UCLA Anderson Team Wins Economist’s NRG Energy Case Study Challenge
UCLA Anderson School of Management’s Blue Team nabbed first place in the Economist’s NRG Energy Case Study Challenge.
NRG, the largest independent power company in the United States, asked teams from colleges all over the world to offer a plan that would resolve an energy problem. The competition was hosted by The Economist.
The winning proposal was prepared by MBA students, Ean Mulligan, Julian Trobe and Vishal Saheta. The team was awarded $10,000. Second and third place prizes were given to teams from MIT and Columbia, respectively.
The purpose of the competition was to highlight innovative ways to make using emerging energy-efficient technologies profitable. Teams had the option of creating a financial model for an energy system for one of the following: A New Jersey hospital, a university in California, a community in New York or a data center in Texas. Each of these options came with energy guidelines and restrictions. Competitors had to incorporate at least two of the following cleaner energy technologies: Gas turbines, PV solar, wind turbines, fuel cells, biomass or battery energy storage.
The Blue Team pitched a distributed clean-energy system for a university in California, which is a desirable location for the project, as California has the most state incentives for renewable energy in the U.S. The team’s proposal showed a desirable 50 percent internal rate of return, and promised to reduced carbon emissions by over 75 percent. The Blue Team displayed financial savvy, combining Pace financing with a PPA, so that the university would have cheaper debt and a greater ability to leverage tax benefits.
Upon announcing the winning teams, NRG called the Blue Team’s presentation, “… clear, concise and well thought-out.”
