Solution helps Linens ’n Things detect efficiency deficiencies

From November 2007

By Lauri Giesen

Keeping 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.

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 software can catch duplicate bills, note if there is overlap in the billing cycle from month to month and even determine if a bill is no longer valid.

“We’ve seen chains sell a store and the new owner does not sign up to change the utility account over right away,” says Steve Heinz, president of Good Steward Software. “The chain may be billed for energy consumed for a period when the building belonged to the new owner.”

At Linens ’n Things, “We’re looking for anomalies 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.

Monitoring functions
Linens ’n Things uses EnergyCap to monitor electric, gas and water use, although Emery says the first two are the primary energy concerns.

Heinz says another retail client detected a store with a water bill that was much higher than similar stores. “They found that a water line to the restroom was broken under the concrete floor and they needed to go in and fix it.” Not only did catching the problem reduce the water bill, “but if they had allowed the problem to continue much longer, it could have eventually eroded the foundation.”

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.