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Climate Action Plan Goals
Goal: Maximize Efficiency in NAU Facilities to Reduce Overall Energy Demand and Costs
Summary of high-level actions: Our goal is a 20% reduction in energy and water use through retro-commissioning, energy efficiency audits and upgrades, deep energy retrofit building renovations, enhanced energy management systems for peak shaving/shifting, and passive cooling and lighting. These actions require immediate and continual investments in capacity, capital improvements, and system repairs. These actions are necessary to optimize building energy use to properly size and save resources on future district energy systems conversions and purchased electricity.
The Flagstaff Mountain Campus expends about $15M/year in annual energy costs which equates to $0.65/SF. University standards express means of achieving energy efficiency in new construction and are silent on means of achieving efficiency in the existing building stock.
Example of electricity cost per year from 2017 to 2021.
Planned Actions Accordion Open
- Implement Fault Detection and Diagnostic (FDD) on Digital Control (DDC) buildings
- Benefits: Will identify all failed HVAC components, list of repairs to make, an estimated 10% energy savings per building when repairs are completed.
- Diagnostics, repair, and maintenance (valve and damper actuators, AHU/HX resets, airflow, and temperature sensors)
- Outcome: Repair of failed equipment, 10-30% energy savings from repairs. estimated 86,000-257,000 MMBTUs and $1.4-$4.2 Million yearly savings
- Benefits: Cost avoidance, carbon reductions, improved occupant comfort, reduced HVAC work requests
- Perform detailed audits including energy models for the highest (Top 10) energy-consuming buildings by current energy use intensity (EUI)
- Outcome: Identifying major energy waste and upgrades needed, 5% energy savings (700K/year)
- Retrocommission all existing LEED buildings
- Outcome: 10% reduced energy, estimated 86,000 –257,000 MMBTS and $1.4-$4.2 million in savings
- Benefits: significant measurable reductions in total and relative GHG emissions and good ROI with cost savings beyond the initial investment (1.5 million considering 10% reduction)
- Hire additional commissioning/controls positions
- Benefits: Reduced cost for all of the above, in-house commissioning and energy audits, response to FDD outputs
- Demand management programs
- Outcome: Reduced peak load, rebates from APS up to $20,000 in savings yearly
- Benefits: Carbon & cost reductions
Benefits Accordion Closed
Benefits: Potential for $2.8M annual utility savings and ROI between 4% and 30% and simple paybacks from 2 to 9 years, student faculty and staff engagement through SCEI, occupant comfort, lower more flexible energy loads, better functioning, and more resilient infrastructure. Additionally, FDD can reduce system failures and avoid significant repair costs. Reduction in resource waste enables the design of a smaller capacity heating plant, smaller heat exchangers, and transformers, resulting in Capex savings for our facilities. Enhancing the ability to shed load and reduce peak demand will result in demand charge savings and additional revenue from APS for demand-side management. High avoided costs for implementing actions if MS Building Science graduate students engaged in audits versus third-party contractors for some efficiency work.
Outcomes Accordion Closed
Projected Outcomes: Maximizing energy efficiency and building management. Reduction of 20% in GHG emissions for scope 1 and 2 emissions.
Completed Action Accordion Closed
Green NAU Energy Initiative:
- Distribution of “Reduce the Juice” and “Flip the Switch” marketing materials to help implement behavioral changes regarding energy usage.
- “Strive for Five Minutes,” shower campaign to encourage students in university housing to spend less time wasting water in the shower.
- “Be Bold, Go Cold,” laundry campaign to encourage the NAU community to use cold water, wash full loads, and clean the dryer lint after every use.
With these initiatives, students and faculty have made significant changes to their everyday lives to be more sustainable. From the creation of this marketing campaign in 2013, within a year, over 37 percent of NAU students had reported changing their behavior.
NAU Office of Sustainability: Energy Mentor Program
- Started back in 2013 as part of a project called the Green NAU Energy Initiative – formed to promote energy efficiency and tackle the behavioral component of energy conservation
- Starts with an educational background of fossil fuels and the industrial revolution, climate change and the greenhouse effect, and NAU’s culture of sustainability.
- Further lessons address energy, climate, sustainable behaviors, and how to best implement these learnings into the environment of the mentors.
NAU Office of Sustainability: Green Office Certification
- Focuses on office sustainability on campus
- Allows offices to get recognized for their hard work, makes a large difference on campus, and creates more leadership in sustainability.
- At the end of the school year, the most green office wins a trophy!
Intended Accomplishments Accordion Closed
Looking at NAU’s buildings:
This plan employed a utility meter data-driven virtual energy audit to identify the most impactful opportunities for detailed audits and gauge the potential for reductions in energy demand. The virtual energy audit of the campus considered building use, building age, and the building’s ability to respond to seasonal weather conditions for analysis. Through review and analysis of these attributes, the energy consumption of buildings can be ranked and prioritized by the potential for energy, water, carbon, and cost reductions. The energy use intensity (EUI) was calculated for each building with metered, monthly utility data except for 3rd party-owned residential buildings, the central utility plants, and the data center. An NAU target EUI was calculated for each building representing the 75% lowest EUI among that building type on campus, similar to the EPA method for determining EnergyStar buildings. For each building, a net-zero energy target was calculated based on the AIA 2030 challenge.
Each campus building’s ability to respond to seasonal weather changes was analyzed through statistical analysis of historic weather data and utility energy consumption. Then, each was assigned a climate-opportunity score representing how much energy the building uses in response to changing weather and climate conditions. An equipment opportunity score was calculated, indicating the extent of each building’s energy use that is unrelated to weather and climate conditions. The highest-scoring building with equipment opportunity has the most potential for energy savings. Here, the university should first consider reducing and/or replacing its energy-intensive equipment such as lighting, ventilation fans, pumps, kitchen, and scientific equipment. Older buildings will benefit most from repairs and technology upgrades while new building technologies may need calibration, repair, or adjustment. Newer buildings with digital controls that have high equipment (or climate opportunity scores) are the best candidates for automated fault detection and diagnostics systems and likely already have compatible controls.