University of California San Diego

Results at a glance

• $1M billing error caught and reversed
• $295K in water waste savings since FY24*
• Billing cycle reduced from 4 weeks to 1 week
• 1 full-time position freed up and repurposed
• Stakeholder dashboards live in Tableau and EnergyCAP

*As of July 2025

The challenge: Complex utility data, manual processes, and limited visibility

Prior to implementing EnergyCAP, UC San Diego’s utility data and billing operations were stitched together with spreadsheets and manual labor. A full-time staff member was tasked with reading ~2,000 meters and chargeback bills manually—taking an entire month to complete one cycle. Utility bill payments flowed through a separate process with Accounts Payable, and there was no system in place to catch anomalies or prevent costly errors.

The solution: Implementing a full-stack utility management platform

In 2018, UC San Diego launched EnergyCAP across its utility operations. From day one, Carly Kupka and her team made the strategic decision to use every feature available, from interval data integrations to audit flags, AP exports, internal recharges (chargebacks), and public dashboards. In retrospect, this decision proved invaluable, driving key operational improvements and creating the foundation for streamlining identification and correction of costly errors.

Key improvements:

• 1,000 Vendor bills per month imported via EDI or PDF upload
• Bills automatically validated using tailored audit flags
• Data seamlessly formatted for Oracle financial systems and Maximo, an enterprise asset management software
• The Utility Management platform Chargebacks and GL reformatter features generate ~1,500 internal chargebacks/month
• Internal reports delivered 4x faster (monthly instead of bi-monthly) to provide in-period visibility on usage and costs
• Dashboards in Tableau and EnergyCAP for stakeholders, researchers, and students

Catching a million-dollar mistake

In 2023, Carly’s team received an unexpected water bill of ~$1 million—a result of a vendor billing UCSD for a leak that occurred on the vendor’s side of the meter. Thanks to EnergyCAP’s bill flag auditing capabilities and virtual meter reader capability, the outlier bill was immediately flagged, and the team validated it was incorrect. From there Carly and her team surfaced the bill for review and UCSD was able to quickly prove the leak was not their responsibility resulting in the bill being refunded.

Hear the full story from Carly in our recorded session “Uncovering Waste: The Hidden Stories Your Utility Bills Tell”

Modernizing internal billing

Before implementing EnergyCAP in 2018, UC San Diego’s internal chargeback process was entirely manual. One full-time employee was responsible for reading over 2,000 campus meters each month, entering data into spreadsheets, assigning rates, and issuing bills to departments—a process that took nearly a month to complete and left little room for analysis or strategy.

With EnergyCAP’s chargeback feature, that entire process has been streamlined. Interval meter data automatically updates monthly, internal bills are created with just a few clicks, and department chargebacks are processed by EnergyCAP Utility Management’s GL reformatter feature. What once took a full month now takes a single week—freeing staff to focus on energy savings and stakeholder engagement.

A culture of data, oversight, and collaboration

Today, UC San Diego’s utility program operates as a coordinated system, with automation, audits, and reporting all driving financial accuracy and sustainability momentum. Carly’s team collaborates effectively with Finance and AP, thanks to structured workflows and data integrity. Real-time dashboards give stakeholders and researchers building-level visibility. And operationally, UCSD is identifying and fixing water leaks in near real time, resulting in $200,000+ in additional savings.

EnergyCAP fuels enterprise-level insights

To further elevate the value of their utility data, UC San Diego hosts EnergyCAP data on an internal server, enabling seamless integration with Cognos, Tableau, and Oracle Financials Cloud (OFC). This setup allows Carly and her team to generate live dashboards and blend utility data with financial and operational datasets across departments. These custom reports not only inform internal stakeholders like Housing & Dining and research labs but also support broader sustainability goals and financial planning efforts. With EnergyCAP’s API and flexible reporting tools, utility data becomes more than a billing tool—it becomes the foundation for campus-wide, data-driven storytelling and strategy.

Driving energy awareness across UCSD campus

Beyond internal operations, Carly and the UC San Diego team have leveraged EnergyCAP to build a more energy-aware campus:

• Public-facing dashboards show building-level and meter-level usage data. See UCSD’s Public Dashboard here.
• Reports break down energy performance by building, commodity, and usage trends, helping departments stay accountable to budgets.
• Students and faculty users can compare similar lab buildings and take part in the Green Lab initiative aimed at behavioral change and sustainability.

Positioned for progress

UC San Diego’s transformation with EnergyCAP showcases what’s possible when utility data is centralized, automated, and actively used to drive decisions. From catching costly errors to accelerating billing cycles and empowering stakeholders with actionable insights, Carly Kupka and her peers in accounting have built a utility program rooted in accuracy, transparency, and impact. As the campus continues to grow and evolve, the tools and processes they’ve put in place ensure they’re equipped to meet their operational, financial, and sustainability goals with clarity and control.

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