New Hanover County Schools:
School District Utility Bill Audit

New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) serves nearly 25,000 students across 42 PreK-12 educational facilities and two alternative schools in Wilmington, NC. NHCS’s mission is to provide children with a superior education in a safe, positive learning environment.

To support that mission, NHCS relies heavily on energy-intensive systems: energy-efficient HVAC equipment to regulate temperatures and indoor air quality, well-lit classrooms to facilitate learning, walk-in refrigeration and cooking equipment to provide well-balanced meals, and computer systems to support an engaging educational experience. With dozens of facilities running simultaneously, utility costs represent a significant and ongoing budget line item.

In 1998, NHCS first partnered with Utility Management Services (UMS) to identify the most cost-effective utility rate plans available through their power provider. Following a thorough off-site billing audit, UMS implemented $287,000 in annual savings for the school district.

Over the following two decades, New Hanover County’s population grew substantially, prompting the construction of new schools, the replacement of aging buildings, and the expansion of existing facilities. Each change created new utility accounts, new opportunities, and new potential for billing inefficiencies.

In 2018, NHCS turned to UMS a second time. The updated analysis uncovered an additional $53,000+ in annual savings, bringing the grand total across both reviews to more than $340,000 in annual savings, dollars that could be reinvested directly into students and classrooms.