2 real case studies for lower power consumption
Case Study Number One:
It's a good video (but with slightly tacky music!) posted on Continental Airlines Windows Vista rollout using System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) and their subsequent power savings - estimated at $2m by the time they are finished, across 18,000 PCs annually. A good chunk of dollarinos there.
Check out http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000002271
Case Study Number Two:
The next one is Medtronic who also deployed Windows Vista across 43,000 desktops: they estimate a saving of around $750k annually. Checkout http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000003027
So being a savvy reader you would have noticed there is a distinct cost saving different between case study number 1 & case study number 2 - why wouldn't 43,000 desktops achieve greater cost savings?
Although it doesn't say in the case studies, I believe the difference could be due the fact that Continental are using SCCM to shutdown & restart computers when they aren't used - Medtronic are only measuring the difference between Windows Xp -> Windows Vista: because in Windows Vista the Balanced power plan is configured as the default, it automatically has power savings over Windows XP.