UMS’ utility bill audit of Lyon Shipyard‘s bills in Norfolk, Virginia uncovered erratic peak demands, indicative of billing errors. UMS requested a meter test from their power provider who performed the test, concluding that the meter was “registering correctly”, and declined to adjust the billing.

UMS then analyzed Lyon Shipyard’s (LSI) billing demand data for each 30-minute interval over a 12 month period. This indicated the unusual peak demand was during a single 30-minute period. The demand in that period was 300% higher than the demand in any other 30-minute period during the year. A review of LSI’s operating records indicated nothing unusual during that period. Dominion Power was still not convinced and declined to adjust the billing.

Next, a registered Professional Engineer from UMS inspected the equipment on site to see if it could even carry the billed demand. This revealed that the billed demand was greater than the equipment load at the site. It also revealed that to carry the billed demand, LSI’s power provider’s transformer would have needed to carry 196% of its capacity, and the customer’s main circuit breakers would have needed to carry 133% of its rated capacity. With the findings were presented to LSI’s power provider, they eventually agreed that the bill had been an error and provided a $37,669.60 refund to LSI.