And the school blew millions by not turning off the computers when not in use. Power management is built into Windows - this can easily be done/managed with group policy.
> $250,000 per year * 9 years = $2,250,000 total additional electricity costs
This is all assuming he went around in a ski mask before he left every day and turned on all the computers across the school. Sure he might have used WOL but from the article I don't think he was that devious. From reports of what I read this was something the previous system admin guy did and just passed it along what to do.
I'm not saying he could have wasted money - I'm just giving him the benefit of the doubt and trying to make sure we don't frame him as some sort of criminal mastermind out to rip off this school district. There are a lot of reports out there about this and it's obvious the school wanted to spin it to look like he was the bad guy.
I do believe somewhere someone stated the district had wanted the systems put to sleep (not turned off) and believed it was happening.
~$50 per year per computer * 5,000 computers = $250,000 in additional power consumption per year
He ran this scheme for 9 years:
$250,000 per year * 9 years = $2,250,000 total additional electricity costs
No matter what way you run the math, he blew millions of the school district's budget.