Should We Raise Our Prices?
in Energy & Utilities Services

The short answer

The question is never whether to raise prices on master service agreements in general. It is which utility procurement officers will accept the increase, by how much before they shift work outside the outage window, and how much backlog you expect to lose. For utility contractors, this shows up in a particular place. The numbers that carry the answer are 18.0 and 71.4, and the complication specific to this industry is that margin improvement requires shifting revenue to automation and controls but that reduces overhead line work and operating profit unless utilization exceeds 79 percent which outage scheduling prevents. The general version of this problem and the one you are actually in have different first moves.

Price remains the fastest lever available to utility contractors. It requires no addition to backlog, no change in craft utilisation and no new automation revenue, yet it appears on the next invoice. Operators still avoid touching it, which is why underpricing persists even while margin improvement depends on shifting revenue to automation and controls that reduce overhead line work unless utilisation exceeds 79 percent.

A useful price analysis does not produce one number. It produces a segmentation across the 248.6 million dollars revenue from regulated utility asset projects: which agreements are paying below the value received, which already sit at the ceiling set by the utility procurement officer, and where the discount distribution shows price being set by individual negotiations rather than by policy.

The uncomfortable part is that a good price change deliberately loses some work. If a rise costs you no outage windows or backlog, it was too small; the structural bind means any lost overhead line volume must be offset by utilisation above 79 percent, which outage scheduling prevents.

How to tell this is actually your problem

These three together are the signature. One on its own usually points somewhere else.

✓ Craft utilisation sits at 71.4 with almost every master service agreement closing inside the outage window.
✓ Discounting appears on 23 percent of projects and is applied differently by each account manager.
✓ Price has remained unchanged while 6.6 in project write-downs and 18.0 in margin pressure have both risen.

The move that usually makes it worse. A uniform percentage rise across every master service agreement, which overcharges the price-sensitive utility procurement officers and still undercharges the ones whose work never depended on price.

Who this is for — and who it is not

It is for you if you run or finance a utility contractor and almost every deal closes, and closes quickly. It is the situation where the numbers are available but nobody has put them in an order that produces a decision.

It is not for you if Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.

Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.

What this looks like when the analysis is actually run

Below is an excerpt from a real run of this analysis on a utility contractor. It is a sample profile rather than a customer, and it is unedited engine output — this is the format you get, on your own numbers.

The subject is Verrick Energy Services, a sample company profile used for testing rather than a customer — 248.6 million dollars revenue from regulated utility asset projects.

This is one move out of a full analysis. Read a complete report — every page, no email required.

What the engine does with this question

This question routes to Pricing & Revenue Optimization, one of 29 engagements the platform runs. For utility contractors it works through 18.0, 71.4, 23 and 6.6, then produces the sequence rather than a list of options — which move first, what it funds, and the observation that would say the sequence is wrong.

You watch the analysis get built before paying anything. Read a complete report here if you would rather see the depth first.

Questions people ask about this

How much can I raise prices without losing customers?

There is no general answer, and the useful analysis is per segment. What can be said is that the loss you fear is usually concentrated in a group whose economics you would improve by losing them.

Should I raise prices for existing customers or only new ones?

New first is safer and slower; existing is where the money is. A defensible sequence is to move new-customer pricing, watch win rate for a quarter, then bring existing customers up at renewal with notice.

What if my competitors are cheaper?

Then you are selling against them on something other than price, or you are not — and that is the real question. Competing on price without the cost structure to support it is the most reliable way to lose money at increasing volume.

Is this different in energy & utilities services than in other industries?

Materially, yes. Margin improvement requires shifting revenue to automation and controls but that reduces overhead line work and operating profit unless utilization exceeds 79 percent which outage scheduling prevents — which changes both the diagnosis and the order of the fixes. The metrics that decide it here are 18.0, 71.4, 23, and an answer built on industry-general benchmarks will usually point at the wrong one first.

What data do I need before this analysis is worth running for a utility contractor?

Less than most people expect. Your last twelve months of revenue and cost split the way you already split it, plus whatever you hold on 18.0 and 71.4. The analysis is explicit about what it is assuming where your data stops, which is more useful than waiting for numbers you may never have.

When is Percision the wrong tool?

Percision is the wrong tool if you already know the answer and only need execution capacity, or if the business is pre-revenue — then the constraint is evidence about the market, not analysis of your own figures. Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library. Also wrong if you need facilitation, politics, or someone to sit with a lender or buyer. Those are human jobs.

Does Percision replace a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, or AI implementation team?

Percision is not a lawyer, tax advisor, auditor, licensed appraiser, clinical or regulatory filer, or an AI implementation shop. It does not do HR casework, creative-only brand work, or impersonate a named consulting firm. It is a strategy analysis engine — not a template library.