seeking sustainability: minneapolis adopts energycap to achieve efficiency goals
DESCRIPTION
Until recently, the City of Minneapolis’ utility bill invoicing process was an energy accountant’s nightmare. Payables clerks all over the City were hand-coding 20- to 30-digit account numbers on every paper invoice. Another clerk in central accounting was entering the handwritten codes into an ERP system. The system was fraught with opportunities for typos and lost invoices, and the City was receiving monthly termination notices and late fee warnings from vendors because of unpaid bills. Read more at http://info.energycap.com/seeking-sustainabilityTRANSCRIPT
NORTH STAR
BL A N K E TSGRAIN BELT
B E E RPi l lsbury’sBEST FLOUR
The City of Minneapolis required each department to pay for its own utilities:
Of the 19 Fire stationsin Minneapolis, eachsent paper invoices toa central department.
A fire departmentclerk had writtenimportant accountinfo on each invoice.
An accounts payableclerk hand-enteredinformation intothe system.
The fire departmentmailed the invoicesto accounts payable.
Minneapolis has realized utility bill processing efficiencies through centralized processing and EDI invoicing.
Minneapolis implemented EnergyCAP, but had not yet fully integrated it into their business practices.2008:
Today:
Minneapolis AdoptsEnergyCAP to AchieveEfficiency Goals
Invoices were often miscoded.(Charges would be assessed to thewrong department.)
Invoices periodically got lost.(With the lost invoices came late fees.)THIS SYSTEM WAS
LABOR-INTENSIVE& PRONE TO ERROR
The City uses the EnergyCAPCost Avoidance module
to quantify savings for300 ACCOUNTS
and 75 BUILDINGS
Minneapolis found that a$78K retrofit projectactually avoided $98KIN STEAM and
ELECTRICITY USE
All 175 electricmeters in the City’sportfolio are being
tracked with EnergyCAP.
Data for 90%of these meters is beingautomaticallyuploaded into EnergyCAP fromEDI-format invoices.
90%
It is estimated that the streamlined system
saves the City at least 2 hours a week
of clerk time and around $4,000 a year in clerical labor.
MINNEAPOLIS CURRENTLY TRACKS 4 COMMODITIES:
CHILLED WATER(7 meters)
NATURAL GAS(101 meters)
STEAM(7 meters)
ELECTRICITY(175 meters)
With determined leadership of the City government, and the hard work of the accounting staff and energy manager, the City of Minneapolis is leading the way in energy management and conservation.
www.EnergyCAP.com©2013 EnergyCAP, Inc.
They’re gonna make it after all!
SeekingSustainability
SeekingSustainability