Leading U.S. academic medical center

One of the nation’s leading academic medical centers specializing in cancer treatment, research, and prevention operates more than 16.5 million square feet of facilities across Texas and manages an annual utility budget exceeding $50 million. Effective energy management plays a critical role in maintaining financial stability and ensuring operational excellence.

The challenge

Managing utilities for one of the largest cancer centers in the world presented significant obstacles:

• High energy demand: The medical center spends $1M per week on utilities. In hot, humid Houston, cooling accounts for 75% of this cost.
• Complex facilities: Cutting-edge proton therapy centers, labs, inpatient and outpatient facilities—each with unique usage and rate structures.
• Financial accountability: Finance requires the energy team to explain variances greater than 2% or $50,000.

Without a centralized system, the energy team often struggled to explain utility cost fluctuations or identify whether they were caused by rate changes, usage, or billing errors.

To meet these challenges, the center adopted EnergyCAP as the backbone of its energy management program.

• Automated bill auditing: EnergyCAP flagged billing errors and identified opportunities for refunds. 
• Meter-level budgeting: The team uploaded precise budgets, tracking performance against actuals in real time. 
• Advanced reporting: SQL-based analysis layered on EnergyCAP data provided visibility into cost drivers across facilities. 
• Efficiency pilots: EnergyCAP enabled testing of operating room setbacks, balancing energy savings with uncompromised patient care.

The results

• Favorable utility budget variance: The energy team fell within a $700,000 positive variance, which with a $19 million budget is a huge win. 
• Improved billing accuracy: Fewer late fees, faster identification of anomalies
• Validated efficiency projects: Operating room setback pilot confirmed energy savings without affecting patient outcomes
• Variance transparency: Ability to explain $100K+ swings at the meter level, keeping finance confident in energy reporting

Image below: The medical center utilizes the EnergyCAP budgets tool