University Times

With utility bills running more than $14 million a year on the Pittsburgh campus, Pitt is getting serious about its comprehensive energy plans, according to the associate vice chancellor for Facilities Management.

Citing what she referred to as "the intricacies of energy management," Ana Guzman reported last month on a multi-pronged approach to coping with rising costs and implementing more efficient consumption of energy campus-wide.

"We definitely look at energy conservation in projects and energy issues from the inception of all projects, as we've always done," Guzman told the University Senate's plant utilization and planning (PUP) committee April 24. "But now we're concentrating more on where we're going and what we see coming up. There are 'green' issues that won't cost more money, and there are other green issues that are more expensive and don't have any short-term payback."

For example, she said, replacing every lighting fixture on campus with a more energy efficient fixture is not cost-effective, even though it would save some energy, she said.

Among the energy-related variables Facilities Management considers are cost-recovery investment strategies, the volatility in energy pricing, de-regulation of certain utilities, consumer usage trends and new metering technology, Guzman said.

As a rule of thumb, the University uses a 3-5-year cost-recovery investment strategy for utility-related projects, Guzman said.

Facilities Management engaged the consulting firm of Wiley & Wilson from Virginia to conduct a survey of all Pittsburgh-campus buildings and make recommendations to Pitt's administration on utility-related projects based on the fastest return of investment.

According to Robert Pack, vice provost for academic planning and resources management, who attended the PUP committee meeting, Pitt has a $6 million line item in its annual capital budget to address recommendations of this kind. "The University has priority projects that are detailed each year in the capital budget," Pack said.

"Every investment decision has a budget-payback factor. The $6 million is for new systems and the kind of infrastructure projects where the return is quick enough."

Guzman said that Pitt's general energy strategies are:

* Encourage users to conserve.

Facilities Management is working with Computer Services and Systems Development to launch a campus-wide information campaign on what individuals can do to reduce consumption in their workplace. "We're hoping to get the campaign seriously in place by September, to educate people on how they can save energy, particularly in the way they operate their computers and in buying energy-saving computers."

* Increase efficiency of mechanical systems.

Guzman said that in the last few years Pitt has replaced 12 aging water chillers with more efficient and environmentally friendly ones, including a large chilled water system at the Petersen Events Center.

"This allowed us to centralize our chilled water capabilities," Guzman said. "Now we have reliability and flexibility in the distribution on our campus. For our research facilities, you have to have [a back-up system] available, and we can do that now with our two large chilled water plants," at the Petersen Center and Posvar Hall.

* Operate all systems more efficiently.

"The key here is our energy management system," Guzman reported. "It is a computerized system that connects our mechanical systems and allows us to control these systems from a central computer." About a third of Pitt's Oakland buildings are on-line so far, she said.

The energy management system allows Facilities Management to shut down heating or cooling systems over the weekend and to control room-by-room temperatures remotely. Pitt also can spot problems more easily using the system. Building managers can call up floor plans on a computer that give detailed information on all mechanical systems in place.

* Purchase energy competitively.

Guzman said Facilities Management purchases electricity and natural gas competitively, but can be more sophisticated in the bidding process.

"For example, depending on whether it's day or night [usage], you purchase electricity at different costs," she said. "The first thing we need to know is how much, when and where we use our electricity. We're in the process of installing systems that tell us that."

Pitt recently installed measuring devices in 18 Pittsburgh campus buildings and now is working on 14 more buildings.

q About 59 percent of Pitt's $14 million annual utility bill is for electricity and chilled water. (Pitt uses electric water chillers.) Steam costs account for 22 percent; water and sewage 15 percent, and natural gas 4 percent of the total.

According to Mary Rugh, Facilities Management senior electrical engineer, Pitt buys high voltage electricity from various sources, brokered through Duquesne Light, then distributes it around campus to its five substations. As one of the largest purchasers of electricity in the city, Pitt gets an industrial rate, which she said is considerably lower than purchasing electricity by the building.

John Schenk, senior manager of energy systems and management, told the PUP committee that Pitt is developing a comprehensive electricity consumption profile. "We'll have electronic metering on all our incoming lines, so we can read this and say exactly what's happening right now," Schenk said. "It's a piece of information that you need in competitively bidding electricity. Right now, I can't even give them a profile of what our consumption is. I can tell them we're going to be using X-number of kilowatts a year, but I can't tell them where, say, 10 kilowatts of that is needed all the time."

Rugh said recent studies have shown that energy-savings moves by Pitt are starting to pay dividends. "We've seen usage in megawatts on campus increasing over the past several years, but we now show a slight decrease in the latest figures from 2000 to 2001. But you have to keep in mind that even as energy efficiency goes up, so does usage and energy costs," Rugh said.

The University, along with several Oakland institutions, purchases the steam for heating most campus buildings from the Bellefield Boiler Plant, located in Panther Hollow. Pitt owns 45 percent interest in the coal-burning plant, but pays for its steam consumption.

"Right now, we're looking at expanding the capacity of the plant [as one option]," Guzman said. But the expense of transporting coal by railroad and barge and the tightening of federal emissions standards may move the University to purchase more natural-gas-producing heat systems on campus, she said. "Over the next 5 -10 years our planners will be looking into the issue of burning natural gas versus coal as a way of saving overall costs."

Rugh said that Pitt's natural gas consumption is relatively low compared to other utilities. Pitt has gas lines from both Equitable Gas Co. and Dominion People's company across the Pittsburgh campus. "The natural gas market has been de-regulated for some time. So we make them bid against each other, and use market forces to our advantage," she said.

Regarding water and sewage costs, the University must purchase the utility from the Pittsburgh Water and Sewage Authority.

"Unfortunately, whatever the cost of the water is, there's not much choice in the purchase of water. We pay the rate the authority gives us," Guzman said.

But, she said, the cost of sewage is based on water consumption. "With our chilled water plants, there is a lot of evaporation. So that water does not all go back to the sewer. We're now measuring the amount of water that evaporates, so we do not pay for that. This shows the kind of sophistication that we're starting to get into for energy savings."

Guzman acknowledged that Pitt's overall energy plans are not aimed at saving a specific amount of energy or money.

"We can't really do that, because we don't know what's coming next," she said. "We need to find out trends. We're going to know more when we find out our consumption, which buildings use the most energy and so on, using the very sophisticated metering we're installing.

"The issue for us is that energy, especially electricity, is an integral part of the running of the University," Guzman said. "That won't change, especially as we rely more on computers. Our role is to see that energy is available and reliable and purchased at the lowest cost, so that research can be conducted and education can take place at the University."

–Peter Hart