You've moved into an upscale office park with all of the perks and amenities that a successful business should enjoy. When your first electricity invoice from the landlord arrives, the amount is higher than you expected. Maybe the local utility's per kilowatt-hour rate was higher than you projected, maybe the office equipment consumed more electricity than anticipated or maybe the electrical meter is measuring usage on circuits that are not part of your premises.

Has your facility manager ever traced the circuits backwards from the meters or sub meters to the electrical panels, then to the premises, to determine exactly what electrical consumption is being measured? Sometimes even reputable landlords cannot accurately determine what each meter or submeter is measuring until a walk-through inspection is performed.

Chelepis & Associates recently conducted an audit of electricity usage for one of our clients. We discovered that the common area parking lot lighting for a portion of the campus complex was attached to the tenant premises meter. When we conducted a walk through inspection, however, not only were they being charged for the parking lot lights, the electricity for the cafeteria refrigerators and cooking equipment were also attached to their meters, as was the security lighting! This review resulted in a $700,000 cost recovery for this tenant.

If your metered or submetered electricity appears too high, call us to examine your utility usage and consider a walkthrough inspection of the circuitry.