AT&T's Energy Savings through IoT: A Case Study

Technology Category

Sensors - Optical Sensors

Applicable Industries

Buildings
Telecommunications

Applicable Functions

Facility Management

Use Cases

Smart Lighting

Services

System Integration

The Challenge

AT&T, the largest provider of fixed telephone service in the United States, was committed to reducing its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2020. In 2013, the company's energy team decided to optimize the energy performance across 1,000 of their largest energy-consuming sites and 500 of their retail sites. The challenge was to find an intelligent way to lower energy consumption using advanced technology. The company was looking for a solution that could be integrated into their existing infrastructure and could be expanded to other areas of facilities control, such as HVAC and building security in the future.

The Customer

AT&T

About The Customer

AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation and is the largest provider of fixed telephone service in the United States. The company also provides mobile telephone services and broadband subscription television services. AT&T is committed to being socially responsible and has integrated this commitment into virtually everything they do. The company has an ambitious policy to reduce its carbon footprint by 20 percent by 2020 and is constantly looking for ways to optimize its energy performance across its sites.

The Solution

Enlighted, a provider of advanced sensor systems, proposed an aggressive schedule of retrofitting a select set of AT&T properties. The plan was to replace all fluorescent light fixtures with new energy-saving LED lighting equipped with Enlighted’s advanced lighting control system. The retrofit initially focused on 240 properties or 20 million square feet of AT&T’s facilities. The overall goal was to retrofit all 120 million square feet of AT&T’s real estate. To help AT&T make the decision to move ahead with the project, Enlighted recommended its GEO service as a way to manage and maintain the system. The GEO program also allowed AT&T to recognize immediate energy savings from the project while paying for the installation through energy savings over time.

Operational Impact

The Enlighted retrofit project has not only helped AT&T achieve significant energy savings but also contributed to the company's sustainability targets. The project's success led to AT&T awarding Enlighted with its coveted AT&T Supplier Sustainability award in the category of Energy Efficiency for 2014. The advanced sensor system has also provided AT&T with the flexibility to expand to other areas of facilities control, such as HVAC and building security in the future, without upgrading the sensor. This has positioned AT&T well for future energy optimization initiatives.

Quantitative Benefit

The initial 20 million square foot retrofit project is saving the company around $8 million a year in lighting energy expense.
Once the rollout is complete across their entire portfolio, Enlighted’s system could reduce AT&T’s energy consumption by 195 gigawatt-hours.
The system could net the firm $200 million in cost savings over a span of 10 years.