Facilities Operations
Energy | Electric | Natural Gas | Water | Energy Links
During the fiscal year July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2008, UNCG’s energy usage was approximately 55% natural gas, 44% electricity, and less than 1% No. 2 fuel oil. Relating to the utility cost, water accounted for 10%, electricity 51%, natural gas 38%, and No. 2 fuel oil 1% of the total utility bill.
WATER
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro receives water and sewer service from the City of Greensboro. The Campus owns a water distribution system that receives water through three master meters and distributes it to about 55 buildings. Most, but not all, of those buildings have sub-meters that the campus reads and manually enters into a database. Where water is used for irrigation or cooling, there have been additional sub-meters installed so that the University can receive non-sewer water credits for water that does not go into the sanitary sewer system. In fiscal year 2007-2008, the water accounts totaled approximately $906,000 for 156 million gallons of water. The non-sewer water credits were approximately 900,000 gallons of water.
NATURAL GAS
Piedmont Natural Gas (PNG) provides gas service through 36 meters to the campus. Natural gas is used as fuel for furnaces, boilers, cooking, and some generators. All the accounts, except for the steam plant, are small enough that the gas and delivery service are provided under PNG’s small general service rate or residential rate schedules. The university’s total gas bill was $3.2 million for 332 million cubic feet, or 332 billion BTU’s, of gas in the fiscal year 2007-2008. The steam plant used over 90% of that gas.
The steam plant natural gas is bought through marketer who buys gas on the wholesale market, and negotiates interstate and local transportation costs. The marketer and the Energy Engineer agree on prices to pay for the purchase of the future gas and triggers are set to buy gas when prices drop to those levels. The marketer also negotiates with TRANSCO, the interstate pipeline company, and PNG to get the lowest transportation rates possible. When negotiating transportation costs, the marketer uses the total cost of a BTU of gas compared to the cost of a BTU of #2 fuel. Our gas bill has been reduced by about 5% using this strategy.
ELECTRICITY
Duke Energy provides electric power to the campus through 46 accounts. Approximately 30 of those accounts are either leases for public lighting or for power to very small disperse loads such as irrigation systems, emergency phones, and entrance signs. Another 15 accounts are for houses or offices not on the campus system. The final account is for the campus distribution system. In fiscal year 2007-2008, the total electric bill for the campus was $4.4 million for 78 million KW-hours, or 266 billion BTU’s of power. The Energy Engineer and Duke Energy perform a best rate analysis yearly for all of the electric accounts. During the fiscal year 2007-2008, UNCG avoided over $588,000 of increased costs compared to the next best alternative rate.
The main campus receives power at a central substation that distributes that power through an underground system to 55 buildings. As with the water, most, but not all, of those buildings have electric sub-meters that the campus reads and manually enters into a database.
FUEL OIL
The Steam Plant burns #2 fuel oil as a back up fuel to natural gas. This provides the University an emergency fuel source and allows PNG to interrupt gas service to the campus during times of peak gas demand. The ability to have gas service interrupted allows the University to pay less for the gas that we do use and to burn whichever fuel is cheaper. The gas company interrupted service to the University in the Fall of 2005 for approximately one week due to hurricane Katrina.
STEAM AND CHILL WATER
The University uses purchased power and gas to create steam and chill water that is distributed to the campus. The steam goes to about 55 buildings on the main part of the campus where it is used for heating, humidification, and to heat domestic hot water. The central chiller plant produces chill water that currently serves 20 buildings, with phased expansion to eventually serve 36 buildings. Most buildings do not have any method to meter the steam and the few that do are not recorded. We have the ability to calculate the BTU’s of cooling provided by the chill water to a few buildings but currently do not. The lack of individual building metering is one of the largest hurdles to an effective energy management program.
For more information on energy conservation contact Ronnie Overton at
(336) 256-1464 or rloverto@uncg.edu