CASE STUDY
Intercontinental Hotels Group
Location
San Francisco, CA
Commercial Operation Date
January 2014
Facility Type
Hotel
Energy Storage System Size
54kW
Solutions
Energy Storage, Utility Bill Optimization, Sustainability
10-year Savings
$84K
Stem’s Learning Software and Storage Counter Rising Electricity Costs
After exhausting more traditional energy efficiency measures and manual load shifting, InterContinental Hotels Group turned to Stem to reduce energy costs without affecting guest comfort. Stem’s proprietary combination of real-time data analytics, energy storage, and actionable insights had an immediate impact, helping the hotels halt rising energy costs. The modestly sized systems store and deploy automatically to deliver bill reductions every month, and powerful software tools have helped the hotels’ engineering teams to more than double the savings.
IHG is one of the world’s leading hotel companies, with 4,700 hotels and almost 700,000 rooms in 100 countries around the world. Located in the heart of San Francisco, the InterContinental San Francisco (ICSF) is a celebrated luxury hotel that prioritizes sustainability and efficiency.
Challenge
The hotel relies on energy-intensive systems including HVAC, elevators, and laundry equipment to meet guest needs. When running simultaneously, these systems produce large energy spikes that can dramatically increase monthly utility bills. Prior to installing Stem’s system, demand charges amounted to 30-40% of electricity costs. Extensive energy efficiency measures could not address the hotel’s rising peak demand charges.
Solution
Real-time energy use displayed through Stem’s PowerScope software revealed multiple systems deploying simultaneously at especially costly times. Stem’s energy storage automatically deploys to decrease expensive spikes, and the ICSF engineering team leverages PowerScope software to know precisely when to stagger the start-up of other devices.
Results
From Day 1, Stem’s energy storage system began providing automated savings. The Director of Engineering estimates that operational changes enabled by Stem’s software have reduced peak demand at ICSF by 75kW over time, which more than doubles the impact of the storage system’s automated response. Over its lifetime, the energy storage system will provide $84,000 in energy bill savings.
