Virginia Beach and EnergyCAP Receive Energy-Saving Award from the GFOA

The City of Virginia Beach (CVB) has received the Louisville Award for Innovation in Government from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for improving the City’s utility bill management process.

The award was presented June 4 at the GFOA Annual Conference in San Francisco. GFOA is a professional association of state, provincial, and local finance officers in the United States and Canada, and has served the public finance profession since 1906.

The Louisville award is given to governments in recognition of an exceptional accomplishment that introduces a new concept or technique with enduring value to the government finance profession. The award has only been granted twice since 2001.

CVB received the Louisville Award for implementing EnergyCAP energy management software as part of their utility bill management program. This included development of a single entry electronic vendor invoice-to-payment process. Virginia Beach was one of the first municipalities in Virginia to implement this process, which currently includes EDI transactions with Dominion Virginia Power.

EnergyCAP energy management software played a key role in improving CVB’s energy efficiency by enabling automation of utility bill audit processes, including EDI bill payments to the City’s primary electricity vendor.

A new case study documents those improvements. Here’s an infographic displaying the highlights.

Coupled with a nightly automated audit routine for utility bill verification, the new process has eliminated thousands of paper invoices annually. CVB has also reduced invoice processing by more than two days—cutting late fees and improving the reliability of general ledger assignments for all tracked utilities.

The City has also instituted a comprehensive process for energy analysis including use and cost analysis reports, billing reports, and ENERGY STAR certification tracking and eligibility reports.

Moving forward, the easy availability of EnergyCAP’s energy dashboard metrics for management review and action will facilitate future energy conservation measures.

Read the case study now.