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Facilities
Energy and Water Conservation Act | Complete Strategic Energy Plan | Energy Related Objectives | Electricity Usage | Natural Gas Usage | Water Usage| Utility Data Past Fiscal Years| Energy Update | Tips and Goals | Energy Links |Energy Strategy Presentation | UNCG Standards of Comfort
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s energy usage for the fiscal year 2010-2011 was approximately 58% natural gas, 41% electricity, and less than 1% No. 2 fuel oil. This energy usage is broken down into the following categories:
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 approximately 62 buildings. The College also has water service to several outlying properties as well. Most, but not all of the buildings on campus have sub-meters that are read and manually entered into a database. Where water is used for irrigation or cooling towers, additional sub-meters have been installed so that the University can receive non-sewer credits for water that does not go into the sanitary sewer system. In fiscal year 2010-2011, the university water accounts totaled approximately $900,450 for 141 million gallons of water. The non-sewer water credits were for approximately 46 million gallons of water.
NATURAL GAS
Piedmont Natural Gas (PNG) provides gas service through individual meters to the campus and outlying properties. Natural gas is used as fuel for furnaces, boilers, cooking, and some generators. All of these 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. In fiscal year 2010-2011, the university’s total gas bill was $2.1 million for 354,134 MMBTU’s of gas. The steam plant used over 97% of the gas consumed. The steam plant’s natural gas is bought through a marketer who buys gas on the wholesale market, and negotiates interstate and local transportation costs. The marketer and the College agree on prices to pay for the purchase of gas futures 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 per BTU of gas compared to the cost per 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. An additional 15 accounts are for houses or offices not on the campus system. The final account is for the campus distribution system. In fiscal year 2010-2011, the total electric bill for the campus was $4.6 million for 75 million KW hours, or 257 billion BTU’s of energy. Duke Energy performs a best rate analysis yearly for all of the electric accounts. During the past fiscal year, UNCG avoided over $450,000 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 about 62 buildings. As with the water, most but not all of those buildings have sub-meters that the campus reads and manually enters into a database. Several buildings have multiple power feeds but not all those power feeds are metered.
FUEL OIL
The steam plant burns No. 2 fuel oil as a backup fuel to natural gas. This provides the University with 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 price gas that is consumed at a lower rate. The gas company has interrupted service to the University several times in the past so this backup energy source has proven very beneficial.
STEAM AND CHILLED WATER
The University uses purchased power and gas to create steam and chilled water that is distributed to the campus. The steam goes to about 62 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 chilled water that currently serves 34 buildings, with a phased expansion to eventually serve 41 buildings. Most buildings do not have a system in place to meter the steam or chilled water.