Industry
Commercial electricity for property management and multi-site portfolios
Many meters, many contracts, many expiry dates, and usually no single owner of the problem.
Property management and multi-site portfolios typically run a varies by asset load factor, which means demand charges and rate schedule fit usually matter more than the supply rate. Many meters, many contracts, many expiry dates, and usually no single owner of the problem.
Common areas and mechanical plant, with a high overnight base from lighting, lifts and pumps that never fully stop. That base is where unnecessary load hides.
Illustrative shape, not measured data. It shows the pattern this kind of operation tends to follow, which is why its bill behaves the way it does. Your real profile comes from your own interval data, and it is the only version that can produce a number.
What the federal building survey says
In 2018 the U.S. Energy Information Administration surveyed 6,436 commercial buildings and recorded the electricity each used. These are the surveyed buildings that match property management and multi-site portfolios, in kWh per square foot per year. Each is a whole building classed by what fills the most of it, so a single tenant space inside a larger building can use more or less.
A portfolio is not one building, so there is no single figure for it. These are the survey figures for the property types a portfolio is most often made of; use the estimator once per property.
Office building
10.2kWh per sq ft a year, median
The middle half of surveyed buildings used 6.1 to 15.7. Nearly all fell between 4.0 and 24.8.
A typical one is 5,000 sq ft. At the median that is about 50,950 kWh a year, roughly $640 a month at the US average commercial price.
1,329 surveyed buildings Solid
Estimate your buildingStrip shopping centre
19.9kWh per sq ft a year, median
The middle half of surveyed buildings used 16.2 to 24.3. Nearly all fell between 13.9 and 30.7.
A typical one is 12,750 sq ft. At the median that is about 254,363 kWh a year, roughly $3,100 a month at the US average commercial price.
208 surveyed buildings Indicative · EIA estimated rather than metered their use
Estimate your buildingRetail store or showroom
9.0kWh per sq ft a year, median
The middle half of surveyed buildings used 5.1 to 14.5. Nearly all fell between 2.9 and 25.5.
A typical one is 6,500 sq ft. At the median that is about 58,695 kWh a year, roughly $730 a month at the US average commercial price.
338 surveyed buildings Solid
Estimate your buildingWarehouse or distribution centre
3.3kWh per sq ft a year, median
The middle half of surveyed buildings used 1.6 to 7.8. Nearly all fell between 1.0 and 10.8.
A typical one is 6,700 sq ft. At the median that is about 22,378 kWh a year, roughly $280 a month at the US average commercial price.
712 surveyed buildings Solid
Estimate your buildingSurvey year 2018, so this is the usage pattern, not a forecast. Prices here are today's: the US average commercial price for the 12 months to the latest EIA month. The cost estimator does the same for your own floor area and state.
What drives the load
- House meters and common areas
- Parking and exterior lighting
- Elevators and pumps
- Amenity and mechanical spaces
- Tenant meters where landlord-paid
The trap this industry falls into
The characteristic portfolio failure is not a bad rate. It is that contracts were signed at different times by different people and now expire on scattered dates, so the portfolio never has enough combined volume at any one moment to be worth a supplier’s attention.
What to actually do
- Build a complete meter and contract inventory before anything else
- Map every expiry date onto one calendar
- Identify which meters can be aligned to a common date
- Check allocation and recovery accuracy against the lease
Which half of the bill to attack
A commercial bill splits into supply, which a competitive supplier can price where a competitive market exists, and delivery, demand, fixed charges and riders, which stay regulated whichever supplier you use. Load factor decides which half is worth your attention, and for property management and multi-site portfolios the answer is usually clear.
At a varies by asset load factor, the peak is doing disproportionate damage relative to total consumption. Demand charges and rate schedule fit therefore usually matter more than the supply rate, and an operator who switches supplier to chase a lower supply price has left the growing part of the bill untouched.
This is also why a supply quote alone is a misleading answer for this industry. It is priced against the half of the bill that is not the problem.
The mechanics behind this: load factor, demand charges and rate schedule fit.
What we need to give you a real answer
- Meter inventory across the portfolio
- Contract expiry date per meter
- Which entity is the customer of record on each
- Lease utility recovery terms
The item that most often turns a vague conversation into a specific finding is twelve months of peak kW. A single bill shows what you paid; twelve months of demand readings show the shape that caused it, and the shape is where the recoverable money is.
Send one recent bill. We compute the supply, delivery and demand split for your account and tell you which of the levers above is actually worth your time.