Oh, you're a medium size business. $200+/month isn't great, but if you can bring demand below 20kW, the small business plan is about a tenth of that. It's better than $500+/month, or whatever you were paying before for electricity, right?
We are a small business who uses more power than a normal office environment, but the same would apply to small shops who run machinery or do welding. We have a 4000 sq ft temperature controlled laboratory area. 4 heat pumps are required to run 24/7/365 to maintain the required 68°-72° F window. Note that Peak Demand is measured in 15 minute blocks and is more of the bill of than actual power (kWh). By recharging EVs I accidentally pushed us into the 20-200 kW demand window (TOU-GS-2B), and I'm trying to fix it with solar.
Before energy efficiency mods, and solar, we were $900-$2500 a month. Wide variation is due to higher Summer tariffs and the occasional heat wave up to 115°F or higher, and the short 15 minute demand window. Summer highest, Winter second, spring/fall lowest. Your worst 15 minutes of a month defines your bill. You can have 3 months in a year where you hit over 20kW for 15 min or more, and be pushed into this tariff. Note for a business, that's a total draw of 42 amps for everything, and about 120 amps for a residence depending on how much of your amps are at 240v vs 120v. We are not talking 'medium business' power levels, which are far higher.
We reduced grid energy consumption a total of 64% so far and the bills are 40% less so far. Seeing a bill that started with a 5 was quite a shock.
BUT! We were only 18-32 kW Peak Demand (average about 24 kW) which occurs from noon-3pm normally which is solar time.
When we stay under 20kW for 12 months (or I fight them about it early), we will drop into a conventional TOU plan which will reward lower electric use with lower cost per kWh and our bills will be under 50%
Why is this relevant to residential customers? Demand-based billing first started with large businesses. Then medium, then small, and there is a push toward residential demand based billing. Demand based billing will harm solar users more than any other group. A home with an EV can easily hit 20kWh, which adds about $400 to your bill even if you only did that for 15 minutes during the month. Then you also pay for power you use.