City of Hamilton, Ohio Utilities (Electric & Gas) Rate Selection Guide
The City of Hamilton's Department of Infrastructure runs a four-utility municipal operation — electric, natural gas, water, and wastewater — serving roughly 53,700 combined customers in Butler County, Ohio. Billing data lives in the UtilityPay portal (PDF bills, paperless billing), but as a non-PUCO-regulated municipal utility there is no Green Button, interval data, EDI, or third-party API; C&I customers negotiate data arrangements directly with utility operations.
Market Overview
Hamilton is a city-owned municipal utility providing bundled electric and gas service under its own codified ordinances (Chapter 943 Electricity, Chapter 947 Gas Service, Chapter 927.09 Billing & Collection). It is not regulated by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, so PUCO retail choice and data access rules do not apply; rates and data policies are set by the city.
Need to pull your actual usage data to compare rates? See the City of Hamilton, Ohio Utilities (Electric & Gas) Data Access Guide →
Current Rate Schedules
The City of Hamilton operates municipally owned electric and gas systems with rates set by city ordinance (Codified Ordinances Chapter 943) rather than PUCO tariff. Commercial electric classes break at 12-month average demand: Commercial Non-Demand (<25 kW), Commercial Demand Service 'CDS' (25-200 kW), Large Power (200-1,000 kW), and Industrial (>1,000 kW), plus a High Load Factor Industrial Service 'HLFIS' option for steady loads of 1,000 kW+ at 75%+ load factor. Demand-metered schedules carry a 90% power factor requirement and a minimum billed demand of 70% of the highest billed demand (or contract capacity) from the prior 12 months — a meaningful ratchet. Hamilton emphasizes competitive, renewable-heavy power for economic development, and its Economic Development team provides rate projections for new or expanding businesses.
Effective: April 1, 2024 · Full Tariff Book →
| Schedule | Type | Applicability | Structure | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Non-Demand Service | commercial | Commercial/governmental customers and master-metered multi-unit residential with 12-month average demand under 25 kW. | Monthly fixed charge plus a single energy charge on all kWh (about $0.129/kWh in the published 2023 schedule); no demand charge. See the codified ordinances for current-year rates. | ~$0.129/kWh (2023 schedule) |
| Commercial Demand Service (CDS) | commercial | Commercial/industrial/governmental customers with 12-month average demand of 25 kW or greater but less than 200 kW. | Customer charge of $75/month single-phase or $150/month three-phase; demand charge of $20.50/kW; energy charge of $0.05590/kWh per the codified ordinance. Billed demand is the greater of power-factor-adjusted metered demand or 70% of the highest billed demand in the prior 12 months. | $0.05590/kWh+ $20.50/kW |
| Large Power / Industrial Service | industrial | Loads of 200-1,000 kW (Large Power) and over 1,000 kW (Industrial) average monthly demand. | Customer charge, per-kW demand charges, and energy charges in the $0.045-$0.065/kWh range per published schedules, with 90% power factor provisions and the 70% demand ratchet. See Chapter 943 of the codified ordinances for current figures. | —+ Per-kW with 70% ratchet — see ordinance |
| High Load Factor Industrial Service (HLFIS) | industrial | Commercial/industrial/governmental customers with 1,000 kW+ average demand and a monthly load factor of 75% or greater (data centers, continuous-process plants); three months allowed to reach the load factor threshold. | Effective April 1, 2024: $750/month three-phase primary customer charge; demand charge of $29.00/kW (or $23.50/kW interruptible primary); energy charge of $0.02310/kWh on all kWh. Minimum billed demand is 70% of the higher of contract capacity or the highest billed demand of the prior 12 months. | $0.02310/kWh+ $29.00/kW firm; $23.50/kW interruptible |
| Natural Gas Service (Residential & Commercial) | commercial | Hamilton's municipal gas system serves residential and commercial customers within the city's distribution territory. | Fixed monthly charge plus usage-based charges per ccf recovering distribution, production, and capital costs, with commodity costs reflecting the city's gas supply purchases. See the city's utilities rates page and codified ordinances for current per-ccf pricing. | — |
Rate Recommendations by Use Case
Multi-site C&I billing consolidation
Link all Hamilton accounts in UtilityPay and pursue batch billing or electronic invoicing through Utility Operations.
The portal supports multi-account linking, and the utility entertains custom billing arrangements for large loads even though no standard EDI exists.
- Ask 513-785-7200 about batch billing and custom reporting formats
- Enable paperless billing to a centralized inbox
- Engage Economic Development early for new facilities
Consultant data collection
Prepare written customer consent and work the case-by-case process — Hamilton has no standing third-party program.
