# Reading the Bill

> Taking an industrial statement apart line by line, from billing determinants to riders.

An industrial electricity bill is not one price. It is a stack of separate charges — energy, demand, transmission, distribution, riders, taxes — each metered differently and each responding to a different behavior on your site. Most of them are never explained on the bill itself, because the bill assumes you already have the rate schedule in front of you. This section takes the document apart line by line: what a billing determinant is, which numbers come from the meter and which come from a formula, where the multipliers hide, and how to reconcile a statement against the published tariff. If you cannot say which line item a given hour of operation lands in, nothing else on this site will help you. Start here.

## Articles in this section

- [How to Read an Industrial Electricity Bill, Line by Line](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/how-to-read-an-industrial-electricity-bill): An industrial statement is four different charges stacked together, each priced on a different determinant. Here is what every line means and which ones respond to timing rather than volume.
- [A 12-Point Audit for Any Commercial Electricity Bill](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/bill-audit-checklist): A 12-point electric bill audit for commercial accounts: meter multiplier, demand charge and ratchet arithmetic, riders and power factor. One bill, one tariff, one hour.
- [Billing Determinants — The Four Numbers That Set Your Bill](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/billing-determinants-explained): Billing determinants are the metered quantities a utility prices on your bill: energy, billed demand, kVA and power factor. What each one is and how to check it.
- [Estimated Reads, True-Ups and Rebills — When the Meter Was Not Read](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/estimated-reads-and-rebills): An estimated bill is a placeholder that gets corrected later. On a demand tariff the correction is not always straightforward, and it is worth knowing how yours is calculated.
- [How to Get Your Interval Data, and What to Do With It](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/interval-data-how-to-get-it): A monthly bill tells you a peak happened. Fifteen-minute interval data tells you when, how often and what caused it — and it is usually available for free.
- [Meter Multipliers and CT Ratios — The Line That Silently Scales Your Bill](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/meter-multiplier-ct-ratio): The meter multiplier on an electric bill turns the register reading into billed kWh and kW. How CT and PT ratios set it, and how to check that yours is right.
- [Rate Riders and Surcharges — The Charges That Are Not in the Rate](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/riders-surcharges-explained): Rate riders are the charges added on top of the base rate: fuel adjustments, transmission recovery, program funding. What each attaches to, and what that does to your savings.
- [Supply Charges and Delivery Charges on a Business Bill](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/supply-vs-delivery-charges): In a retail choice state the bill has two halves with two different owners. Shopping moves one of them. The demand charge usually sits in the half that no supplier can touch.
- [kW vs kWh — the Difference Between a Kilowatt and a Kilowatt-Hour](https://thedemandcharge.com/articles/kw-vs-kwh-difference): A kilowatt (kW) is a rate of electricity use; a kilowatt-hour (kWh) is an amount. What the difference means on a commercial bill, and why it changes savings math.

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