University of Texas at Austin

PROGRESS REPORT

The main campus uses innovation and technology to provide reliable and cost-effective utilities to support the tradition of teaching and research excellence at the University of Texas at Austin. The power complex provides 100 percent of main campus electricity and heating. Our five chilling stations and 9.5 million gallons of chilled water in two thermal energy storage tanks satisfy the cooling requirements for 23 million square feet in more than 160 campus buildings, serving 74,000 faculty, students and staff. The complex provides the university with an independent utility system, with electrical ties to the city of Austin electrical grid as an emergency backup source of power. Utilities & Energy Management (UEM) achieved PEER Platinum certification for this district energy system.

For the fiscal year ending Aug. 31, 2024, we are pleased to report that our continued efforts to optimize energy production and usage and reduce waste resulted in a campus fuel consumption level close to that of 1976, despite campus expansion of over 14 million gross square feet (GSF). Over the past 58 years, UT-Austin has experienced only five main campus-wide electrical outages.

In 2024, including all UT-Austin buildings, we achieved a total site energy use intensity (EUI) of 191,153 kbtu/GSF. Since 1990, UT-Austin has reduced the EUI by 49 percent, while space grew by 93 percent in the same time period.

Rather than reporting separate electrical and natural gas goals because of our approach to serve the campus with a combined heat and power and district energy system, we will report a total energy EUI as our basis of reporting energy efficiency.

Awards and Distinctions

Certificate of Recognition, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts State Energy Conservation Office (2006)

Energy Star System of the Year Award, EPA and U.S. Department of Energy (2006)

Texas Environmental Excellence Award, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (2008)

Award of Excellence for Outstanding Achievement in District Energy, International Energy Agency (2009)

Corporate Energy Management Award, Association of Energy Engineers (2010)

Pacesetter Plant Award by the Combined Cycle Journal (2012)

PEER Certification, Green Business Certification Inc. (2015)

System of the Year Award, International District Energy Association (2018)

PEER Recertification— Platinum, GBCI Inc. (2019)

Ovation Users Group Innovation Project of the Year Award (2020), for the implementation of the Supervisory Data Acquisition System upgrade of the campus micro-grid.

Improvements Contributing to Consumption Reduction

Significant improvements to the power plant, chilling stations, electrical distribution and chilled water distribution system combined with demand-side improvements in buildings have allowed us to achieve and maintain utility consumption reductions. Please see the Efficiency Efforts page on our website at https://utilities.utexas.edu/ for more details.

GOALS

The most recent change in operational strategy is to predict future campus electrical loads based on weather forecasts and historical data and dispatch chilled water production and thermal energy storage systems to reduce peak electrical demand and improve power generation efficiency. The net result of these optimization efforts has been a 5 MW peak load reduction, saving 29.2 million kWh/year and reducing CO2 emissions by 72,000 tons per year. We anticipate some electrification of buildings and fleets, including the addition of electric vehicle charging stations at our buildings in the coming years. Therefore, we expect electricity consumption to potentially increase and therefore, we do not have a goal for reduction.

STRATEGY FOR ACHIEVING GOALS

The Engineering, Strategic Programs, and Process Improvement team works with key staff to optimize operations and employ energy and conservation measures on the UT-Austin campus. The staff identify buildings across campus that are not operating as efficiently as they could and implement measures including: HVAC scheduling, supply temperature resets, static pressure resets, unoccupied setbacks, economizing and lighting retrofits. The team also works with Campus Planning and Construction and Project Management and Construction Services to ensure new buildings and renovations are designed and constructed to be as energy efficient as possible. The power plant is optimized via the Power Plant Megawatt Management System which is a supervisory control system with logic that calculates set points for the combustion turbine generator and for steam turbine generators. The Chilling Stations and Thermal Energy Storage tanks utilize an optimization platform called Optimum Energy (OE) to control operations of each chilling station. OE trends the efficiency curves of each plant component at every possible operating condition and then adjusts the operating parameters of each component to provide the most efficient whole-system operation at a rate of once per second.

The utility is preparing for the replacement of less efficient generation equipment with new, more efficient equipment, electrification via heat pump chillers, a master plan for electric vehicle infrastructure, hydrogen as a fuel in our gas turbines and boilers, and solar infrastructure. In addition, a water management plan is being developed to optimize usage of groundwater, condensate water, reclaimed, recovered and rain water in order to avoid domestic water consumption.

IMPLEMENTATION SCHEDULE

The majority of UT-Austin's utility conservation measures are in place and ongoing.

Existing Buildings

As UT-Austin renovates, remodels and upgrades campus facilities, it continues to complete lighting retrofits; transformer upgrades; installation of occupancy sensors on lighting in rooms where feasible; and replacement of older HVAC system components with higher efficiency models (to include, but not limited to, pump/fan motors, mixing boxes, air handler units and chillers).

New Buildings

UT-Austin has commissioned 18 new LEED-certified buildings since 2007, with two additional buildings pending certification or in construction; the LEED program will continue.

AGENCY FINANCE STRATEGY

UT-Austin finances all plant improvements using the utility rate structure. The cost avoidance from prior utility system improvements has yielded a higher rate of return than the financial cost of the improvements. Cost savings realized by the improvements to our facility infrastructure provide the financial justification for continuation of this process in order to maximize the operating efficiency of the entire campus.

Funds received from the IRS 179D Act distributions from capital projects are used as seed money to implement demand-side projects. A redistribution of energy savings directly attributable to building energy savings will be requested to fund more savings. Deferred maintenance and recapitalization projects that will further enhance utility consumption reductions will be sought in partnership with the campus.

EMPLOYEE AWARENESS PLAN

UEM has developed a web-accessed Energy Hub using Amazon Web Services. It provides electrical, thermal energy and water consumption as well as various key performance indicators to the UT community. It includes greenhouse gas emissions data, EUIs for each building and district energy system operations data.