RobW (California)
Posts: 279
Posts: 279
Posted:
And I won!
For all California HOAs: If your HOA has common area electrical meters, and you are paying residential rates (very common for HOAs), you may be eligible to switch one or more of the meters to commercial rates, and cut your electric bill.
Prior to 2003, all California HOAs were required to pay residential rates for electricity, even if the HOA had significant common area electrical usage, and had a separate account with the local utility company. In 2003, ECHO went to Sacramento to fight this, and after a series of hearings with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), successfully argued that an HOA's common area meters should be considered commercial, and therefore qualify for commercial rates.
ECHO won this fight, and all HOAs were supposed to have been sent a letter that explains that they have a one-time option of switching any common area meter from residential to commercial rates. My HOA either never received this letter, or our management company or BOD dropped the ball, but either way, we never switched. And there is no expiration date on this option!
I discovered that we have 14 common area meters in our 177-unit complex (156 condos, and 21 townhouses). These meters serve street lights, hallway, lobby and garage lighting, pool and spa heaters, sauna, ventilation fans, elevators, gym equipment, etc.
I contacted Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and inquired about this. One rep said we are a residential community and did not qualify for commercial rates. I hung up and dug deeper. That's when I discovered that ECHO has a copy of the original letter that was sent out to HOAs. I requested a copy. Armed with the facts, I went back to PG&E, and after exhaustive round of being passed from one rep to another, I finally climbed high enough up the food chain to get PG&E to not only agree that we qualified, but to actually crunch the numbers for us. 7 of the meters were identified as likely to benefit from switching to commercial rates. I wanted to see what we would have paid in 2010, had those 7 meters been on A1 commercial.
PG&E sent me a spreadsheet, with all of the amounts we were billed on the residential rates, vs what each one would have been billed, for each month in 2010.
Here's the bottom line:
Net billed to our HOA in 2010 for these 7 meters (E8 residential rate): 122,960.23
PG&E est. net billing to our HOA in 2010 for these 7 meters if they had been on A1 commercial $57,133.60
Estimated amount we would have saved in 2010: $65,826.63
My recommendation to all California HOA members 9and it may be true in other states as well): Find out if you have common area meters in your complex, and whether or not your HOA is paying residential rates. If you are paying residential rates, recommend that your BOD or PM ask your utility company to do a rate analysis of your residential rates vs commercial rates. You might save a huge chunk of change.
Rob
For all California HOAs: If your HOA has common area electrical meters, and you are paying residential rates (very common for HOAs), you may be eligible to switch one or more of the meters to commercial rates, and cut your electric bill.
Prior to 2003, all California HOAs were required to pay residential rates for electricity, even if the HOA had significant common area electrical usage, and had a separate account with the local utility company. In 2003, ECHO went to Sacramento to fight this, and after a series of hearings with the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), successfully argued that an HOA's common area meters should be considered commercial, and therefore qualify for commercial rates.
ECHO won this fight, and all HOAs were supposed to have been sent a letter that explains that they have a one-time option of switching any common area meter from residential to commercial rates. My HOA either never received this letter, or our management company or BOD dropped the ball, but either way, we never switched. And there is no expiration date on this option!
I discovered that we have 14 common area meters in our 177-unit complex (156 condos, and 21 townhouses). These meters serve street lights, hallway, lobby and garage lighting, pool and spa heaters, sauna, ventilation fans, elevators, gym equipment, etc.
I contacted Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and inquired about this. One rep said we are a residential community and did not qualify for commercial rates. I hung up and dug deeper. That's when I discovered that ECHO has a copy of the original letter that was sent out to HOAs. I requested a copy. Armed with the facts, I went back to PG&E, and after exhaustive round of being passed from one rep to another, I finally climbed high enough up the food chain to get PG&E to not only agree that we qualified, but to actually crunch the numbers for us. 7 of the meters were identified as likely to benefit from switching to commercial rates. I wanted to see what we would have paid in 2010, had those 7 meters been on A1 commercial.
PG&E sent me a spreadsheet, with all of the amounts we were billed on the residential rates, vs what each one would have been billed, for each month in 2010.
Here's the bottom line:
Net billed to our HOA in 2010 for these 7 meters (E8 residential rate): 122,960.23
PG&E est. net billing to our HOA in 2010 for these 7 meters if they had been on A1 commercial $57,133.60
Estimated amount we would have saved in 2010: $65,826.63
My recommendation to all California HOA members 9and it may be true in other states as well): Find out if you have common area meters in your complex, and whether or not your HOA is paying residential rates. If you are paying residential rates, recommend that your BOD or PM ask your utility company to do a rate analysis of your residential rates vs commercial rates. You might save a huge chunk of change.
Rob