A new property can mean new construction, a reopened hotel, a newly managed property, or an addition to an existing portfolio. Those situations produce different energy records and responsibilities. Start by naming which situation applies. The opening schedule does not establish who holds the utility accounts or which supply agreements are active.
Print this worksheet for the property’s responsible team and attach the meter map. Use the procurement hub for decisions about competitive supply. If ownership is changing, coordinate with the ownership transfer checklist rather than treating onboarding as evidence that all prior obligations have ended.
Which accounts and contacts must be established?
| Meter, commodity, served area | Utility account and entity | Service date and supply position | Owner, evidence, exception |
|---|---|---|---|
Write the property name, opening or takeover window, operating entity, utility emergency contacts, account contact, billing owner, facilities lead, and version date above the map. Include separately metered restaurants, leased facilities, parking, or ancillary buildings where relevant. Mark accounts that belong to another party; identifying them does not authorize the hotel to procure supply for them.
What should be checked before and after activation?
- Walk the property and reconcile service points.
Use facilities records and a safe site inspection to identify electricity, gas, and other relevant utility meters. Record identifiers, locations, served areas, and any known submeters. Match physical observations with utility bills and service records. Distinguish a submeter used for internal allocation from a utility service point with its own account. Flag shared equipment, neighboring space, or construction service that may be outside the operating hotel’s responsibility. Assign a person to resolve each mismatch rather than carrying an assumed meter count into procurement.
Status: □ Pending □ Complete □ Exception. Facilities owner: __________. Map evidence: __________. Unmatched service point and action: __________.
- Verify responsible entities and authority.
Identify who will hold each utility account, who pays the invoices, who may receive data, and who can sign a supply agreement. Reconcile legal names with the owner’s instructions and utility records. A hotel brand, manager, and property-owning entity can have different roles. Keep documented authorization for third parties that retrieve data or request quotes, specifying the permitted actions. If responsibility is disputed or incomplete, escalate it before opening rather than allowing the first bill to decide the matter accidentally.
Status: □ Pending □ Complete □ Exception. Entity reviewer: __________. Authority reference: __________. Responsibility question and decision: __________.
- Confirm continuity and activation procedures.
Ask the utility to confirm the actual requirements for opening, changing, or continuing each account. Record expected and accepted service dates, application status, credit requirements, and available acknowledgment. Coordinate any construction-to-operating transition with the facilities team. Do not assume that changing the mailing address activates service or that a supplier agreement controls utility connection work. Give the property a clear contact for account questions and a separate route for outages or gas emergencies through the utility’s published procedures.
Status: □ Pending □ Complete □ Exception. Utility coordinator: __________. Accepted date evidence: __________. Pending activation requirement: __________.
- Locate existing supply and account obligations.
Obtain active agreements, relevant account schedules, notices, and amendments from the owner, prior operator, and suppliers as appropriate. Verify whether obligations continue, require consent, or need another approved arrangement. Treat an old quote as an unverified lead, not an executed contract. Identify default or utility supply treatment while competitive enrollment is unresolved, using the actual account rules. If the hotel is eligible to shop, wait until the start window and entity are clear enough to define a coherent request.
Status: □ Pending □ Complete □ Exception. Supply reviewer: __________. Agreement evidence: __________. Continuity or consent issue: __________.
- Prepare the initial load and operating record.
Collect historical bills and intervals when available and note whether they represent the same building and operations. For a new or changed property, gather commissioning records, equipment plans, room count, operating hours, laundry and kitchen arrangements, and phased opening dates. Label forecasts and their sources explicitly. Separate construction consumption from hotel operations where records allow. The quote document checklist can organize the request. Keep uncertainty visible so a supplier can state how its proposed product treats it.
Status: □ Pending □ Complete □ Exception. Forecast owner: __________. Historical or estimated source: __________. Operational assumption requiring review: __________.
- Establish billing access and account controls.
Arrange authorized access to invoices, interval exports, supplier records, and utility contacts. Use the owner’s access-management process rather than sharing personal passwords. Set the invoice delivery address, accounting contact, escalation owner, and backup. Record who can update account details or approve payments. Retain a document index that a replacement employee can use. If a broker supports onboarding, record scope and compensation payer, method, units, and embedded or separate treatment; count embedded compensation once in the supply cost comparison.
Status: □ Pending □ Complete □ Exception. Billing access owner: __________. Access evidence: __________. Missing permission or service scope: __________.
- Brief operations and record opening conditions.
Give facilities and management the meter map, approved account responsibilities, outage contacts, and any supply-related reporting obligations. Note equipment schedules and initial operational assumptions that will be checked against measured use. Record known commissioning issues, partial openings, or temporary loads that could affect the first invoices. Avoid promising that a quoted annual usage represents the new building’s actual performance. Assign an operational owner to update the forecast when rooms, facilities, or equipment enter service differently from the approved plan.
Status: □ Pending □ Complete □ Exception. Operations lead: __________. Briefing record: __________. Opening condition and review date: __________.
- Verify initial invoices and close the handoff.
Check that each expected account appears, service periods match the accepted dates, supplier identification is correct, and charges follow the intended agreement and tariff. Reconcile construction, prior-party, or transition charges with the responsible entities. Keep disputed amounts and unexplained meters open with evidence and owners. The monthly bill checklist carries ongoing review. Update the account register from accepted records and store activation confirmations, authority, contracts, and first-bill findings in the operating file.
Status: □ Pending □ Complete □ Exception. First-bill reviewer: __________. Closure evidence: __________. Carried issue and responsible person: __________.
Which source guidance helps verify the handoff?
EIA’s delivery explanation distinguishes the physical electricity system from competitive supply arrangements in markets that permit choice. A new supply decision does not replace the utility’s delivery role. Confirm connection and account procedures directly with the relevant utility while separately confirming supply acceptance.
The Pennsylvania commission’s business shopping page illustrates the importance of account details and available supplier choices. It does not establish eligibility for properties in other states or utilities. Record the actual territory and classification before using a shopping request. The checklist therefore asks for eligibility evidence rather than preselecting a supplier model for every hotel.
How should temporary services be separated from hotel operations?
List construction, commissioning, and other temporary accounts separately from the permanent operating accounts. Record which party controls each one, the intended closure or continuation date, and the evidence required to confirm the change. If temporary consumption appears in a historical export, flag the affected periods before using it to forecast operating load. A temporary meter that remains active should stay on the account register with a responsible person rather than disappearing when the property opens. Review temporary service removal with the utility and facilities team, because closing an accounting record does not establish that the physical service arrangement changed as intended.
How should the property create a durable data baseline?
EPA’s Portfolio Manager how-to guides provide resources for utility data and sharing. They can support a new baseline after the meter boundary is reconciled. Keep partial periods, estimated reads, phased openings, and changed facilities identified so future benchmarking does not treat them as comparable full-operation years.
At handoff, give the operating team a short unresolved-item register: issue, account, evidence needed, responsible person, due date, and decision. Preserve the record even when a question is resolved later. The useful baseline is one whose scope and limitations are known, allowing procurement, accounting, and facilities to work from the same property facts.