California Business Energy Bill Audit Guide

A California business bill check should identify the electricity supply program and gas customer category separately. Direct Access, Community Choice Aggregation and utility service are different arrangements; gas has its own core and noncore supply structure. An offer must fit the actual account before its price is meaningful.

Electricity starts with the existing program

Locate the electricity supplier or community-choice provider named on the statement and distinguish that entity from the utility delivering power. The CPUC's retail-choice guidance describes CCA and Direct Access as separate paths. Do not treat CCA enrollment as proof that a business can select any Electric Service Provider through Direct Access; confirm the program and enrollment conditions for the service location.

For a premises with time-of-use pricing, preserve the quantities and rates by period. Dividing the total invoice by kWh may be useful for tracking the business's historical expenditure, but it does not create an energy-only supplier quote. A proposal that changes the relationship between peak and off-peak charges requires more detail than the bill check's single constant rate.

Gas has a different account structure

The CPUC describes core transport agents as an alternative source of gas supply for core customers, while noncore customers make their own supply arrangements. Utility delivery remains a separate consideration. Identify whether the business is a core or noncore account and whether the proposed service is available through that utility's applicable program.

For a restaurant evaluating a gas offer, reconcile the supplier quotation with the utility statement. Record transportation, customer-service and any other separately charged components instead of assuming a commodity price represents the entire gas bill. If usage is in CCF, take the heat-content conversion from the actual bill.

A useful review file for a mixed-use property

Build an account list showing each meter, service utility, supply program and party responsible for payment. A storefront and workshop at one address may have different service arrangements. Keep tenant-paid energy separate from landlord-paid common-area accounts before describing a potential owner's benefit.

Gather twelve months of usage and mark months affected by a vacancy, remodel or equipment change. For an electricity contract comparison, request a written statement of included components, timing and fees. For gas, add the volume and price units. This file helps distinguish a supply-price decision from operational changes in consumption.

Hypothetical supply arithmetic

Assume an eligible account has 180,000 annual kWh and two equivalent constant supply prices of 11.0¢ and 10.2¢ per kWh, with no separate fee difference. The modeled annual difference is $1,440. That arithmetic does not include changing TOU periods, utility demand, delivery or program-specific charges. It is not evidence of an available California offer or an account's enrollment eligibility.

If those components differ between proposals, compare the schedules first. Keep the existing program documents available so a reviewer can identify which charges would continue and which would actually change.

Use the result as a starting point

Once the current and offered components match, use the business bill checker to show the arithmetic. It holds entered prices constant, does not fetch live offers, and does not independently calculate utility demand, delivery or tariff charges. Use the optional twelve-month usage series when one month is unrepresentative.

For an account question, send your business, state, utility and the issue through the first-party review form. Keep bills and account identifiers out of the initial message; arrange document sharing after connecting. A listing in this guide is not a supplier-availability guarantee.