How Electric Utility Affects Commercial Sustainability

Businesses face a number of regular bills they can’t avoid paying like rent, labor costs and utilities. Let’s look at how electric utility service provider choices affect commercial sustainability, no matter what type of business you are in.

The literal costs

After rent, labor costs and taxes, utilities are among the biggest regular expenses businesses pay. Depending on your type of business and the environment you’re in, utility bills may spike to become some of the biggest bills you pay. For example, a retail establishment or restaurant will lose customers if it is too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter. You’ll keep customers there longer if your space is comfortable. If you rely on electric heating, electric bills could spike in the winter.

In the summer, fans and misters can only do so much, and these cheap alternatives to cranking up the air conditioner may not be an option depending on your inventory. This means that finding an affordable utility provider is essential to avoiding expensive bills when energy demand peaks.

If your business is located in Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Power Switch can help you decide which electrical company to go with, by choosing from their list of affordable energy providers. If you try to manage your utility bills with an average billing plan, you could still be stuck with a massive total or an adjustment bill at the end of the year when your usage was well above the level for which you were billed all year. An unexpectedly large utility bill due at the end of the year can break your budget.

Eco-friendly branding

Customers now have the luxury of choosing which product and service providers they use based on their values rather basing decisions entirely off price, reputation or quality. Businesses want to advertise themselves as eco-friendly so that they can attract these ethical consumers.

Putting solar panels on the roof is an expensive endeavor, and it may adversely affect your roof drainage. Nor do you want to have to send someone to the roof to scrape off the snow so you can get a little electricity from them.

The solution here is to choose a utility company that provides a significant degree of renewable energy. Then you can say you’re powering your business with renewable energy without having to find a spot to put up a wind turbine.

The reliability of the service provider

There is a good chance that your business grinds to a halt if the power is off. Losing power could cause the temperature in the refrigerator and freezers where you store food to rise beyond the point you can’t sell it. A power loss will kill your servers, and it could interfere with your ability to process transactions.

Some utility companies are more responsive than others when the nearest power transformer has burned out or the power was accidentally shut off to your building. In other cases, they better handle power production and distribution during periods of peak demand, so brownouts don’t become blackouts for their customers.

If you are using the utility company for gas, the better utility companies handle broken gas lines and emergency calls more quickly. Or they’ll ensure that their customers have heat and can cook though the gas line is shut down for repairs. For example, if the gas company accidentally hits the gas line to your restaurant or daycare, do they reroute other gas lines so that you don’t have to shut down for the day?

In every case, the superior utility companies minimize the interruptions that can cost a business their paying customers for the day or destroy its in-stock inventory.

While utility bills are rarely the biggest line item in a business’ budget, the level of service and prices charged by the utility company can make or break your business.