Electric utility rate structures are complex, jargon-filled documents that vary from utility to utility. The cost of electricity is determined by the interaction between a facility’s consumption pattern and the billing rate structure, and often efficiency improvements, smart grid efforts, or on-site generation projects have the potential to produce savings in more complex ways than simply reducing the number of kWh purchased.

Understanding how rate schedules for purchasing and selling electricity function allows a facility to maximize its savings from energy efficiency, smart grid, or on-site generation projects. Participants in this workshop will have a working knowledge of how to consider the impacts of electricity rate schedules – for both purchasing and selling electricity – on the operating cost of a facility and have insight into how facility design and operation interact with rate schedules.