DEMAND-SIDE ENERGY MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA

The following text offers a view of the Energy Management Program at the University of Virginia (UVa), located in Charlottesville, Virginia. UVa has a very successful history of conserving energy and improving efficiency in central energy systems such as chilled water loops and steam production and distribution. More recently, the UVa Energy Management Program has intensified efforts on demand-side energy conservation opportunities. Demand-side conservation opportunities exist at most college campuses; improvements in efficiency in buildings (demand side) can significantly reduce energy consumption and cost. The keys to an effective demand-side energy management program are shown in the graphic. This basic, continuous improvement cycle of PLAN-DO-CHECK-ACT was coined by Deming, and is the basis of energy management at UVa. Past and ongoing successful efforts at UVa have paid huge dividends. They include elimination of many aging stand-alone chillers and boilers by connecting buildings to central plants. Avoided energy use and cost has saved at least $10, 000, 000 annually. Demand-side improvements include lighting upgrades made in all buildings by replacing older T-12 fluorescent fixtures with T-8 tubes with electronic ballasts. Occupancy sensors were also added to thousands of lighting circuits. A major supply-side improvement was investing in four large electric substations to combine hundreds of electricity accounts into four thus reducing cost and improving reliability. UVa has hundreds of buildings with approximately 14 million square feet of enclosed building space. Building uses and types include a large teaching hospital, research buildings, animal care areas, laboratory, classroom, athletic, and student housing ranging in age from more than 200 years to new construction. Energy and utility use vary just as greatly as their ages and uses. Regardless of how efficient a building is designed to be, it operates only as efficiently as it is allowed to be by building occupants and managers.