to recover for the client.  We put together a comprehensive market analysis and assessment report with these results, taking the time to answer any of the client’s potential questions.  The hospital was extremely happy with this result as this savings immediately went straight to their bottom line.