Santander invests in energy savings with Enel X

For this reason banking giant Santander has chosen the innovative Utility Bill Management (UBM) service offered by Enel X to monitor and streamline its energy consumption. The Spanish company has hundreds of thousands of branches throughout Europe, the United States and South America, so developing a detailed overview of every single branch is an extremely complex task. However, UBM makes this entirely possible, because the digital platform analyses various utility expenses (energy, water, gas and waste) in real time by collecting bills and checking the accuracy of each one. The service automatically flags any billing errors while also identifying possible opportunities for reducing consumption by comparing the performance of each corporate site.

Smart, intuitive software is therefore a crucial element in identifying savings opportunities and possible energy efficiency initiatives. Enel X’s UBM service enables users to keep an eye on the amount of kWh the company is spending in relation to KPIs, the Key Performance Indicators, in the case of Santander analyzing the data collected for every branch on the basis of the number of staff, opening hours and the area (in square meters) of each site. All this is made possible by a digitalized solution that uses a single instrument to collect and rapidly analyze consumption trends from numerous branches located all over the country.

In May Enel X and Santander signed an agreement to provide the UBM service, including consultancy, in almost 500 of the bank’s branches in Argentina that are supplied by a total of 22 utility companies. The two-year contract with renewal option will initially only cover electricity consumption, but it may eventually extend to analyzing spending on gas and water. The specialized consultancy also includes researching possible agreements to be drawn up for purchasing “green” energy from external providers through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).

Santander has committed to pursue a policy of corporate sustainability and is ready to finalize terms for a Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreement (REPPA) to cut polluting emissions and the overall cost of energy for its branches, in line with existing environmental regulations and standards.

The project is to be launched by the Brazilian UBM team, which will be given the task of completing the initial stages of the operation by inserting the data and processing the information provided by Santander. The Argentinian UBM and Advisory teams will then coordinate all consultancy activities, interacting daily with the bank through updates, internal meetings and analyses of the information provided by the service. UBM will also enable the bank to consider alternative generation methods and evaluate the possible financial benefits of purchasing reserve generators.

The service also includes technical and financial feasibility studies for the installation of office automation solutions or Building Management Systems (BMS), computerized control systems (software and hardware) installed in the buildings. In future, Enel X and Santander will explore further opportunities for collaboration involving Enel X e-mobility solutions, because savings are a question of intelligence — digital, eco-friendly intelligence.