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What you'll learn

  • Understand of your utility bill
  • Electric, gas, steam and chilled water bills from six states
  • Where potential savings are hidden

Energy and the Utility Bill

Energy and the Utility Bill

Live Online Webinar

$395.00
$395.00
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Contact us for private course
Contact us for private course
4 PDH | .4 CEU
Basic Level Course

What you'll learn

  • Understand of your utility bill
  • Electric, gas, steam and chilled water bills from six states
  • Where potential savings are hidden
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  • Most commercial utility bills are hard to read.  Often they are treated simply as an expense.  However, by understanding the structure of a typical utility bill, the terms used, and how the overall chargers were derived, attendees will have the opportunity to find errors and potential ways to save. Energy and the Utility Bill teaches facility professionals to open a bill from different states, breakdown the buckets of charges, and learn how to name and understand every charge on it.

    We will work with electric, gas, steam and chilled water bills from six states, a competitive supplier invoice, and a published tariff. Attendees will learn the five kinds of charge every bill is built from, so regional name differences for the same type of charge stop being a barrier. The class then takes apart demand charges and ratchets, contract capacity, riders, block rates, and the taxes folded into the rates. At first this may sound confusing but the goal of the training is to break down these terms into easy understandable line items. Attendees will also learn where charges and potential savings are hidden, and which levers they can use in their operations to bolster their utility energy savings budget.

    The second half of the course turns to buying: who you can purchase from, what is inside a supplier (energy choice) price, what a contract commits you to, and what your bill lets you claim in a business sustainability report.

    • The words - The billing vocabulary, and a translation card you keep
    • Anatomy of an electric bill - Read one end to end, and meet the blended rate 
    • Demand and capacity - The expensive half, and the part that ignores energy conservation 
    • The thermal bills - Gas, steam and chilled water, and four unit systems 
    • Reading the tariff - The rules behind the invoice, and what they are worth 
    • Buying the energy -  Suppliers, contracts, and what is inside a price
    • What your bill lets you claim - The sustainability half nobody teaches 
    • Finding the money - One building, three bills, and what was hiding

  • Any commercial customer who wants a better understanding of their utility bills, what they are paying for, fixed and variable costs, spotting potential errors and ways to save money. This training helps new entrants to the energy field, commercial customer team responsible for paying utility bills as well as existing certified energy professionals wanting to learn an important skillset.

    Course Level:
    Basic course with attendees having a working knowledge of common energy terms such as kilowatt-hours (kWh), therms, and  customer/supplier choice (electric and/or gas). The instructor will go over these and other terms throughout the course.

  • Andrew Vaillencourt is a second-generation energy professional who walked his first facility at the age of twelve. As part of numerous consulting firms, utilities, and ESCO’s, Andrew has provided valuable and actionable energy efficiency services for customers in virtually every type of industry. A frequent speaker at energy events and conferences, Andrew explores the often-predatory marketplace of energy conservation in his book, Silver Bullets: (And Other Energy Efficiency Myths and Magic.  (Available from all fine online booksellers).

    As president and principal of SRG Energy Efficiency Services, Andrew continues to serve the energy efficiency marketplace as a trusted consultant, trainer, and building-science subject matter expert. His clients cover a wide swath of the energy and sustainability landscape, including technology start-ups, ESCOs, and sustainability-minded companies all over the world.  In addition, Andrew leads a team that can help commercial & institutional customers with all levels of ASHRAE energy audits, feasibility studies, operation cost assessments, energy modeling, scoping, pricing, and project management, as well as provide owner’s (end user) representation.