Hello Morgan & Jennifer.

Matt Rundquist (CCed) and I are looking at developing real-time energy dashboards for campus transparency at the request of the VCAS.

Can you share if/how that project is going at UIUC?  I googled around a bit but most of the content seems a bit outdated…

Energy Dashboard Project (Ongoing) | iCAP Portal | University of Illinois

Any thing you can share is helpful and happy to jump on a call if that’s faster.

Thanks for your help.

Andy Mitchell

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Rob,

Colleagues at UIC are interested in UIUC’s Energy Dashboard Project. However, the information on the dashboard stops at FY14 and the links to the building-level information are broken. I see a lot of value in this project for campus. Is there any way to reinvigorate the project and update the content?

Let me know if there is something iSEE can do to help.

Thank you,

Jennifer

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Hello Jennifer,

Thanks for reaching out to UES on this topic. I am glad to hear that people have an interest in the UIUC energy dashboards. Our team has done a great job on this initiative, and we are leading the efforts amongst our peers. In fact, UIUC and vendor staff  will be presenting this topic at the International District Energy Association Campus Energy Conference this February. We am quite proud of the success we have achieved in this area.

In reference to the UIC system, I actually had worked on developing energy dashboards at UIC when I was the Director of UES there. We had some success, but the product was a bit difficult to maintain. I believe that support for those UIC dashboards has ended.

After receiving your email, I reached out to the Engineering/Consultant firm that I worked with to develop dashboards for both UIC and UIUC. Aaron Mason from Hawkeye Energy Solutions (Shorewood, IL) informed me that the platform that they are using at UIUC is a “much better, lightweight, and responsive” then the solution that was originally used at UIC. The underlying data streams at both campuses are similar, so the development of dashboards for UIC should be relatively easy.

Regarding the link that was provided for the UIUC dashboards; that link is actually an old link that is no longer supported. Please use this link to view the new dashboards at UIUC: http://uesdash.fs.illinois.edu/ . This system does not require a login, and is easy to navigate. We currently have 70 of the first 80 building dashboards completed, which represents 92% of the University energy consumption. Many of the dashboards are visible at building video displays for all building occupants to view. We continue to vet the data streams and will add more dashboards as we continue our efforts into the future.

To help you and Andy resolve any questions, I am including the following people on the cc so that you can reach out to them directly if it helps you in your efforts.

• Cedric Everett – Assistant Director of Utilities and Energy Services at UIC (Can help you navigate the energy data at UIC, as well as contracting with Hawkeye Energy Solutions).
• Aaron Mason – Director of Operations, Hawkeye Energy Solutions (Can assist with the technical background of a dashboard solution).
• Robbie Bauer – Management Engineer Utilities Distribution UIUC (Is the lead engineer at UIUC for development and implementation of energy dashboards).

Hopefully this answers your questions. If not, please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information. We welcome the opportunity to work together.

Thanks,
Rob

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Hi Rob,

Thanks so much for this information and for reaching out to your colleague at Hawkeye Energy Solutions. I’m pleased to see that this project is going strong!

If it’s ok with you, I would like to update the iCAP portal with this information, especially the URL for the new dashboards.

Andy, if there is anything else we can help with, please let use know.

Jennifer

On February 28, 2021, Catherine Somers sent out an email to Professors Bruce Hajek and Philip Krein regarding the ECE lobby displays. As written in the exciting email:

"I have a bit of good news!  The Student Sustainability Committee-funded lobby display which will eventually have interactive features to encourage energy savings, is taking shape.  The kiosks and the touchscreen panel are installed and rotating informational slides.  Joyce Mast continues to make excellent progress on the real-time display of solar energy production." -Catherine Somers

This approval follows suit after the Mast's submitted application for SSC funding for the lobby displays. In Step 2 of the funding application, $30,000 was requested from the SSC for "Electrical and Computer Engineering Building (ECEB) Interactive, Energy Education/Production/Use Display."

See the attached file to view the SSC funding application.