Industry
Commercial electricity for retail and shopping plazas
Lighting and HVAC dominate, with long steady hours and a seasonal cooling peak.
Retail and shopping plazas typically run a moderate load factor, which means demand charges and rate schedule fit usually matter more than the supply rate. Lighting and HVAC dominate, with long steady hours and a seasonal cooling peak.
A long plateau across trading hours. Lighting and rooftop HVAC carry it, so the peak is broad rather than sharp and shifting load is harder.
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 retail and shopping plazas, 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.
Retail 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 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 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
- Interior and display lighting
- Rooftop HVAC units
- Signage and parking lot lighting
- Point-of-sale and back-office equipment
The trap this industry falls into
Plaza landlords often hold one house meter alongside individually metered tenant units. The house meter is small, poorly monitored and frequently on a schedule chosen years ago for a different load. It is also the one meter nobody reviews.
What to actually do
- Inventory every meter on the property, including house and irrigation meters
- Check rate schedule fit on the house meter specifically
- Confirm parking and signage lighting controls actually switch
- Review whether aggregating tenant meters is permitted and worthwhile
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 retail and shopping plazas the answer is usually clear.
At a moderate 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
- A meter inventory for the whole property
- Which meters the landlord pays and which tenants pay
- 12 months of bills per meter
- Lease language on utility recovery
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.