Stores Magazine - November 2007 - (Page 50) WORTH WATCHING / ENERGY MANAGEMENT Energy in the Balance Solution helps Linens ’n Things detect efficiency deficiencies BY LAURI GIESEN K eeping track of the utility bills for dozens, hundreds or thousands of stores can be a mind-boggling undertaking for a retail chain. It’s hard enough avoiding paying duplicate bills or for utilities on buildings that have been sold or shuttered, much less detecting and correcting inefficiencies. alies and trends,” says Jim Emery, executive director of facilities and utilities. “That’s why we are benchmarking one store against another.” Although he won’t divulge specifics, Emery says Linens ’n Things has received “a six-figure return in terms of recouping our costs by using EnergyCap.” Additionally, when Linens ’n Things finds a problem associated with energy use at one store, it can go back and look to see if there are other stores that might have the same or similar issues. For Linens ’n Things, the solution was a system called EnergyCap from State College, Pa.-based Good Steward Software. The software consolidates energy bills from the chain’s 500 stores and analyzes the data to make sure the bills appear to be correct and should be paid as stated. It also compares store data by region, size and age of building to measure energy efficiency. Linens ’n Things has a third party collect all the bills and enter the information into a computer system. One copy of that file is sent to an accounts-receivable system to process payment; another copy is analyzed by EnergyCap. The Monitoring functions Linens ’n Things uses EnergyCap to software can catch duplicate bills, note monitor electric, gas and water use, alif there is overlap in the billing cycle though Emery says the first two are the from month to month and even deterprimary energy concerns. mine if a bill is no longer valid. Heinz says another retail client detect“We’ve seen chains sell a store and the ed a store with a water bill that was new owner does not sign up to change much higher than similar stores. “They the utility account over right away,” found that a water line to the restroom says Steve Heinz, president of Good was broken under the concrete floor and Steward Software. “The chain may be they needed to go in and fix it.” Not billed for energy consumed for a period only did catching the when the building problem reduce the belonged to the EnergyCap Can: water bill, “but if they new owner.” Catch duplicate bills had allowed the probAt Linens ’n Note an overlap in the billing lem to continue much Things, “We’re cycle from month to month longer, it could have looking for anomeventually eroded the Determine if a bill is no foundation.” longer valid Besides monitoring store consumption, EnergyCap can be used to help a retailer select an energy supplier. “When you go out for bids, it helps to know how much energy you can expect to need,” Heinz says. “You can analyze your stores to see how much energy is consumed in a given month -where the usage is the greatest and when the energy is consumed the most.” That data can help secure the best rates; it’s also helpful in designing new stores. Linens ’n Things can analyze several different store designs and select the one proven to be the most energy-efficient. StORES Lauri Giesen is a Libertyville, Ill.based business writer with extensive experience in covering payment and finance issues. 50 STORES / NOVEMBER 2007 WWW.STORES.ORG http://WWW.STORES.ORG
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