Industry
Commercial electricity for schools and colleges
Weekday daytime load in buildings that sit largely empty on nights, weekends and through the summer.
Schools and colleges typically run a low to moderate load factor, which means demand charges and rate schedule fit usually matter more than the supply rate. Weekday daytime load in buildings that sit largely empty on nights, weekends and through the summer.
A school-day plateau with an early ramp as heating or cooling comes up before students arrive, then an evening tail for after-school and community use. Weekends, breaks and summer sit well below this.
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 schools and colleges, 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.
The survey counts K-12 schools and college classroom buildings separately, so both are shown. On a campus it counts dormitories as lodging, administration buildings as offices and libraries as public assembly, so those are not in these figures.
K-12 school
9.7kWh per sq ft a year, median
The middle half of surveyed buildings used 6.2 to 13.2. Nearly all fell between 4.1 and 17.5.
A typical one is 15,000 sq ft. At the median that is about 145,050 kWh a year, roughly $1,800 a month at the US average commercial price.
720 surveyed buildings Solid
Estimate your buildingCollege or university building
10.4kWh per sq ft a year, median
The middle half of surveyed buildings used 7.4 to 14.3. Nearly all fell between 4.8 and 22.2.
A typical one is 10,000 sq ft. At the median that is about 103,700 kWh a year, roughly $1,300 a month at the US average commercial price.
153 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
- Heating, cooling and ventilation for classrooms, gyms and halls
- Lighting
- Kitchen and cafeteria equipment
- Computers, classroom technology and server rooms
- Gym, auditorium and community-use spaces
- Domestic hot water
The trap this industry falls into
The bill is shaped by the busiest weeks, but the building is used far less than that for most of the year. Under a tariff with a ratchet or a minimum billing demand, a peak reached in one hot or cold spell can keep setting the demand charge through the summer, when the building is nearly empty. A school can use very little in July and still be billed on a demand set months earlier.
What to actually do
- Compare overnight, weekend and summer consumption with the occupied school-day baseline
- Check that building automation schedules follow the actual bell schedule and holiday calendar, not the calendar from the year the system was commissioned
- Find out whether evening and weekend community use heats or cools the whole building or only the rooms in use
- Read the ratchet or minimum billing demand terms in the tariff before adding load or running a summer program
- Stagger kitchen and gym equipment start-up so it does not coincide with the morning heating or cooling ramp
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 schools and colleges the answer is usually clear.
At a low to 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
- 12 months of bills with peak kW
- The school calendar: instruction days, breaks and summer programs
- The building automation schedule
- Evening, weekend and community use of each building
- Whether a campus has one meter or several
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.