Case Studies
Commercial Real Estate
Senior Living Communities
State Governmental Agency
National Grocery Store Chain
School District
International Warehouse Chain
Commercial Real Estate
Description of Service: Client is a national commercial real estate company. LPB has provided procurement consulting for all properties in 2 states.
Project Objective(s): The client sought LPB’s assistance in securing competitive energy supply contracts for over 30 properties. LPB’s objectives in this pursuit were to do as follows: help client evaluate their risk profile and energy management objectives; match them up with appropriate products; educate the client on market dynamics and options in different markets; develop hedge plans for each geographic market; facilitate web-based energy reporting; secure low cost energy contracts under favorable terms and conditions; and provide client with advanced budget and forecasting support.
Project Methodologies: LPB started discussions with client to identify their risk tolerance and overall corporate energy management goals. Armed with this information, LPB gathered historical account information for each property, identified suppliers interested in bidding, served as the interface between the client and the eligible suppliers, solicited rounds of competitive bids from suppliers, negotiated contract terms with “short-listed” suppliers, and engaged in continuous discussions about market dynamics and timing of contract execution. LPB then helped the client evaluate the “best and final” bids and facilitated contract execution.
After securing competitive supply contracts, LPB worked with the supplier(s) to secure billing data flow to LPB Service Bureau and trained client on usage of LPB’s on-line system for viewing energy usage and billing data. LPB also derived detailed budget and forecast data for energy use for 2008 based on historical data in client’s database.
Throughout the term of the client’s supply contracts, LPB has provided continuing market analysis and hedge plan support.
Results: As a result of LPB’s involvement, the client saved approximately 15% below current market prices as of March 2008.
In addition, LPB collected billing and usage data for all properties and hosted this data for on-line viewing by client. Having this data available on-line resulted in improved accountability and engagement of facility managers through web-based behavior modification reporting and improved energy efficiency investment decision-making.
Senior Living Communities
Description of Service: Client owns and manages over 50 retirement communities in various states. LPB provided procurement consulting services for these facilities.
Project Objective(s): The client sought LPB’s assistance in securing competitive energy supply contracts for each facility. LPB’s objectives in this pursuit were to do as follows: help client evaluate their overall risk profile to match them up with appropriate products; educate the client on market dynamics and options in different markets; develop hedge plans for each geographic market; facilitate web-based energy reporting; and secure low cost energy contracts under favorable terms and conditions.
Project Methodologies: LPB and client discussed identifying their risk tolerance and overall corporate energy management goals. Armed with this information, LPB gathered historical account information for each property, identified suppliers interested in bidding, served as the interface between the client and the eligible suppliers, solicited rounds of competitive bids from suppliers, negotiated contract terms with “short-listed” suppliers, and engaged in continuous discussions about market dynamics and timing of contract execution. Then LPB helped the client evaluate the “best and final” bids and facilitated contract execution.
After securing competitive supply contracts, LPB worked with the supplier(s) to secure billing data flow to LPB Service Bureau and trained client on usage of on-line system for viewing energy usage and billing data. Throughout the term of the client’s supply contracts, LPB has provided continuing market analysis and hedge plan support.
Results: As a result of LPB’s involvement, the client has saved approximately 28% below previously effective tariff rates. With this savings, the client eliminated improperly assessed sales taxes from their invoices prospectively.
In addition, LPB has collected billing and usage data for all properties and hosted this data for on-line viewing by client. Having this data available on-line has resulted in improved accountability and engagement of facility managers through web-based behavior modification reporting and improved energy efficiency investment decision-making.
State Governmental Agency
Description of Service: This state governmental agency is responsible for serving over 30 million people through mostly federal funding. The agency consumes excessive kWh of electricity per year across thousands of utility accounts. Prior to LPB engagement, Client was purchasing energy from five different vendors at default rates and processing paper invoices by mail, using accounting labor in over 20 separate geographically defined administrative districts. The state’s contract regulations on savings and funding contributed to the high cost.
Project Objectives: LPB sought to aggregate all utility accounts into a single, competitively-priced retail energy contract, implement automated invoice processing and rule-based multi-elevation invoice verification system as well as facilitate web-based energy reporting.
Project Methodologies: In pursuit of the above objectives, LPB gathered all account information and discussed the various pricing options with personnel. After determining the appropriate pricing product to meet the agency’s needs, LPB identified suppliers interested in bidding. Once LPB identified experienced suppliers with applicable experience in high meter-count deals, they solicited competitive bids and negotiated contract terms.
When market conditions were favorable, LPB solicited and evaluated “best and final” bids and facilitated contract execution.
After supply contract(s) were signed, LPB worked with supplier to establish EDI billing data transfer directly to LPB Service Bureau and worked with Client IT staff to facilitate transfer of billing data to client’s accounting system. Finally, LPB trained the client on usage of on-line system for viewing energy usage and billing data.
Project Results: As a result of LPB’s involvement in the project, the client realized a 59% energy cost savings over 5 years. In addition, they achieved significant environmental (paper, mail truck emissions, etc.) savings.
