Energy costs are climbing, and commercial and industrial customers are seeing it in their bottom line every month. U.S. commercial electricity prices rose 10.7% in the past year across 43 states, with hotspots like Virginia up 26.3%, Ohio up 21.9%, and Pennsylvania up 19.5%. Rate increases, grid infrastructure investments, and surging electricity demand are all pushing bills in one direction, and few expect relief anytime soon. Yet for many businesses, rising rates are only half the problem. The other half is that they cannot say with confidence what they spend on energy across their operations, why costs differ from site to site, or where opportunities exist to reduce them.
That’s the visibility gap, and it’s becoming more expensive every quarter.
Here's what it looks like in practice. A company with 40 locations may receive utility bills from a dozen different providers, each with its own format, rate structure, and billing cycle. Bills are paid by local site managers or routed through accounts payable, where the priority is simply ensuring invoices are processed on time. Rarely are they consolidated, analyzed, or compared across locations. Energy becomes something companies pay for rather than something they actively manage.
It would be an unusual way to run any other major expense. No CFO would accept this approach for payroll, software subscriptions, or freight costs. Yet utility spend, often one of the largest controllable operating expenses, frequently lacks a clear owner, a baseline for comparison, or a strategy for optimization.
Ironically, many organizations already have the information they need to change this.
Over the past several years, companies across manufacturing, construction, retail, wholesale, and private equity have begun collecting utility bills, fuel invoices, and consumption records to meet sustainability and emissions reporting requirements. What many overlook is that there is no such thing as "sustainability data." The same utility bill used to calculate a carbon footprint also shows what was paid, the applicable tariff, usage trends, and how one facility performs compared with another. It is financial and operational data that simply happens to support sustainability reporting.
Too often, companies stop once the sustainability report is complete.
I call this the measurement merry-go-round. Organizations invest significant time collecting energy data, produce the required disclosures, and then fail to use that same information to improve business performance. Meanwhile, waste remains hidden in plain sight: facilities on the wrong rate schedule, unnecessary demand charges, equipment operating during peak pricing periods, and buildings consuming far more energy than comparable sites in the same portfolio. In the US alone, an estimated $2 trillion is spent inefficiently on energy every year, and much of it hides in exactly these places.
The encouraging news is that closing the visibility gap doesn't require a massive transformation. It starts with treating energy as a managed business expense rather than an unavoidable overhead cost.
First, centralize the data. Bring every utility bill and fuel invoice into a single, standardized system. This has historically been the hardest step. Billing formats, data availability, and account structures vary widely, but the challenge is manageable with a consistent collection and normalization process. That foundation makes the next steps possible.
Second, establish a baseline and benchmark performance. Once the data is standardized, patterns emerge quickly. Which facilities have the highest energy costs per square foot? Which are operating on outdated or suboptimal tariffs? Where has usage increased despite little operational change? For many organizations, it's the first time these questions can be answered with confidence.
Finally, act on what the data reveals. Whether through rate optimization, HVAC improvements, LED retrofits, demand response programs, or operational changes, many of the highest-impact energy projects pay for themselves. As electricity prices continue to rise, every kilowatt-hour avoided becomes more valuable.
Energy rates will continue increasing regardless of what any individual company does. Grid modernization, growing demand, and aging infrastructure are trends far bigger than any single ratepayer. What businesses can control is whether they absorb those costs blindly or manage them with the same discipline they apply to every other major expense.
The companies best positioned for the next decade of energy inflation won't necessarily be those with the lowest electricity prices. They'll be the ones that close the visibility gap, treat their utility bills as a source of savings rather than a filing chore, and put data they're already collecting to work twice.
The information is already sitting in the accounts payable inbox. The only question is whether anyone is reading it.
Jay Ruckelshaus is the Co-Founder and Head of Policy at Gravity.
