A Qualitative Study of EMaaS Performance in California Schools

In recent years, many school districts, community colleges, and universities in California have implemented energy management-as-a-service (EMaaS). The purpose of this study was to analyzes how EMaaS has been realized in California schools, including how performance expectations and service guarantees have been met, how value is created and captured, and which trends are emerging in the pay-for-performance models. This study used a qualitative research design to identify patterns in the collected data and allow theories to be drawn from the emergent categories and themes. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with a diverse pool of facility managers, energy practitioners, superintendents, and associate superintendents working with EMaaS. Four themes emerged (1) peak shaving overperformance, (2) low risk/reward, (3) performance exactly as expected, and (4) hope in future flexibility. This study reveals medium to high levels of performance satisfaction from the customers of cloud-enabled and battery-based EMaaS in California schools. Value has been captured primarily through peak shaving and intelligent bill management. Large campuses with higher peaks are especially good at delivering energy savings, and in some instances without pairing batteries and solar. Where demand response participation is permitted by the utility companies, the quality of demand response performance is mixed, with performance being exactly as expected to slightly less than expected. The EMaaS business model is positioned to help California schools implement and achieve many of their future sustainability goals in a cost-effective way.