Citizens Bank
At a Glance
Industry
Financial Services and Insurance
Project Type
Commercial Energy Efficiency
Year
2012
Location
East Providence, RI
Annual kWh Savings:
1,000,000 kWh
Annual CO2 Reductions:
600 metric tons
Summary
Rick Grousset spent his summer building the financial case for a data center project, as well as making other recommendations.
Goals
Rich Grousset was hired to spend his summer in Providence, R.I., evaluating energy efficiency opportunities for RBS Citizens Financial Group, a $130-billion bank with approximately 10 million square feet of real estate in its North American portfolio.
Solutions
Though RBS has already undertaken energy efficiency projects and is on track to meet its 2012 energy reduction goals, Grousset was able to identify and recommend improvements to the bank’s processes for identifying and financially justifying new projects, obtaining rebates and incentives, measuring results and benchmarking the energy performance of facilities with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager. Grousset also built the financial case for a $500,000-plus data center project involving optimized cooling system fan controls and hot aisle containment.
Potential Impact
The data center project could cut annual energy use by over 1 million kilowatt hours per year, saving over $110,000 in energy costs and nearly 600 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. Initially, this project did not meet the bank's financial criteria. Grousset, however, discovered that it qualified for an additional 25 percent incentive and 24-month on bill financing at 0 percent interest, eliminating upfront costs and reducing the monthly payments to only $3,000.