UCLA Team Wins Top Prize Of $10,000 In 2017 Case-Study Competition Hosted By The Economist's Which MBA? Division

NEW YORK, April 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This week NRG Energy selected the top three proposals that outlined solutions to a critical clean-energy issue. Teams from universities in America and Europe were given a challenge: as new clean-energy technologies become widely available for society's infrastructures, from hospitals to data centres, how can their integration be financed most effectively?

First place was awarded to the Blue Team from UCLA. The team recommended the development of a distributed clean-energy system for a university in California. Their proposal would reduce carbon emissions by more than 75%, improve resiliency with five megawatts of backup power and employ an innovative financial structure, allowing the university to monetise the tax benefits and leverage its return with cheaper debt.

Second place went to The Beetles from MIT. They designed a solution for a five-megawatt New Jersey hospital that will not only free it from the grip of the power market, but also increase resilience while netting in effect zero carbon emissions.

Placing third in the 2017 Energy Case-Study Competition is Team CSG from Columbia School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. The team created a robust distributed-energy resource solution for a 2,000-bed, five-megawatt hospital in New Jersey that is reliable, sustainable and financially attractive.

The People's Choice Award went to Team iRISE from Duke University after they received the most votes from the general public.

To win the prize, teams created a workable financial model and submitted the most compelling written and video proposals to support their models.  The submissions are hosted on The Economist's Which MBA? site.

The 16 teams hail from:

• HEC Paris
• Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs
• Carnegie Mellon University's Wilton E. Scott Institute for Energy Innovation
• Rutgers Energy Institute
• Colorado School of Mines, Mineral and Energy Economics programme
• Duke University
• UCLA's Anderson School of Management
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology                             

The case-study competition challenge and resulting selection of winners are based solely on the opinion of the challenge sponsor. The Economist does not endorse the opinions contained in the content of the challenge or the participants' written and video submissions.

About Which MBA? (economist.com/whichmba)
Which MBA? is a division of The Economist Newspaper Group which offers a suite of online products serving both prospective MBA students and business schools. Our consumer products for prospective students include a GMAT preparation course, annual MBA rankings and content on Economist.com.

About The Economist (economist.com)
With a growing global circulation (more than 1.5 million including both print and digital) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications.

About NRG Energy, Inc (nrg.com)
NRG is the leading integrated power company in the US, built on the strength of the nation's largest and most diverse competitive electric-generation portfolio and leading retail-electricity platform. A Fortune 200 company, NRG creates value through best-in-class operations, reliable and efficient electric generation, and a retail platform serving residential and commercial businesses. Working with electricity customers, large and small, NRG continually innovates, embraces and implements sustainable solutions for producing and managing energy.

SOURCE The Economist's Which MBA? division

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