City of Buford Utilities Rate Selection Guide
City of Buford Utilities is a Georgia municipal utility serving roughly 49,600 customers — about 4,000 electric customers (supplied via MEAG Power) and 46,000+ gas customers — across five counties northeast of Atlanta. Billing access runs through a Paymentus-powered payment portal with PDF bills only; there is no AMI, Green Button, EDI, or API, so C&I teams should plan on manual data requests with 5-10 business day turnarounds.
Market Overview
City of Buford is a municipally owned utility providing bundled electric and gas service with no retail choice. Electric supply comes from MEAG Power, the joint-action generation and transmission agency serving 49 Georgia municipal utilities (2,069 MW across four plants); the city is also part of the Electric Cities of Georgia trade association. As a municipal utility, Buford sets its own rates rather than filing with the Georgia PSC.
Need to pull your actual usage data to compare rates? See the City of Buford Utilities Data Access Guide →
Current Rate Schedules
City of Buford Utilities sets electric and gas rates by city commission action rather than Georgia PSC tariff, and does not publish itemized rate schedules online — customers obtain current rates from City Hall at (770) 945-6761. Electric supply comes from MEAG Power (the wholesale agency serving 49 Georgia municipals), with Buford's average residential rate around 14.7¢/kWh, below the national average. The gas department — Georgia's third-largest municipal gas system, serving 46,000+ customers across five counties — buys supply independently through self-directed contracts via the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgia, historically undercutting Atlanta Gas Light marketer rates. Gas bills carry three components: federally regulated interstate transportation, a fixed local distribution charge, and a variable commodity cost that floats with market prices.
Effective: January 1, 2026 · Full Tariff Book →
| Schedule | Type | Applicability | Structure | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial Electric Service | commercial | Roughly 1,000 commercial accounts — Buford's retail and light-industrial base — below demand-metering thresholds. | Monthly customer charge plus per-kWh energy charges; commercial deposits start at $300. Rate sheet available from City Hall — see the city for current rates. | — |
| Industrial / Large Commercial Electric Service | industrial | Buford's 17 industrial accounts and larger commercial loads with demand metering. | Demand-metered service with per-kW charges and energy charges passing through MEAG wholesale power costs; terms arranged with the electric department. Contact the city for current rates. | —+ Per-kW for demand-metered accounts — contact city |
| Commercial / Industrial Natural Gas Service | commercial | Commercial and industrial gas customers across the five-county gas territory; gas deposits start at $235. | Distribution charge plus market-based commodity cost; the city contracts winter peak supply services and buys forward up to five years out, smoothing but not eliminating commodity volatility. Contact the gas department for current rates and large-volume terms. | — |
Rate Recommendations by Use Case
Multi-site C&I bill management
Register every Buford account in the Paymentus portal and route PDF bills into a centralized processing workflow.
With PDF-only output and no API or aggregator coverage, portal access plus a manual download cadence is the only repeatable collection method.
- Create the portal account with service address and account number
- Enable email notifications for billing alerts
- Request a dedicated account representative for bulk or recurring data needs
Consultant data access
Front-load the authorization paperwork — Buford's third-party process is manual and may require in-person or notarized verification.
There is no automated consent system; establishing a named utility contact up front turns 5-10 day requests into a predictable routine.
- Keep notarized customer authorizations on file
- Call (678) 889-4600 before submitting documents
- Confirm annual renewal requirements for ongoing access
Energy management platform integration
Treat Buford accounts as manual-upload utilities with monthly granularity — interval analytics are not possible today.
No AMI, Green Button, or EDI exists; PDF/OCR bill ingestion is the only viable pipeline, with kWh and therms captured monthly.
- Standardize OCR on the Buford bill format for both electric and gas
- Ask the Electric Department about any future AMI plans
- Use Open Records requests for aggregate/territory-level data needs
Cost Optimization Strategies
Buford's combined electric (MEAG-supplied) and gas (MGAG self-directed) operation keeps base rates low, but rates aren't published online and gas commodity costs float with the market — so optimization centers on direct engagement with the city, weather-driven gas management, and efficiency on both fuels.
Get the current rate sheet and verify classification
For: All commercial and industrial customers
With no published tariff, request the current electric and gas rate sheets from City Hall at (770) 945-6761 and confirm each account's class. Commercial accounts approaching demand-metering thresholds should ask how demand billing would change their costs.
Winter gas commodity management
For: All gas customers; critical for heating-dominated commercial loads
Buford's gas commodity component floats with market prices, and severe cold events (like the January freeze-offs) can spike bills 30%+ on usage and price together. Boiler tune-ups, setback schedules, and building envelope work cut exposure exactly when therms cost most.
Large-volume gas supply discussion
For: Industrial and large commercial gas customers
Because Buford self-directs gas purchases through MGAG with contracts up to five years forward, large industrial gas users should discuss volume, load profile, and any negotiated or interruptible arrangements directly with the gas department rather than assuming one-size-fits-all pricing.
Electric demand management for industrial accounts
For: Industrial and demand-metered commercial electric accounts
Demand-metered industrial accounts pay for peak kW reflecting MEAG capacity costs. Staggering motor starts and managing coincident HVAC/process peaks reduces the demand component; request interval or demand history from the electric department to find your peaks.
Manual bill tracking across services
For: All multi-service and multi-site customers
Buford offers only a Paymentus payment portal — no Green Button, API, or usage exports. Build a monthly capture of kWh and therm figures from bills across electric, gas, water, and sewer accounts to trend usage, catch anomalies, and verify rate changes.
To implement these strategies, you need your 15-minute interval data. Learn how to download City of Buford Utilities interval data →
Frequently Asked Questions
Can commercial customers get interval data from City of Buford Utilities?▾
No. Buford has no documented AMI or smart meter deployment, so no 15/30-minute or hourly data exists. Monthly billing-period kWh and therms on bills and in the Paymentus portal are the only usage data available.
Does Buford support Green Button, EDI, or an API?▾
No native programs. There is no Green Button or Connect My Data, no EDI trading partner program, and no public API or developer portal. The Paymentus platform behind the payment portal is a payments product — not a customer-data API. Nectar provides API access to Buford billing data — see docs.nectarclimate.com.
How does a consultant access a client's Buford billing data?▾
Through a manual process: obtain a signed customer authorization or power of attorney (notarized copies recommended), call (678) 889-4600 in advance, then submit the authorization with business credentials in person at 2300 Buford Highway, by mail, or scanned to info@cityofbuford.com. Establish a named account contact; subsequent requests take 5-10 business days and arrive as PDF or printed statements.
Who supplies Buford's electric power?▾
MEAG Power — the joint-action generation and transmission agency serving 49 Georgia municipal utilities with four plants totaling 2,069 MW. Buford's roughly 4,000 electric customers receive municipally distributed power; the city's larger business is gas, with 46,000+ customers across five counties.
What billing data is available in the online portal?▾
Current bill status, billing history (retention not publicly documented), payment options including autopay, and email notifications — via the PCI Level 1 compliant Paymentus portal at cityofbuford.com/pay-utility-bill. Bills download as PDF only; there is no CSV/XML export.
Is there any path for bulk or aggregate Buford utility data?▾
Yes, two manual routes: written bulk-data requests to the Utility Billing Department (5-10 business days), or formal Georgia Open Records Act requests for anonymized/aggregate records through the Open Records Clerk (typically 10-20 business days).
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