LPB’s bill management service provided them with rule-based electronic invoice verification identification of meter mis-reads and equipment problems. The service improved accountability and engagement of building occupants through web-based behavior modification reporting, energy efficiency investment decision-making through centralized enterprise-wide energy reporting database, and established a common data repository for Measurement & Verification of conservation projects. This effort set the stage for a comprehensive historical bill audit for refunds from tariff applications, the next phase of work that LPB will complete for the client.
Description of Service: Client is a national grocery store chain, and LPB the utility bill processing for the retailer's thousands of sites.
Project Objective(s): The client sought LPB's assistance in saving annual utility costs. LPB's objectives in this pursuit were to assist clients in the following: identifying utility costs; reviewing and comparing utility data; stop having to pay late fees; do benchmarking; understand consumption; and effectively analyze data.
Project Methodologies: LPB live processing began when data from ten divisions was converted to the LPB Energy Management UM Service Bureau within the first few months. As acquisitions occurred throughout the chain, the number of sites increased dramatically.
LPB Energy Management met the customer's needs and used a phased-in approach to input the data and convert the multiple divisions into the new bill processing system. Soon the entire chain was using LPB Energy Management's UM Service Bureau system.
LPB helped the client begin to save costs through their Energy Management services that include: superior data accuracy; more efficient bill processing; improved data access; bill auditing and verification; and concise and informative reports.
Results: As a result of LPB's involvement, the client now saves 10% in annual utility costs. As a direct result of LPB Energy Management's UM Service Bureau, the client has saved over 50 million dollars in the past four years.
School District
Description of Service: Client is a public school district. LPB helped the district develop and implement a successful energy management program.
Project Objective(s): The client sought LBP's assistance in saving on utilities because school districts are under greater fiscal pressure with the high cost of energy and the tightening budgets. LPB's objective in this pursuit was to help the school by developing and implementing a successful energy management program that will combine the following: bill processing; cost avoidance; facility audits; benchmarking; interval data profiling; web-based reporting; and the participation of key individuals within the district.
Project Methodologies: After LPB started discussions with the client, LPB Energy Management broke down the program into a phased approach.
In the initial phase, valuable historical utility data was gathered and input into LPB Energy Management's utility accounting software, the Utility Manager™ (UM) Pro. With this foundation, management thoroughly understood the district's energy usage and costs. The software enabled them to accurately measure, track, analyze, benchmark, and report their utilities for more informed planning and decision-making.
Using the data collected, the second phase of the program was put into place. This included identifying equipment problems, inefficient facilities, and poor behavior patterns. Finding and solving these problems immediately saved thousands of dollars through avoided utility costs and consumption.
In the third phase, LPB Energy Management partnered with key district personnel to develop and implement Building Use and Operating Guidelines (BUOG). The program was then promoted to district staff, teachers, and even students who directly contributed to the success and savings that have been realized. With the foundation of a complete database, management had a thorough understanding of the district's energy usage and costs.
Results: As a result of LPB's involvement, the client saved millions of dollars and has been recognized for their outstanding energy efficiency efforts.
International Warehouse Chain
Description of Service: Client is a major international chain of member warehouses and LPB has helped monitor usage patterns for hundreds of their stores in two countries, totaling thousands of utility accounts.
Project Objective(s): The client sought LPB's assistance in capturing usage and cost data for each utility bill for thousands of accounts. LPB's objectives in this pursuit were to help the client do the following: generate useful reports to better manage their utility spending and effectively buy energy in the deregulated marketplace; improve the quality of data and reporting functions needed to track cost and consumption; rearrange the data so they could analyze it in different ways; compare usage by facility; separate out the different commodities; aggregate data to negotiate more cost-effective energy contracts; and provide the tools to get approval from management on energy savings initiatives.
Project Methodologies: After LPB started discussions with the client, LPB Energy Management converted the historical data from their existing database and translated it for use with LPB Energy Management 's Utility Manager™ (UM) software. LPB Energy Management then ran a cleanup effort to identify and fix historical errors and retrieve missing bills from the utility companies.
Once the history was repaired and the database was populated, the Company began using UM Service Bureau, LPB Energy Management 's outsourced utility bill processing service, to capture the cost and usage data from utility bills so that they could make informed decisions on their energy management. The data collected can be accessed by the client via the Internet and manipulated in multiple ways to produce reports for analysis.
Results: As a result of LPB's involvement, the client is now able to track cost and consumption, both by facility and commodity, as well as validate savings through the reporting available to them via UM Service Bureau. They're also able to analyze their rates and tariffs and renegotiate contracts with a resultant savings of $500,000 to $2,000,000 annually. By having the information they need to buy energy more efficiently, the client has reduced the time it takes to negotiate a contract from more than a month to less than ten days, and renegotiations of existing contracts can be turned around in less than 24 hours. In addition, LPB Energy Management proactively and continuously monitors the company's usage patterns and contacts utility companies for meter re-reads if a bill seems out of line, resulting in even more savings.
