Independent Energy Consulting · Rural Alberta
Most of Your Power Bill Isn’t the Power.
Demand charges. Transmission and distribution. Riders and admin fees. On most Alberta farm and commercial bills that side costs more than the electricity — and a solar quote won’t touch it. We read the whole bill before we recommend anything.
Where We Start
“Should I Get Solar?” Is the Wrong First Question.
If you farm or run a commercial operation in southern Alberta, you’ve been pitched solar. Probably more than once. Someone pulled up a satellite photo of your shop roof, estimated your usage, and handed you a number.
That approach works for a house in the suburbs. It doesn’t work for an operation with three-phase service, irrigation pumps, grain dryers, or a rate class that bills you on peak demand.
The right first question isn’t whether you should get solar. It’s where is your energy money actually going — and no one can answer that without reading your bills.
Demand Charges
One Fifteen-Minute Spike Sets Your Bill for the Month.
On Fortis Alberta Rate 21 and Rate 22, part of your bill is based on the highest fifteen-minute demand spike you hit that month — not on total consumption. Two operations using identical kilowatt-hours can pay very different bills depending on when that power gets pulled.
This is the single most common thing we find, and it’s the one solar quotes almost never account for. A system sized to your annual kWh can leave your demand charge untouched.
We calculate your actual demand profile first. Then we know what’s worth fixing.
The Assessment
What We Actually Look At
Your bills
Twelve months, line by line. Delivery charges, riders, retailer rate, administration fees, and which rate class you're on. We check whether you're on the right one.
Your loads
Panel and circuit inventory, motors, compressors, refrigeration, heating, irrigation. What's drawing power, when, and how much.
Your lighting
Fixture count, type, wattage, and hours of operation. This is usually where the fastest payback hides.
Your infrastructure
Transformer capacity, service voltage, and main breaker size. This determines what's even possible before anyone talks about equipment.
The Process
Four Steps, No Pressure
Send us your bills
Twelve months if you have them. We can pull them from your retailer if you don't.
We analyze
Rate class, demand profile, load breakdown, lighting inventory.
You get a written findings report
Where the money is going, what it would cost to change it, and what the payback looks like on each option.
You decide
Do the work with us, take the report to another contractor, or do nothing. It's yours either way.
Why Independent
We’d Rather Tell You No Than Sell You Something.
We’ve told operations that solar didn’t pencil out on their rate class. We’ve told others that lighting alone would get them most of the savings for a fraction of the cost. We’ve told a few that the fastest win was switching retailers.
That’s the job. The assessment is how we earn the right to recommend anything at all — and if the numbers don’t support a project, you’ll hear that instead.
Service Area
Rural Alberta, Within About 100 km of Calgary
Start With the Numbers.
The assessment is free and there’s no obligation attached to it. Worst case, you find out you’re already running efficiently — and that’s worth knowing too.
Get a Free Energy Assessment