Catching costly errors in energy invoices
Summit Energy Formulates Savings for Chemical Company
When conducting utility bill auditing for a global chemical company, Summit Energy discovered a costly billing error. By catching and resolving this single mistake, Summit Energy saved its client more than $14,000.
Intensive Data Collection and Market Intelligence Pay Dividends: Energy suppliers are frequently affected by regulatory changes, such as tariff modifications that can impact their underlying costs. When these changes occur, suppliers often legitimately pass on cost savings or increases to customers, but they are not obligated to inform customers about any changes. As a result, end-users are rarely aware of changes that may save or cost them money. These small differences can add up, so it is critical to understand any regulatory changes as well as to track and review energy data to ensure invoices are accurate and fair.
SITUATION
A specialty chemicals company is a Summit Energy client with operations throughout the world. In one area where the company has an operating location, tariff changes had gone into effect, decreasing costs for the company’s energy supplier. The supplier decided not to pass on the savings to its customers.
In reviewing the many components of its client’s invoices to ensure billing accuracy, Summit realized that the supplier had not lowered its prices, even though the tariff change had reduced the supplier’s costs. Summit pursued the matter to have the reduced rate passed on to the specialty chemical company.
LEADERSHIP
Upon contacting the supplier, Summit asserted that the supplier’s lower costs should flow through to its client. It was not long before Summit negotiated a credit to the chemical company’s account for overcharges that had accrued since the tariff change went into effect.
In learning about what Summit had accomplished, a senior purchasing manager at the chemical company said, “There is only one way to describe the positive attributes and contributions Summit makes to its customers’ energy procurement processes – OUTSTANDING!”
RESULTS
Summit’s attention to detail resulted in a $14,629 credit to its client’s account. However, the savings did not stop there. Summit negotiated credit for its other clients that used this same supplier, producing additional savings of more than $136,000.
