How It Works: From Your Electric Bill to a Lower Supply Rate

Step 1: Send a bill

A commercial electric bill has more information on it than most operators realize. From one month we can read your utility and delivery rate class, whether you are on default service or a competitive supplier, your kilowatt-hours, your peak kilowatt demand, and the riders and surcharges that apply to you. Two or three months are better because they show seasonality.

If you have interval data, or can download it from your utility's portal, send that too. It shows exactly when your peaks happen, which is the key to the demand-charge conversation.

Step 2: The free review

We do three things with what you send.

Benchmark the supply price. In a deregulated state the utility publishes a default supply rate, sometimes called the price to compare, standard offer, or basic service. We compare what you are paying, whether default or contracted, with current offers for a load shaped like yours.

Check the rate class. Utilities place commercial accounts in delivery classes by peak demand and voltage. Facilities that were classed during construction, or that grew after the meter was set, are often in a class that costs more than it should. A class review is a request to the utility, not a contract, and it is one of the cheapest fixes there is.

Size the demand problem. For a grow, the highest 15- or 30-minute demand each month can drive a third or more of the bill. We estimate what staggered light schedules, HVAC sequencing, or storage could do to that number. You can get a first feel for this with our demand charge estimator.

Then we tell you what we found. If the honest answer is "your setup is fine," that is the answer you get.

Step 3: Competitive bids

If there is an opportunity, we ask your permission to request pricing. Suppliers quote against your usage history and the product you want: fixed price, index, or a block-and-index blend. We explain those in fixed vs. index vs. block-and-index contracts.

We normalize the offers so they can be compared. That matters because two "fixed" offers can differ on what is fixed: one might pass through capacity and transmission costs, the other might include them. The lower headline number is not always the lower bill.

Step 4: Contract review

Before you sign, we go through the document with you: price and what it includes, term length, bandwidth or swing tolerance, change-in-law clauses, early termination formulas, and the renewal clause. Evergreen auto-renewals into month-to-month variable pricing are the most common way operators end up overpaying, and several of our states regulate how suppliers must handle them. Our guide to contract terms to watch covers each clause.

Once signed, the supplier enrolls your account with the utility. The switch happens on a meter-read date. Nothing changes at the facility.

Step 5: Monitoring and renewal

Wholesale markets move. Capacity prices in PJM, winter gas prices in New England, summer peaks in ERCOT and the Southwest all show up in retail offers months later. We watch those markets and your contract calendar so that the next renewal is negotiated when conditions are favorable, not on the last day of the term.

We also keep an eye on your usage against any bandwidth clause, so an expansion or a new flower room does not trigger a penalty you did not know existed.

What this costs

The review and the advice are free. If you sign a supply contract through us, the supplier pays Jaken Energy a small per-kilowatt-hour fee that is written into the contract. We explain the mechanics and the conflicts to watch in how energy brokers get paid, because a broker who will not explain their compensation is not one you should use.

Documents that speed up each step

Step	Minimum	Helpful extras
Bill review	One recent utility bill per meter	Three to twelve months; interval CSV
Competitive bids	Trailing twelve-month kWh average	Interval data; load forecast if expanding
Contract review	Full supplier contract PDF	Prior contract; utility default rate sheet
Renewal monitoring	Signed contract with end date	Bandwidth history; capex schedule

Interval data turns a vague "demand seems high" conversation into a schedule change with a dollar figure. Most utilities with AMI meters let you download 15-minute kW readings from an online portal. Our guide to interval data and AMI meters lists common export paths by territory.

If you are on default service, the bill's supply line is the benchmark. If you already have a supplier, send the contract's definition pages for energy, capacity, transmission, and renewal.

Red flags we look for on the first read

Auto-renewal into variable pricing. Some contracts roll to month-to-month index rates if you miss a notice window. The headline fixed price from two years ago no longer applies.

Bandwidth tighter than your growth plan. A craft grow adding rooms mid-contract can exceed a plus-or-minus ten percent band and trigger index pricing on overages.

Pass-through caps missing. Fixed energy with uncapped capacity pass-through can exceed a slightly higher fully fixed offer when PJM auction prices rise.

Wrong rate class. Small general service accounts that belong on large power pay higher delivery and may lack options available to larger loads. Utility rate classes explained describes graduation thresholds.

Ratchet-inflated demand. Billing demand above any interval you measured this month usually means a ratchet from a prior summer peak. That affects both delivery and supplier capacity tags in some markets.

None of these require switching suppliers to fix. Rate-class requests and schedule changes are utility-side or operational levers you can pull before or alongside procurement.

Delivery side vs. supply side

Switching suppliers changes the energy commodity price in choice states. It does not renegotiate delivery charges, customer charges, or distribution demand on most tariffs. Those lines stay with the utility and follow rate cases.

That is why we split the bill in review. A 2-cent supply win is real but smaller than it looks if delivery demand jumped because of a ratchet you did not know about. The demand charge estimator helps isolate the kW line.

In capped-choice or direct-access states, the split looks different. California and Michigan pages document territory-specific rules. The state deregulation eligibility checker routes you to the right hub before you assume classic retail choice applies.

Who does what after you sign

You sign with the licensed supplier. The supplier enrolls your account with the utility on a future meter-read date. The utility updates billing so supply charges flow from the supplier while delivery charges stay on the utility bill or split per local rules.

You keep paying the utility unless your state consolidates billing through the supplier. Either way, outage calls go to the utility. Tree on the line? Same number as before.

Jaken Energy monitors contract calendars and market conditions affecting renewal. We do not operate your facility or approve capital projects. LED retrofits, solar, and HVAC remain your operations and finance decisions; we flag when efficiency programs or demand work should run in parallel with supply.

When we tell you to wait

Sometimes the honest answer is not yet.

You may be mid-contract with an early termination fee larger than prospective savings. We set a reminder for the notice window instead of pushing an immediate switch.

Wholesale markets may be spiking temporarily. A fixed contract signed at the top of a price run locks in pain. We may suggest index or block-and-index products for part of the load, explained in fixed vs. index vs. block-and-index contracts.

Your rate class review with the utility may be pending. Fixing delivery before bidding supply avoids comparing offers on the wrong load class.

Default service may be competitive this quarter. Regulators reset benchmark rates on schedules; a low default rate does not last forever, but it can beat market offers briefly. We say so when the math says so.

Tools to use while you wait for pricing

Run your own numbers while bids are in flight. The state commercial rate comparison table places your state's average in context. The facility type energy benchmark lookup checks kWh per square foot against published ranges. The energy cost percent of revenue benchmark compares utility spend to sales.

FAQ pages cover timing (how long does switching take), utility continuity (what happens to my utility when I switch), and contract types (fixed vs. variable rate questions).

When you are ready for step one, use the get started form.

After the switch: what changes and what does not

Your cultivation SOPs stay the same. Outage reporting stays with the utility. Meter readings continue on the same schedule. Staff do not rewire rooms.

What changes is the supply line on the bill or the supplier bill you receive separately, depending on state billing rules. Price follows the contract you signed until term end or renewal.

Keep PDF copies of enrollment confirmations. Utilities sometimes lag updating supplier names on statements for one cycle.

If usage spikes from expansion, notify us before the supplier flags a bandwidth breach. Mid-term load growth is easier to manage when forecast early.

Questions about legal status of brokering or supplier licensing in your state are answered on is energy brokering legal for cannabis companies and your state hub regulator links.