LTC 613-2019 Energy Utility Billing Management Software Update MIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC# 613-2019 LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO: Mayor Dan Gelber and Members of e City Co /mission
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FROM: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
DATE: November 18, 2019
SUBJECT: Energy Utility Billing Management So ware Update
I am excited to share that today we are launching EnergyCAP, the city's first energy utility billing
management software.
This software will streamline processes and improve operations efficiency by:
• Facilitating energy bill payment processes through Bill CAPture
• Discovering billing errors and electricity consumption anomalies with bill audits
• Identifying inefficient facilities through peer benchmarking
• Tracking energy management projects to monitor resulting cost avoidance
• Connecting with Energy Star Portfolio Manager to receive ENERGY STAR building
scores for eligible buildings
Our annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventory over the past few years has continually
shown that electricity use is the largest source of GHG emissions in our community. As a first step
to better understand the city's electricity consumption, an energy assessment was compiled to
benchmark the electricity use of municipal buildings using Energy Star Portfolio Manager. The
process of conducting the energy assessment was lengthy given that all the data collection and
data entry was manual. Several challenges were identified including addresses on Florida Power
& Light (FPL) accounts that did not match buildings' actual address and accounts that are tied to
more than a single building. Before the implementation of an energy utility billing management
software, electricity bills were entered manually and approved by each department using the
workflow approval process. EnergyCAP will pass each bill through a standard audit to verify that
bills are correct and flag any electricity consumption fluctuations or anomalies.
The goal of EnergyCAP is to improve energy efficiency and capture savings on our power bills,
by tracking and auditing each FPL bill along with providing analytics and reports.The energy utility
billing management system now houses the city's billing and electricity use data for each FPL
account in a central location. This software will address challenges such as utility bill processing,
data integration, transparency, tracking and verification of savings. This software will assist the
city in reducing energy consumption, lowering emissions, and saving money.
In 2013, Miami-Dade County implemented EnergyCAP for their electricity bills covering 4,500
electricity meters and totaling one billion kilowatt-hours (kWh)annually. The County reduced their
electricity consumption and utility costs by 2% within the first year of implementing EnergyCAP,
nearly two million dollars in savings. Given the success of EnergyCAP with their electricity bills,
the county is in the process adding water utility bills to the program.
Electricity consumption and cost savings will be tracked for general obligation (GO) bond projects
that include energy efficiency or sustainability elements. Annual reports will also be run to
summarize total electricity usage and cost savings across all city accounts. Regular reporting will
identify trends and enable effective response to anomalies. This action will save money over time
by facilitating the identification of less efficient properties. Energy savings reports need at least
one year of data after projects are completed to collect enough electricity bill data to provide an
accurate representation of trends before and after project completion. The first annual energy
report will be completed by the end of 2020.
The city's implementation of EnergyCAP was made possible through the support of the IT
Steering Committee who provided funds for the implementation of the energy utility billing
management system. The implementation of EnergyCAP was an inter-departmental collaboration
between Finance, Property Management, and Environment and Sustainability Departments. I
would like to recognize Alyssia Berthoumieux, Sustainability Specialist, for her work managing
this project and coordinating with all the involved departments. This will continue to be a team
effort across all departments as we track and analyze our monthly electricity bills.
JLM/SMT/ESW/FCT/amb