Over the past year, the work environment dynamic has shifted. Commercial buildings that were once full of bustling workers now sit partially filled as employers and employees advocate for a better home office balance. Moreover, the need for creative solutions regarding office overhead is rising as we move to reduce our overall commercial footprint. As a result, many companies are looking at subleasing available space to offset costs and transfer partial rights. One cost that lends itself well to subleasing is electricity usage. Tenant billing is one way to control those costs.
What is Tenant Billing?
Typically, commercial spaces well document electrical distribution systems during construction and tenant improvements. Simply put, tenant billing defines which portions of the electrical distribution system belong to which “tenants.” Moreover, it meters each defined segment for reporting and cost allocation.
How do you define tenant segments?
Tenant segments may be defined at a high level, or they can be precise. For instance, as a:
- Feed out of switchgear
- Per an entire building floor
- Per electrical panel feeding a portion of the building
Segments can be as meticulous as specific circuits within an electrical panel. Furthermore, common use areas also factor in shared costs between all tenants if desired.
After defining segments, it’s a must to place proper metering at appropriate locations for monitoring electricity usage through the segments. At the end of every month, the total percentage of usage per tenant can be determined and then applied against the total facility cost of electricity to allocate costs properly. A sound tenant billing system will automatically monitor and calculate these costs based on published utility tariffs, then provide bills to the tenants systematically.
How to get started?
APT reviews the building’s electrical drawings to identify which existing meters may be used to allocate building costs. Following the analysis, our engineers recommend additional metering depending on tenant locations and planned usage of building space.
Moreover, we review monthly billing from your utility to determine the current tariff and basis for consumption data. The final result, therefore, consists of a design plan for using and or improving the existing metering infrastructure to gather the necessary data to build monthly tenant bills.
Are there any additional servers or software required?
APT’s approach to tenant billing leverages IoT technology by providing a SaaS (Software as a Solution) platform. APT works the design plan to report consumption data to our SaaS tenant billing system.
Using the meter data, we produce tenant bills according to the design, provide a historical analysis of the building data, and provide real-time data on current consumption. Our web portal allows us to report on an entire site and drill into specific meters, both physical and virtual.
How is the cost justified?
Determining tenant billing, even for just one tenant, without precise consumption data can be challenging. Trying to calculate bills for multiple tenants through an entire metering system becomes a SPREADSHEET NIGHTMARE.
Why waste hours every month better spent elsewhere for the facility operations team. Save those hours spent on calculations. Offload the responsibility of the meter communications and rely on the tenant billing system. Enjoy the ease of automatically billing tenants. You’ll see a quick return on your investment from your wallet and your sanity. Let us worry about numbers while you stay focused on what matters most.
Questions about Tenant Billing Solutions?
Call an APT professional today. Let us alleviate your concerns and help find the best solution to fit your needs.
Ken Shaffer, APT Engineering Operartions Manager