Utility costs in acquisitions: what to check after the deal closes
Utility accounts are rarely in the integration plan, yet every acquired site brings its own rate classes, contracts, payment routing and account classifications. Left alone, they produce late fees, default-service pricing and billing errors that run for years.
What goes wrong
- Missed payments. Bills keep going to the old owner's AP address. After one large acquisition, more than half of a 103-facility company's sites were incurring late fees every month.
- Default-service pricing. Supply contracts lapse or never included the new sites.
- Advisor gaps. Your broker may not be licensed in the acquired company's states.
- Inherited errors. Wrong rate classes, opt-out riders still being paid, stuck meters.
- Reporting gaps. Scope 2 and cost reporting miss sites until someone adds them.
The checklist
- Build the account inventory: every account, meter, address and provider.
- Secure authorization and payment so no bill is missed in the handoff.
- Find the contracts and record terms, pricing structure and expiry.
- Audit the inherited accounts against their tariffs.
- Bring sites into procurement and check advisor licensing covers them.
- Add them to reporting so the next close and the next ESG report include them.
With Discovery, once the authorization letter is signed and the TaraBase account exists, new facilities are generally added by email.