Overview of Utility Data Availability and Proposed Best Practices to Facilitate Energy Benchmarking

Published By U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Published July 2007
• 8 Page(s)

Commercial and industrial retail customers (C&I customers) doing business nationwide conduct business with many different energy companies, both natural gas and electric, that each has its own unique way of invoicing for services. The choice of composition and format for the invoice, in addition to choosing a method of delivery to send monthly billing and payment information, is usually left to the billing party. The problem for a C&I customer doing business across many different jurisdictions is that it receives many different types of bill formats such that no two look alike. Obviously then, the accounts payable clerk must visually scan each bill in its entirety to gather the specific billing and payment information necessary for input into the accounts payable ledger. This search for information is further complicated by the need to separately record the different types of charges found on many invoices; for example, energy charges as distinguishable from other non-consumption services provided.