Helping Small Businesses Find Their Best Rate Options
By Ron Gales
Running a small business can be challenging, and the COVID-19 pandemic is making the business environment more difficult for many. Southern California Edison is actively helping businesses in its service area save money by finding opportunities to switch to more beneficial rate plans.
So far this year, SCE’s Business Customer Division has helped more than 210 accounts find rate plan options that are projected to save those customers more than $1.1 million on their electric bills each year.
One of those customers is Fiesta Martin, a family-run business that opened its first restaurant in December 2009 with parents, Gloria and Esaul, in the kitchen and their five children helping out after their day jobs. Today, there are five Fiesta Martin restaurants, all in Inglewood .
Christian Martin, one of the Martins’ grown-up children, credits the local community for its support during the height of the pandemic. “The community really stepped up and continued coming in to get away from it all,” he said. Christian still works at the restaurants, along with his siblings and their extended families.
Veronica Diaz, an account manager on SCE’s Small Business and Economic Development team, recently reached out to Christian when SCE determined through data analysis that Fiesta Martin could benefit from changes to their rate plans. “They are such a hard-working family,” said Diaz, who met the Martins at an event hosted by the city of Inglewood. “I thought they may not know about the opportunities to save on their electric bills.”
After consulting with Christian, Diaz switched all five locations to more suitable rate plans that (based on previous usage) could save the business more than $13,000 each year. “We’re going to reinvest the savings into the business and the community,” said Christian.
Diaz provided similar help to GAFE Pizza, a company that manages Domino’s Pizza franchise businesses, with 37 locations in SCE’s service area, each with its own SCE account.
Working closely with controller Luciano Lassalle, Diaz walked him through SCE’s online rate plan comparison tool , which provides a custom comparison between SCE rate options based on the account’s usage data from the previous 12 months, to show what that account would have been charged for the same usage on different rate options.
“I didn’t know it was possible to have rates evaluated,” said Lasalle, adding that Diaz walked him “step by step through the results” of the comparisons. Ultimately, he used the online tool to switch rate plans for 31 of the 37 accounts — processing some with Diaz’s help but mostly on his own. “The big difference is being able to do this online,” he said.
Lassalle estimates the rate plan switches will save almost $40,000 in total each year. “It was vastly different for each store (location),” he said. “One store (will save about) $4,100 each year, another store only $30. But even if you add up only those stores that will save a lot, it still totals well over $30,000 (annually).”
“Any franchise business that’s been around for more than a year should take advantage of this,” Lassalle said.
Diaz advises business customers to try SCE’s online rate plan comparison tool to learn about options among SCE rate plans. Business customers should also make sure they’re signed up for My Account on SCE.com and confirm that their contact information is accurate and up to date. This way, SCE’s Business Customer Division can provide them with information about programs and tools to help them save energy and money and stay competitive.
Business customers seeking information about rate changes can inquire at bcd.acctmgt.solutions@sce.com .
