Commercial electricity for self-storage facilities

A steady base from lighting and climate control that runs whether or not anyone visits, with a gentle rise through office and access hours.

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 self-storage facilities, 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 has no category of its own for self-storage: it counts public rental storage units within warehouse and storage. The warehouse range is shown, and it covers every kind of non-refrigerated warehouse in the survey, whatever its heating and cooling.

Survey 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

• Corridor, unit and exterior lighting
• Heating and cooling for climate-controlled units and the rental office
• Gate, access control, camera and alarm systems
• Elevators and loading equipment
• Signage

The trap this industry falls into

Climate control is often set for a whole building, including the units nobody has rented, and corridor lighting often runs on a schedule written for peak occupancy. Both keep drawing power when the building is nearly empty, and neither creates a sharp peak, so they sit in the base load of the bill. A site with several buildings can also have several meters, each on a rate chosen when it was built.

What to actually do

1. Check whether corridor lighting runs on occupancy sensors or timers that match real use, where security and fire codes allow
2. Look at how climate-controlled zones are split and whether empty zones can be set back
3. List every meter on the site and check each rate schedule
4. Check exterior lighting photocells and timers
5. Read the ratchet terms before adding load such as EV charging or a new building

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 self-storage facilities 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

• 12 months of bills for every meter
• The number of buildings and meters
• The share of units that are climate controlled
• Lighting controls and schedules
• Gate and access system hours

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.