Electric Utility Billing
Tips & Advice to help you make your decision on Electric Utility Billing
Your business needs to keep its lights, heat, and air conditioning on, and all those things cost money. However, you have options when it comes to your electric utility billing, and Business.com is here to help you sort through the choices.
Because businesses use much more power than residential customers, you can count on your electric utility bill being a fairly substantial part of your budget. However, that doesn't mean it needs to cause financial hardship. Your business has several billing options, regardless of who provides your power.
Any business can sign up for electronic billing. This gives your accountant or finance department one less thing to worry about each month, as bills are paid automatically with no checks to write and no mail to deliver.
Another option is levelized payments. With this alternative, your business can make the same electric utility payment each month, based on your average usage for the previous year.
Finally, if your business runs multiple locations, most utilities will allow you to enroll in consolidated billing, so each location does not receive a separate power bill.
You have to pay electric bills, so you might as well make the process as painless as possible by considering all your electric utility billing options.
Electric Utility Billing Laws and Regulations
Obtain competitive pricing by learning more about electric utility billing laws and regulationsBy Apryl Beverly With increased changes to state energy legislation, it’s important for you to stay abreast of electric utility billing laws and regulations. Many states now require that utility billing companies include additional information on services covered, details that can often be confusing for the average customer.
The goal of amending the electricity billing system was to reduce costs for electricity customers by giving them a choice of power providers while still having access to safe and reliable electric services. To learn more about electric utility billing laws and regulations, you should:
1. Find out more about state electric billing system restructuring laws.
2. Learn how electric utility billing amendments affect you.
3. Obtain information on electricity billing software.
Access more information about your electric utility billing state laws
As a result of new electric billing system laws, billing companies for utilities were forced to provide customers with more detailed electricity billing information. Electricity bills include information on the customer's competitive power supplier, distribution provider and kilowatts used per hour. The competitive supplier is the company that sells the electricity delivered to your place of business. The distribution company is the local electricity provider responsible for reading meters, restoring power lines and maintaining power lines. Electric billing software calculates monthly bills by multiplying the hours of electricity used by one kilowatt-hour. One kilowatt-hour equals 1,000 watts of electricity used in an hour.
Try:
Read more about detailed electric billing systems by checking out Galvin Power. You may also check out the Utility Consumers’ Action Network for assistance with understanding electricity billing terminology.
Obtain competitive pricing due to restructuring electric utility billing system
In the 1990s, nearly all states across the country adopted electric billing system restructuring legislation which changed the electric billing requirements. The new electricity billing regulations allowed for more competition in the electricity industry and disassembled monopolies. The idea behind this move was with more choices for utility services, electricity billing companies would be encouraged to offer more competitive pricing options.
Try:
Check out the Energy Information Administration to read more about state regulation of electric utility billing systems. You may also read more about state electric utility billing laws and regulations by checking out Mountain View Electric Association.
Learn about the effectiveness of electricity billing software
Electricity billing software allows utility billing companies to automate customer payments, adjustments and other charges. An automatic electric billing system should address every aspect of the utility billing process including accurate customer billing and reporting, meter read documentation storage and reporting and service orders. Users should also be able to modify controls for utility billing software to ensure compliance with changing state and federal energy regulations. Ultimately, utility billing software should be a user-friendly and scalable system that simplifies electric utility billing tasks.
Try:
You may consider checking out Forbes magazine for a listing of billing companies for utilities. Check out Utility Data Systems to learn more about electric utility billing software features.
- There are several things that customers can do to decrease their electricity billing amounts. This includes fine tuning heating and cooling equipment, purchasing and using a programmable thermostat and purchase energy-efficient products.
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