How Utility Expense Management Helps Control Operating Expenses for Buildings

On average, U.S. office buildings spend almost 29 percent of their operating expenses on utilities – often exceeding $30,000 per year. Fortunately, despite being a major line item on the budget, energy costs can be successfully controlled with proper oversight. By partnering with a utility expense management provider that tracks and analyzes utility financial data, buildings can optimize their expenditures and maximize their savings.

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With that said, here are the three key utility expense management features that help control operating costs for buildings:   

Suggestions for operation adjustments

A best-in-class utility expense management provider will continuously monitor, measure and verify your usage. This oversight will reveal invaluable insights that can help buildings control their expenses. For example, minor adjustments in operations – such as moving start-up times – can lead to hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

Manage the building’s peak load

As a business, you pay for both the energy you consume and the amount of energy necessary to service your account based on your peak load demand. This is important to know because your peak load can comprise more than 40 percent of your total electricity bill. However, managing your load can be surprisingly difficult, because utilities don’t notify you of these hours ahead of time.

With proactive management, buildings can cap their peaks and significantly reduce their energy costs. A utility expense management provider can monitor the grid’s consumption and weather in real-time to predict when peak load hours are likely to occur, alerting you ahead of time so you can take action to save money.

Offer data-driven decision support

Utility expense management providers use data to compare your building with similar facilities, collecting valuable insights. For example, this information can determine whether you’re a low- or high-performing building, which can reveal cost-saving efficiency improvements. From there, your provider can assess the likely savings from these changes and help you determine if it’s a wise decision.

Running a building is expensive, but the costs don’t have to be entirely out of your control. With a best-in-class utility expense management solution designed to analyze your expenditures and identify areas for improvement, you can optimize your consumption, maximize your savings, and keep your building’s operating expenses in line.

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