see file

Several SWATeam recommendations were discussed.  Also, an update from the Sustainability Council was provided:

"Review of Council Meeting/Status of iCAP Approval - The Sustainability Council meeting went very well with lots of good discussion. There were not too many serious objections to the iCAP. They would like to see financial information, such as cost-benefit analysis on projects. This information will be included in the study for accelerating our carbon neutrality date. The cover letter from the Chancellor affirming our commitment will include language about the current fiscal climate in Illinois. The Chancellor was keen to be able to reach carbon neutrality by 2035. Other concerns were in regard to the net zero space item and they suggested a space audit be included in the iCAP."

In 2007 the consumption per square foot of conditioned space was 312.3 kBtu/GSF.  That number was lowered down to 244.2 kBtu/GSF in 2014, primarily due to energy conservation and retro-commissioning efforts on campus.

Energy Conservation & Building Standards

In attendance:

• Shadi Sherafat
• Claire McConnell
• Dhara Patel
• Karl Helmink
• Scott Willenbrock

Discussion points:

• Forming the consultation group
• Formatting of iCAP:  goals—objectives—strategies
• Objectives are the things that we hold ourselves accountable for
  
  • Goals are all supposed to be directly connected to emissions
  • Strategies help achieve objectives
• Objective of zero new growth
• Use of ENERGY STAR as a strategy

Notes:

• First draft of ECBS recommendations due early next week
• Work on forming Consultation Group

All,

Here is the list of goals/targets I compiled for todays meeting using Karl's 5-year-plan and our discussions.

Claire McConnell

Dear ECBS SWATeam,

Below are my notes from today's meeting.  It was a small crowd: Scott, Karl, Claire, and myself.  I hope we have a full crowd next week, because we have a lot of work ahead of us in just a few short weeks!

Cheers,

Ben

============================================================

Q: Are we starting with a "blank slate" for iCAP 2015?  A: Not really, because we have iCAP 2010 as a historical context, and we have done so much in the intervening years that cannot be ignored. But we are also not bound to the specific commitments of the 2010 iCAP, or even the format.

Q: Can we simply re-use the 2010 iCAP as is?  A: It's a good foundation, but needs improvement.

Fume hoods are an important issue to address; potentially big savings.

Should we recommend again to charge units for energy?  Possible counterargument is that Auxiliaries already bear the cost of energy but are not aggressively reducing energy usage.  Counterargument to that is they have expressed interest, but somehow don't have expertise and/or capital.  RCx cannot go into Auxiliaries; ESCOs can.

Scott suggested that someone needs to write a first draft of recommendations; he is writing the Energy Generation team's draft. No takers.  But Karl has written a nice document that most had not yet had a chance to read.

Occupancy sensors for HVAC can lead to big savings ~25%.

Can we expand ESCO program?  We've done ~7 buildings, why can't we do 100?  What is the financial model?  If campus cannot tolerate that much debt, can we foist the debt onto the ESCOs themselves?  We haven't done this because it doesn't generate as much savings, but maybe we should reconsider that if it would help us expand.  Some issues with quality of contractors, familiarity with campus facility standards.  Two ESCOs have been used so far: ESG for VetMed and Loomis&friends, Siemens for the Oak Street Chiller.  Typically ~5 ESCOs bid on our jobs; most are from Chicago.

What is in the SAIC report?  Ben will send around (see attachment). Do we need another SAIC study?  Or can we just leave this in the rear view mirror?

More discussion of energy billing; challenge is to fairly bill units only for the energy use they impact (i.e., lighting and equipment, not steam).  Can this team recommend a high-level study to devise a mechanism for fairly charging units?  External consultant?  Team of faculty, facilities folks, and students with relevant expertise?  If we just parrot the recommendation from 2010 iCAP, probably we'll get the same result.

Behavioral change is so important, and has not really been tackled on our campus (except very recently with Green Office program). Really need to improve this, and also try to measure it (surveys?).

Scheduling HVAC systems - when doing so, better to make the change first and then handle complaints, rather than announcing in advance and generating complaints from people who will never notice.

Can someone compile a list of "bullet-points" to begin the discussion that will lead to our recommendations?  Claire volunteered to do this, but will be asking others for suggestions and input.  Goal is to have a draft set of bullet points before next week's meeting, and then discuss at meeting.

Karl noted that Big Ten & Friends Energy conference is coming up Oct

12-15 at U. Iowa.  Should we offer to host the next one on our campus? 

We have not hosted one since 1999.  Seems like we should. Possible F&S/iSEE collaboration?  Scott volunteered to be on organizing committee.

--

Professor Benjamin J. McCall

Associate Director for Campus Sustainability Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign campus-sustainability@illinois.edu

Dear Energy Conservation and Building Standards SWATeam,

The iCAP Working Group met today, and would like to thank you for your report!

In the hopes that it will provide some assistance as you formulate your recommendations for the revised iCAP, to be presented at the iCAP Forum on October 22nd, we wanted to provide you with some additional files:

1) A "template" for the iCAP sections that we ask that you use. This was written using Transportation as an example, but it should be easily adaptable.

2) A "resources" document that summarizes the 2010 iCAP strategies, excerpts from a document that was put together back in FY13 summarizing progress at that time, a set of links to relevant pages on the iCAP Portal, and a list of the questions in the STARS report that are relevant to your team.  The STARS report is how our campus gets "graded" on our sustainability performance, so these questions may inspire ideas for things the campus should be doing.

3) A table of performance in your area.  You may wish to fill this in with your proposed goals, and include it in the template.

4) A summary of all of our emissions in different categories, for context.

5) The Clean Air Cool Planet calculator itself, updated for FY2014, in case you wish to dive into how the calculations are performed.

We hope this information will be helpful to your team.  If there is anything we can do to help you with your important work in the coming month, please just ask!

Cheers,

Ben

--

Professor Benjamin J. McCall

Associate Director for Campus Sustainability

Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

campus-sustainability@illinois.edu

The attached file shows the heating degree days for each fiscal year and the Energy Use Intensity.

---------

Hi Karl,

Wow!  So the weather does seem to have had a big influence here.  I wonder if there's a way to quantify that?  Could we, for example, break out the BTUs spent on steam from the total BTUs, and then consider two metrics: (1) non-steam EUI, and (2) steam EUI per Heating Degree Day? 

This might give us better metrics for our performance?

Thanks so much,

Ben McCall

-----------

From: Helmink, Karl J

Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 10:07 AM

To: campus-sustainability@illinois.edu; swat-ecbs@dib.illinois.edu

Cc: Marquissee, Mike

Subject: RE: Updated progress report

Yes, Mike Marquissee and Kent presented the data to our Utilities and Energy Services group. This is where the BTU/ sq. ft. and heating degree day charts came from. I assume that Mike's group put these charts together with Kent's oversight.

I am not deeply aware of all of the details that go into the development of these charts.  ( It is pretty complex in my opinion.)

Mike, attached is a copy of the FY 14 year ending updates that came forward from our swat team.  FYI  If you can clarify any of the mentioned items, that might be helpful.

Also, we don't normalize any of the RCx data. One can easily get lost in the numbers, and I prefer to focus on the real meter readings.

Thanks,

Karl Helmink

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All, attached is an analysis overlaying the heating degree days with the EUI.  The reported EUI is not normalized for weather changes. - Mike Marquissee

see file

The attached file is a summary of the energy consumption of individual campus buildings in FY14.