Dallas-based multifamily community manager Pinnacle sought to reduce utility late fees and increase vacant utility cost recoveries at 170,000 residential units that it manages. “We needed to automate the entire process—payables, receivables, consumption data analysis and reporting that drilled down to a granular level of detail,” said Nicole Ellery, the company’s ancillary performance manager. Doing all this required replacing its cumbersome manual utility consumption tracking and billing with the Yardi Energy Suite. One element of the suite, Yardi Utility Expense Management, receives, validates and completes payments for Pinnacle’s utility bills. Another part, Yardi Utility Billing, monitors and bills residents for their utility consumption, which helps the company recover vacant unit costs, monitor usage, forecast utility revenue and cut waste with consumption alerts. How has the Yardi Energy Suite worked out for Pinnacle? The bottom line, Ellery said on a utility expense management panel at the most recent Yardi Advanced Solutions Conference (YASC), is “lower late fees across the board.” That happened because the comprehensive solution for utility billing, energy management and submeter data administration helps the company “track how properties are performing with line-by-line data down to the individual meter level as opposed to only invoice data.” “When we onboard a new property, we can see red flags such as high consumption on a meter and follow up with an investigation,” Ellery said. “Our property managers and accountants can drill down to each general ledger account and invoice if anything looks off and see what’s going on. We can see gradual increases in consumption and process invoices as soon as they come in.” She added, “We have saved thousands of dollars every year by nearly eliminating late fees. The suite vastly simplified our vacant unit recovery process, so it maximizes income too. We’d be...

Energy management software from Yardi® promotes efficiency and savings following the company’s acquisition of energy services provider MCEnergy Inc. Energy management services from MCEnergy include contract negotiations with leading electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and green energy suppliers to provide reliable energy at competitive prices. Turnkey submetering solutions and energy and environmental tracking software give property managers access to energy, environmental and sustainability data and information. MCEnergy’s product offerings complement existing Yardi solutions for utility billing, energy management, submeter data administration and intelligent HVAC energy optimization software. “MCEnergy has been providing market insights and energy management services to Class A commercial and industrial clients for nearly 20 years. Teaming with Yardi is a great opportunity to strengthen and extend our offerings on a national level and provide these services to the residential as well as commercial real estate communities. We are thrilled to join Yardi,” said Margaret M. Carey, president of MCEnergy. “Yardi continues to focus on advancing our clients’ energy-related objectives by providing options to actively manage consumption, cut costs and support environmental initiatives within a single full-business software platform. Acquiring MCEnergy is the latest step toward that goal, and we look forward to welcoming their energy, real estate and software expertise to Yardi,” said Gordon Morrell, executive vice president of Yardi. About MCEnergy Inc. MCEnergy, based in Valhalla, N.Y., is a world-class energy information and procurement company. MCEnergy helps clients secure energy at competitive prices, meter and track energy usage, calculate carbon footprints, institute green initiatives, manage data exporting for clients participating in the EPA EnergyStar Program and maximize recovery of utility revenue. The company advises hundreds of companies, from Fortune 500 to medium and small energy users. In 2005, MCEnergy was awarded the Women-Owned Business Enterprise (WBE) certification by New York...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Consideration of a water conservation bill, which would mandate water metering (either by a water provider owned meter or a landlord owned submeter) in each unit at newly constructed multifamily properties statewide, has been postponed until the 2014 legislative session. On August 13, 2013, SB 750 failed to secure enough votes in the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife to proceed to the Assembly floor, forcing the bill to be reworked or abandoned.  The Senate had approved the bill in May. Although stakeholders such as apartment owners, managers, and utility billing industry associations like the Utility Management Conservation Association (UCMA) support the bill’s conservation goals, there were concerns over impracticable landlord billing requirements, excessive penalties for simple billing errors, and the potential scarcity of available meters caused by current rules governing the testing and sealing of meters in California. As a member of the UMCA, YES Energy Management (Yardi’s utility billing subsidiary) provided technical submetering expertise to the legislature and relevant stakeholders to create a bill that addresses these concerns. Senator Wolk (D-Davis), author of SB 750, consulted with several opposing stakeholders in an attempt to amend the bill and obtain the committee’s approval prior to the end of the legislative session on September 13, 2013. Although the discussions with the Senator’s office were productive, the extent of the unresolved issues made it difficult for all parties to reach a consensus prior to the end of the legislative session. Work on the bill is expected to continue in 2014 with advice from the utility billing associations and apartment associations. To read the current text of SB 750, visit...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Pending legislation that could bolster California’s water conservation efforts by mandating the metering of water in new construction throughout the state is moving forward.  This week, the California State Senate passed an amended version of SB750, which would require individual unit water metering at all newly developed multiunit residential structures or mixed-use residential/commercial projects. SB750, introduced by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis), is being tracked by the Utility Conservation Coalition (UCC) and Utility Management Conservation Association (UCMA), two utility management advocacy associations. Martin Levkus, Yardi Systems’ Vice President and General Manager of YES Energy Management, is a director at the UCMA, which has provided technical expertise on submetering and utility billing to the bill’s authors to inform the legislation’s development process. The bill would require individual unit water meters or submeters in newly constructed multifamily or mixed-use residential and commercial properties that are under four stories. Existing properties would not be required to install submeters. Though a planned enforcement date of January 1, 2014, has been proposed, the legislation has yet to be approved and signed into law. Depending on when the bill is approved, the enforcement date could be delayed. Based largely on the advocacy of the UCC and UMCA, a recent amendment to the bill, considered crucial to many in the multifamily industry, removed a prohibition on Ratio Utility Billing Systems (RUBS) from the legislation. RUBS allow property owners to calculate the portion of water/sewer charges that are passed on to residents based on occupancy, the square footage of their apartment, or other associated factors. Under the current version of the bill, existing RUBS properties would be grandfathered, and landlords would be able to pass through a monthly administrative fee of up to $4.00. If the tenant’s water bill is...