Energy Costs Continue to Rise. Here's How to Take Back Control

It’s one thing to say that electricity prices continue to rise.

It’s another thing to see it.

The chart above (data courtesy of NYSERDA) shows that electricity prices in New York have risen about 30% in 10+ years. Electricity prices in 2025 ran between 29% and 40% higher than in 2015. So far, 2026 prices are averaging 11% more than 2025’s and about 50% higher than 2015's.

Of course, rising utility costs translate directly and immediately into higher operating costs. For example, high-rises spend 20% of their operating budgets on utility costs, and hospitals and other complex facilities are usually more than that. The amount varies. Nonetheless, whether you're on the lower or the higher side of that range, the additional expense is never welcome.

No one’s budget can take this kind of punishment month after month, year after year. But you can’t control utility costs.

Here's what you can control:

• Validate your meters. Faulty meters, bad wiring, aging equipment, or mis-sized CTs often result in under-recovery, meaning your tenants aren’t paying what they should be.
• Look hard for energy and water leaks. Do you box out your numbers every month to see if your consumption numbers match up with the utility’s master meter? This task is easy to skip and may seem like something you can eyeball. We would discourage that. Small losses add up much faster than you’d like to believe.
• Look into energy plant monitoring. The ROI on monitoring is typically 90 days (with utiliVisor, anyway). That’s it! And then your investment starts to pay back by reducing your utility consumption and therefore your monthly costs.
• Cast about for financial incentive programs. These programs are a win for you and the utility: you get access to capital support fast (and sometimes at a great discount) and the utility enjoys lower, steadier demand.

The data, even for just one state, is sobering. Energy is not going to get cheaper. So if you do nothing, your costs are going to go up. The only way to manage the problem coming at you is to be proactive.

If you’d like help qualifying for incentives, qualifying for more incentives, improving your recovery percentage, ensuring your meter accuracy, or pinpointing what to change and how to bring that consumption down, give us a shout.