Houston-area Hotels Positioned for Big Energy Savings
Hotel owners and managers are always looking for operational savings opportunities, and now CenterPoint Energy (the electric utility serving the greater Houston area) offers hotels a way to identify no and low-cost energy savings measures at no up-front cost to the hotel.
CenterPoint’s retro-commissioning (RCx) program helps hotels achieve energy savings through a systematic evaluation of the hotel’s systems and the implementation of no/low-cost measures.
CenterPoint Program Eligibility:
50,000 sq.ft. or more of air-conditioned space
Building/energy management system in place
No CenterPoint-funded study already completed
Key RCx Benefits
Investigation Assessment Report
Measures for Existing Equipment
Written Sequence of Operations
Detailed No/Low-Cost Energy Conservation
Calculated Potential Savings and Costs
Improved System Operations
Building Benchmarking
Measurement and Verification Cost Included
Typical Savings Range of 10 - 30%
Energy Savings Have Never Been Easier
Detailed Energy Study at No Cost
No Contractor, No Sales Hassles
Meaningful Project Incentives Available
Frequently Asked Questions
If I’m not paying, where does the money come from to pay for the study?
CenterPoint pays for the study, but through fees on your electric bill you’ve actually already been paying into a pool to support energy efficiency efforts, so this detailed energy study is merely a way to recover your investment.
If it’s a “free” study, does that mean someone is planning to sell me their product on the back-end?
To avoid this issue, the CenterPoint agent performing the study should not be a contractor (e.g., lighting, HVAC, solar) with an agenda to sell their products but rather qualified energy engineers with no products to push. We highly recommend Enpowered Solutions, a nationally-recognized energy engineering firm with experience implementing the CenterPoint RCx program.
If CenterPoint pays for all up-front study costs, are there back-end spending expectations?
If energy savings measures are identified that I want to implement, are there also utility incentives available to help offset the cost of implementation?
Yes, depending on the measure, CenterPoint offers substantial financial support to help encourage the implementation of energy savings measures, and Enpowered (as your RCx program agent) will not only identify savings measures and applicable incentives but also perform the project measurement and verification (at CenterPoint’s cost) once implemented to ensure that the savings are real and the incentives are collected.
What if the study also identifies capital projects that would yield energy savings or there are high visibility energy projects (e.g., solar) that we would like to pursue but for which we lack the financial resources - is there financing available for properties like ours that could enable these projects?
Yes! Sunsign offers a unique financing structure for facilities like yours to achieve meaningful operating cost reductions, implement renewable energy projects, or even address deferred maintenance issues without up-front investment or back-end credit scrutiny, with financing that is cash flow positive from the start and does not even sit on the company books.
Download the CenterPoint RCx Program Brochure