Page 32 - College Planning & Management, February 2018

Case Histories REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS
BChiller Plant Optimization Saves Money
AYLOR UNIVERSITY in platform. The closed-loop optimization Waco, TX, had a typical chiller solution reads data every 30 seconds and plant—it ran well, but it was a dynamically adjusts plant equipment in real
hodgepodge of equipment and it was man- aged manually. Operators judged once per shift when to add or shed electricity load based on demand. That imprecise, incon- sistent process made the plant inefficient.
Kenneth Haltom, who manages Baylor’s energy services through a partnership with Aramark, and his team suspected that chiller plant optimization would be the best way to increase efficiency and reduce energy costs. There was good savings potential: the eight-chiller plant, which cools 4.9 million square feet of space 365 days a year, was us- ing 32 million kWh of electricity annually.
The team brought in Optimum Energy to assess the opportunity, and found their hypothesis was right. Optimum installed its OptimumLOOP software and OptiCx
time in response to changing conditions. The software determines the best operat- ing conditions across the plant and makes on-the-fly changes to all eight chillers, water pumps and cooling tower equipment.
“OptimumLOOP made everything auto- matic, from slightly adjusting a single valve to improve water flow, to shedding entire machines from the system when demand de- creases,” explains Haltom. “Each chiller oper- ates at a different output and rate, depending on what gives us the greatest efficiency.”
In the first year of operation, plant efficiency went from 0.897 kW/ton to 0.681 kW/ton. Baylor saved more than $460,000 (about 24 percent of electricity costs), 5.8 million kilowatt-hours and 8.6 million pounds of CO2. Also, air-conditioned spac-
Baylor saved more than $460,000 (about 24 percent of electricity costs), 5.8 million kilowatt-hours, and 8.6 mil- lion pounds of CO2 with Optimum Energy.
es became more comfortable, and chiller equipment is now easier to maintain.
“Chiller optimization offered us the big- gest bang for the buck,” says Haltom. “The product from the chiller plant is better, more consistent, and it’s now based on real- time load rather than operator guesses.”
www.optimumenergyco.com
Creating Energy-Efficient “Smart Labs”
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH LABS represent a huge portion of the energy demand of a university cam-
pus: in many cases, as much as two-thirds of a campus’ energy use can be attributed to research labs. While it may seem clear that labs would be a great place to start when looking to go greener and reduce energy demand, the difficulty of doing so without sacrificing safety can often pose a roadblock. Faced with this challenge, and looking to support their mission to be the world-class leader in research and to attract and retain the best talent, a group of engineers at the University of California Irvine (UCI) came up with the concept of Smart Labs: a design that can reduce energy consumption by up to 50 percent in research labs.
Smart Labs is an efficient recipe imple- mented by UCI to reduce energy use and provide better Indoor Environmental Qual-
ity (IEQ) in labs. Smart Labs was initially implemented by UCI and is an energy con- servation and technology-enabled approach, consisting of seven Smart Lab Essentials. The seven essentials are: lower system pres- sure drop; demand-based ventilation dy- namic, digital control systems; fume hood airflow optimization; exhaust fan discharge velocity optimization; continuous commis- sioning with automatic cross-functional platform fault detection; and demand- based, LED lighting with controls.
The implementation of these essentials is at the heart of how the Smart Labs ap- proach reduces energy use so drastically while maintaining strict adherence to safety regulations. UCI has applied the design to 13 building across campus, reducing energy use by an average 61 percent.
The UCI engineers tasked with design- ing the Smart Labs approach focused on
The UCI engineers’ design utilizes DCV technology from Aircuity, not just to generate energy savings of as much as 50 percent, but also to supply key safety information about the building in the form of air quality data in the lab.
how to most efficiently and effectively control building ventilation. The result- ing design utilizes DCV technology from Aircuity, not just to generate energy savings of as much as 50 percent, but also to supply key safety information about the building in the form of air quality data. CPM
www.aircuity.com
32 COLLEGE PLANNING & MANAGEMENT / FEBRUARY 2018
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