Lyon Shipyard Inc.:
Maritime Facility Utility Bill Audit

Lyon Shipyard, Inc. (LSI) has served the maritime industry as a premier ship repair facility in Norfolk, VA for over 80 years. With heavy equipment running continuously across a large industrial site, electricity represents one of their most significant operating expenses.

Seeking a way to reduce those costs, LSI reached out to Utility Management Services (UMS) for a no-risk utility bill audit. What the UMS analysts uncovered went far beyond a simple rate adjustment — they found evidence of a serious billing error.

The audit revealed erratic peak demand readings in LSI’s billing history. UMS requested a meter test from LSI’s power provider, who performed the test and concluded the meter was operating correctly. UMS wasn’t satisfied with that answer.

Digging deeper, UMS analyzed LSI’s demand data across every 30-minute interval over a full 12-month period. The data showed one single 30-minute period where demand spiked to 300% higher than any other period in the entire year — with no corresponding operational activity to explain it.

UMS dispatched a registered Professional Engineer to LSI’s facility to inspect the equipment firsthand. The findings were definitive: the billed demand was physically impossible. To sustain it, the power provider’s transformer would have needed to operate at 196% of its rated capacity, and LSI’s main circuit breakers at 133% of theirs.

Faced with this evidence, LSI’s power provider acknowledged the billing error and issued a refund of $37,669.60. UMS also identified significant additional savings opportunities across LSI’s accounts, resulting in over $233,000 in total annual savings.