MD Anderson Cancer Center

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is one of the world’s leading institutions for cancer treatment, research, and prevention. With 16.5 million square feet of facilities across Texas and a $50M+ annual utility budget, energy management plays a critical role in financial stability and operational excellence.

The challenge

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

• High energy demand: MD Anderson 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, MD Anderson 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: MD Anderson Cancer Centers utilizes the EnergyCAP budgets tool