As a non-PUCO municipal utility, data sharing is discretionary; clear authorization scope and a specific data request speed up approval.
- Include account number, scope, and third-party contact in the consent
- Confirm format, fees, and timeline up front with 513-785-7100
- Plan on PDF delivery and manual refresh cycles
Energy management platform integration
Treat Hamilton accounts as manual-upload utilities; only public GIS infrastructure data is machine-readable.
With no Green Button, API, or aggregator coverage, PDF/OCR ingestion is the integration path; the ArcGIS REST services help with site mapping but carry no usage data.
- Standardize OCR on UtilityPay PDF bills
- Use the outage viewer and GIS layers for facility/site context
- Ask about future AMI plans — deployment status is undocumented
Cost Optimization Strategies
Hamilton's rate design strongly rewards high load factor — HLFIS prices energy at just $0.0231/kWh for steady 1,000 kW+ loads — while the 70% demand ratchet and 90% power factor floor penalize spiky or poorly corrected loads. The biggest levers for Hamilton C&I customers are ratchet management, load factor improvement, power factor correction, and engaging the city's Economic Development team on rate structuring.
Demand ratchet management
For: All demand-metered customers (CDS, Large Power, Industrial, HLFIS)
Minimum billed demand is 70% of your highest billed demand (or contract capacity) from the prior 12 months — one peak sets a billing floor for a year. Sequence equipment starts, interlock large loads, and treat every potential new monthly peak as a 12-month commitment at $20.50-$29.00/kW.
Load factor improvement toward HLFIS
For: Industrial customers at or near 1,000 kW
Loads of 1,000 kW+ that sustain a 75% monthly load factor qualify for HLFIS at $0.0231/kWh — less than half the standard industrial energy rate. Flattening production schedules or adding steady base load can tip a facility into qualification; new customers get three months to hit the threshold.
Power factor correction
For: Motor-heavy commercial and industrial loads
Hamilton bills demand at metered kVA × 0.90 when power factor falls below 90% lagging. Capacitor banks on motor-heavy loads keep billed kW equal to real kW and avoid inflating both the monthly demand charge and the 12-month ratchet.
Interruptible demand election
For: HLFIS customers with curtailable load
HLFIS customers able to curtail on city request can take the interruptible primary demand rate of $23.50/kW instead of $29.00/kW — a $5.50/kW monthly discount that compounds across large contract demands.
Economic development rate engagement
For: New, relocating, and expanding commercial/industrial customers
Hamilton's Economic Development team provides utility rate projections and custom arrangements for new or expanding businesses across its four municipal utilities (electric, gas, water, wastewater). Engage them before siting or expansion decisions — written contracts with negotiated rates are explicitly provided for in the electric rules.
To implement these strategies, you need your 15-minute interval data. Learn how to download City of Hamilton, Ohio Utilities (Electric & Gas) interval data →
Frequently Asked Questions
Can C&I customers get interval data from Hamilton's electric or gas utility?▾
No. Hamilton has no confirmed AMI deployment and no interval data program. The 2016 Electric General Rules only require a meter reading at least once every 12 months, with remote reading permitted. Large customers should call 513-785-7100 to ask about special meter reading requests or direct meter data agreements.
Does Hamilton support Green Button, EDI, or a customer-data API?▾
No. There is no Green Button or Connect My Data, no EDI transactions (820/814/867), and no developer API for billing or usage data. The only machine-readable services are public ArcGIS REST endpoints covering electric and gas infrastructure — not customer data.
How does a consultant get authorized access to a client's Hamilton billing data?▾
Case-by-case: the customer provides written consent with account number, scope, and the third party's contact info; the consultant contacts Customer Service at 513-785-7100 to confirm what can be shared, the required forms, format, fees, and timeline. As a non-PUCO municipal utility, data sharing is at the city's discretion.
Why don't Ohio PUCO data access rules apply to Hamilton?▾
Hamilton is a city-owned municipal utility governed by its own codified ordinances (Chapters 943, 947, 927.09), not the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. PUCO retail choice and data access regulations apply to investor-owned utilities; Hamilton sets its own rates and data policies, subject to Ohio public records law.
What billing data is available in the UtilityPay portal?▾
Current and past bills as PDF, payment history, account summaries, multi-account linking, paperless billing, recurring payments, and pay-by-text. A 12-month usage summary supports Budget Billing enrollment, but there is no CSV/XML export and no interval detail.
Can large facilities negotiate custom billing or data arrangements?▾
Possibly. Hamilton's Utility Operations (513-785-7200 Electric) and Economic Development teams handle custom requests — electronic invoicing, batch billing across multiple sites, custom reporting formats, and potentially direct system-to-system connections. Nothing is standardized, so terms are negotiated per account.
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