Texas State University Combats Tuition Hike with New Energy Strategy

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As college tuition dollars continue to rise nationally (15% according to USA Today), Texas State University at San Marcos has introduced a new energy strategy to reduce expenses.

San Marcos cancelled Utility Manager Pro and replaced it with EnergyCAP energy management software. The University’s Facilities Utilities Operations department made the switch in order to use newer technology that better met their energy management needs.

Utilities Analyst Brittany McCullar led the software search. “After extensive research, we concluded the total energy management software package in EnergyCAP would meet our needs and goals.” McCullar stated. “It will bring immediate benefits for automating our data entry and audit process with sophisticated benchmarking, reporting, and project measurement and verification tools. We are very excited to add another tool to provide sustainable utility management improvement for our University.”

McCuller’s team was looking for more advanced features that are integral to the university’s requirements including:

• tracking submeters and creating chargebacks to bill tenants for energy usage
• calculating the savings attributed to energy management projects
• interfacing utility billing data with the university’s SAP accounts payable system
• receiving building energy ratings from ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager system
• accessing utility bill and energy data across the web

Thanks to a previous Request for Proposal (RFP) by the University of Texas at San Antonio that was awarded to EnergyCAP, Texas State University-San Marcos was able to piggyback on that award, and purchase EnergyCAP quickly. The entire process from research to acquisition took less than three months.

The university plans to go live with EnergyCAP utility bill tracking in September 2012; the project implementation is scheduled for completion in October 2012. EnergyCAP will track 60 buildings and 500 meters for the university.

Texas State University-San Marcos is a public, student-centered, doctoral-granting institution dedicated to excellence in serving the educational needs of the diverse population of Texas and the world beyond, serving over 34,000 students located in Central Texas.

With this contract award, the University joins 100 colleges and universities that use EnergyCAP, including the entire State University of New York system, the entire University of California system, George Mason, Kansas, Yale, Las Vegas, Colorado, Alabama, and Georgia Tech.

EnergyCAP comes in two versions to meet various energy management needs. EnergyCAP Enterprise is used by Fortune 500 businesses, universities, and state and municipal governments with complex energy management needs. EnergyCAP Express is a web-based version that enables towns, colleges, and small businesses to track their utility bills online; a free 30-day trial is immediately available.

Learn today how to reduce your operational expenses through EnergyCAP.