The short version
Every one of these is the same move: the customer’s pattern of use fits a different rate better than the one they are on.
These are not a list to memorise, and they are not the only four. They are here so that the shape becomes familiar — so that when you are reading a bill and something rhymes with one of them, you notice.
Shape 1
A flat load often belongs on a demand rate.
Shape 2
Night work often belongs on a time-of-use rate.
Shape 3
A large site can buy at primary voltage.
Shape 4
Water bills hide four separate mistakes.
How to spot each one
1. Flat load on the wrong rate
Spot it: substantial usage, steady month to month, and no demand charge on today’s bill. Why it works: a demand rate charges a lower price per kWh in exchange for a charge on peak kW. A customer whose peak is small relative to their energy comes out ahead. Check: whether the tariff’s demand rate is even available at their size, and whether the meter records demand at all — if not, the utility has to fit one.
2. Off-hours business on a flat rate
Spot it: a business that runs at night, early morning, or weekends — bakeries, cleaning contractors, cold storage, data rooms, some manufacturing shifts. Why it works: a flat rate charges an average price built for daytime demand. A time-of-use rate charges much less outside peak hours. Check: the exact peak window in the tariff, and how much of the customer’s load really falls outside it. This one needs interval data more often than the others.
3. Secondary service at a site big enough for primary
Spot it: large demand, a rate code that says secondary, and a site with its own pad transformer or substation. Why it works: at primary voltage the customer owns and maintains the transformer, so the utility charges less. Check: who actually owns the transformer today, and what the tariff requires the customer to take on. The saving is real but it comes with responsibility.
4. Water and sewer
Four separate plays, none of them about the price per gallon.
- Meter size. The fixed charge scales with meter size. Buildings are routinely fitted with a meter two sizes larger than their real flow, often for a fire line or an old use. Downsizing cuts the fixed charge every month, forever.
- Included allotment. Many water rates include the first several thousand gallons inside a minimum charge. A customer using far less than the allotment is paying for water they never take.
- Sewer deduction. Sewer is billed on water volume, on the assumption it all goes back down the drain. Water used for irrigation, cooling towers, or that ends up inside a product does not. A sub-meter and an application can remove that volume from the sewer charge.
- EDU count. The fixed count of dwelling-unit equivalents assigned to the building. Set at connection, rarely revisited, and often wrong after a change of use. Ask for a re-assessment.
The one thing to remember
The idea is not the finding. The finding is the idea, plus the tariff page it comes from, plus the customer’s own numbers showing it holds across a year.
Check yourself
Why does a flat load do well on a demand rate?
Because the demand charge is spread across a lot of energy. The lower per-unit price more than covers it.
A bakery runs from 2am to 10am. Which shape should you check first?
Time-of-use. Most of its load sits outside the peak window it is currently paying an average price for.
Name two water findings that have nothing to do with how much water is used.
Meter size, which sets the fixed charge, and the EDU count, which sets a flat sewer charge. Both are assigned, not measured.
What turns an idea into a finding?
Evidence. The line on the bill, the page in the tariff, and the customer’s twelve months run through both rates.