In fact, 500 of the major buildings on Texas A&M’s campus have their own utility meters. UES can determine exactly what a single building’s energy, hot-water, chilled-water, domestic-cold-water and domestic-hot-water consumption are at any given time. In addition, UES can see when HVAC systems shut down at night and come back on in the morning. “A lot of places put a program into the building automation system to schedule air handlers off, but the systems never really shut off and [staff] never knows it,” Riley notes. “If you don’t have verification capability with metering, you’re flying blind.”
UES has an extensive database in which all campus building data is stored. The department currently is implementing an energy enterprise management system that is web-enabled, which will allow building occupants to see what their buildings are consuming. “We will be allowing occupants to see consumption per square foot, costs and energy use index,” Riley says. “At a glance, they’ll be able to see whether trends are going up or down.”
A Role Model
Because of the UES team success, in May 2012, administrators asked Riley to put together an energy-management program for Texas A&M’s entire university system, which includes 12 other campuses around the state. Riley explains: “Again, we’re ensuring utility plants are running efficiently and the infrastructure is serving the facilities properly. We’re doing basic scheduling of HVAC systems and looking for obvious waste, like cooling and heating at the same time, overheating or overcooling, or excessive use of outside air. We’re helping these other campuses identify and implement the opportunities for energy efficiency.”
Riley enjoys sharing the UES team’s objectives and successes and encourages others to emulate Texas A&M’s energy-management strategies. “It has taken some time to build our team and programs, but we enjoy what we do and we have a great team,” he says. “We definitely want to get the word out. If anyone can take away some pearls from what we are doing, I think that’s great.”
Costs of Energy Efficiency
Texas A&M University, College Station, has invested about $200 million in its utility infrastructure during the last decade. The school currently has a $46 million capital plan with an intention of having invested $250 million by 2015 in its utility infrastructure. “That sounds like a lot of money,” says Jim Riley, Utilities & Energy Services executive director. “But the university had fallen behind the curve in the 1990s because infrastructure investment did not keep up with growth.” Some of the more significant investments in utility and energy infrastructure have been combined heat and power, chilled water and heating hot water production capacity, water and electrical distribution system upgrades, utility metering, building automation and energy-reduction measures in campus buildings.
Web-enabled Energy Enterprise Management Software
Texas A&M University, College Station, currently is implementing an EnergyCap software program, so building occupants and management will be able to see their energy and water consumption and costs through regular reports. By making occupants more aware of usage and costs, they are more inclined to use energy and water wisely.
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The International District Energy Association recently gave Texas A&M an Award of Excellence for district energy. http://www.districtenergyaward.org/awards/2013-2/