A Triple Win: How the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center Increased Sustainability, Managed Peak Energy Demand and Boosted Reliability & Resilience

The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center (BCEC) is among the largest exhibition venues in the northeast. Owned and operated by the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, the BCEC hosts a wide range of events and serves the community in a multitude of ways. From international trade shows and high-tech industry gatherings to galas, university graduations and even serving as a temporary COVID-19 field hospital, this landmark destination requires reliable power to host events.

The Center also uses a significant amount of energy: depending on occupancy numbers and weather conditions, BCEC can draw the same amount of electricity as a small city, making the sustainable and reliable energy management both a top priority and a shared responsibility for BCEC’s onsite building management system operators, engineering and maintenance staff, event managers and sales executives.

Anticipating the energy demands of a summer’s worth of large scale events, not to mention the day-to-day operations, while simultaneously knowing that reducing peak energy demand could significantly cut carbon emissions and result in energy savings, the BCEC team set out to find a solution that would increase energy efficiency, boost sustainable energy management and reduce peak demand.

Working with Eversource, a Sponsor of Mass Save®, the team developed a plan that helped them achieve all three, starting with enrollment in Eversource’s ConnectedSolutions program. This, on top of effective ongoing communication and collaboration, helped BCEC implement an effective, efficient energy management strategy that supports the Center’s sustainability mission, offers real-time access to metering reports, provides flexibility in customizing demand response to accommodate varying events, and much more.

Among the many highlights of implementing their demand response plan, BCEC was able to avoid more than 1,300 tons of CO2 emissions per event on average – equivalent to removing 229 cars from the road for a year. For a deep dive into the actions taken by the BCEC team, read the full case study here, and then head to https://www.masssave.com/en/learn/business/industry-solutions to learn more about how the Sponsors of Mass Save can help you unlock cost and energy savings and support your own sustainability mission.