The Issue

Utilities are retiring and initiating new tariffs faster than ever before with the changes that EV charging, green initiatives, smart meters, and regulatory requirements are having on rate structures. As such, Burton brought our comprehensive rate and tariff review process to an existing retail client as a low-cost way to reduce utility expense.

The goal was to identify utilities where they have a large concentration of stores and review the utility rates, tax structure, and various tariffs to determine if they were on the correct rate structure and/or to identify more favorable rates or terms to switch to.

The Burton Solution

The first few markets analyzed yielded $60,000 in annual energy savings in only 44 locations, which reduced electric spend by 6%. However, as Burton expanded the investigation to include additional markets, over $700k in annual savings were identified.

These results were achieved by prioritizing the regulated utilities with the largest spend and number of accounts along with the greatest variation of rate structures. The expectation is that this maximizes the savings, moving significant opportunities to the top of the priority list. Each account is reviewed in detail, evaluating all available tariffs that the utility offers and comparing how each utility accounts would have performed under different tariffs.

The findings are then reviewed with the utility to ensure that the accounts qualify for the new rates. Recommendations are then passed to the client for approval before Burton executes the filing requests to change the rate.

Unlike most of our peers, Burton does not use a “shared savings model”. Instead, all savings from the rate optimization directly impacts our client’s bottom line. Burton is paid to research the rate cases as part of our energy program and the fee is part of our monthly service, not an additional ‘adder’ as other companies may offer. There are no future calculated savings to keep track of and there is no incentive for Burton to change from tariff A to B one year and from B back to A in a future year, just to generate revenue.

The table below is an example of what the client received as part of this analysis for each utility. This details the utility, number of accounts impacted, current versus estimated rates, annualized savings, and Burton’s recommendation. The findings are then reviewed with the utility to ensure that the accounts qualify for the new rates. Recommendations are then passed to the client for approval before Burton executes the filing requests to change the rate.