As universities strive to meet sustainability goals, small-scale anaerobic digesters present an opportunity to reuse campus waste, provide a learning opportunity for students, and decarbonize. The University of Virginia has established ambitious sustainability goals and is exploring ways to further decarbonize. UVA and Burns & McDonnell studied use of a small-scale anaerobic digester to accept pre- and post-consumer food waste generated from dining halls, restaurants, and other Grounds facilities. This system would reduce waste hauling costs while also producing a reliable stream of biogas for use in UVA's boilers.

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Keywords: biogas, sustainability, decarbonize

By utilizing a campus-wide metering system, the Energy Management team at SBU developed an energy dashboard and internal data analytics platform. The energy dashboard allows the public and campus community to view building energy data in real-time and promotes educational opportunities for students and faculty. The data analytics platform enables the team to identify energy savings opportunities by visualizing thousands of data points to uncover possible operation abnormalities. The presentation provides an overview of the metering system and energy dashboard framework and will highlight the energy savings realized since implementing the data analytics platform.

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Keywords: metering system, data analytics, energy dashboard

This presentation explores the use of artificial intelligence for analyzing time series data on energy consumption at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). We applied various models, including recurrent neural networks (RNNs), long short-term memory (LSTM), and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), to historical HVAC electricity data from 2016 to 2024. Our analysis considers the impact of weather variables and the COVID-19 pandemic on HVAC electricity use. These models aid in predicting and managing plant operations and forecasting annual coal and natural gas consumption in the university.

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Keywords: AI/machine learning, energy consumption forecasting, load prediction 

Over the last decade, Western University has accelerated their energy transition by transforming its chilled water network into an energy sharing network through the installation of multiple decentralized heat pumps to repurpose waste heat from the district chilled water network. This presentation explains Western's approach, what was learned and how each new design evolves and improves the next.

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Keywords: Energy sharing, heat recovery, campus strategy, decentralized heat pumps

Strategies around Decarbonizing buildings can focus on electrification, increased energy efficiency, renewable (clean) energy and refrigerant management. This session will focus on the less often discussed strategy of refrigerant management. As the EPA and states move closer to regulating Global Warming Potential (GWP) in HVAC equipment there are newer refrigerants and requirements that need to be understood and how they may affect HVAC systems. New technologies being deployed in the market will offer new opportunities to decarbonize operations in ways the industry has previously not been able to take advantage of and low GWP refrigerants are at the front. This session will focus on two examples, replacing existing equipment with high GWP fluids in favor of new units with low GWP fluids.

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Keywords: refrigerant, GWP, decarbonization  

Many universities and industrial sites are pursuing electrification and de-carbonization projects to reduce their environmental impact. New electric only buildings, electric boilers, geothermal systems, photovoltaic arrays, and battery energy storage installations play an increasingly important role in carbon neutrality. We will discuss many projects ongoing at the University of Massachusetts as they pursue their net-zero carbon target, including electrification of buildings, new electric only building installations, campus-scale geothermal systems, electric vehicle charging stations, and new BESS installations. We will discuss the impact on the existing electrical distribution infrastructure, and how needed distribution upgrades can be incorporated into the Master Plan.

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Keywords: Electrification, De-carbonization

Williams College has established a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. This presentation will focus on navigating change during the transition from planning to design. Specific topics include ground source heat exchange systems and challenges associated with geology, drilling, fractured bedrock, and transitioning from vertical to horizontal bore fields with air source heat pumps. Other topics include changing technologies, incentives, coordination with public utility companies (planned electrical growth, reserve rates, on site generation) and coordination with other Capital Projects (locations for plants, schedule and impact of building renovations, selecting hot water generation and distribution design temperatures).

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Keywords: Electrification, Decarbonization, Geothermal

This presentation discusses improvements to the University of Chicago's chilled water system. These improvements include increasing chilled water capacity at the West Campus Combined Utility Plant (WCCUP), including evaluating chiller technology for this application (steam turbine-driven versus variable speed electric chillers) and key features included to minimize the impact to the operating plant. In addition, the presentation will address the hydraulic evaluation of the chilled water distribution system, and improvements to address operational issues with the building interfaces (tertiary pumping). The projects increase usable capacity, improved reliability, and maintained Key-Performance Indicators (KPIs).

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Keywords:Campus District Cooling, Centrifugal Chillers, Hydraulics and CHW Interface

181 Mercer Street is a 750,000 sf academic mixed-use building located in highly urbanized lower Manhattan. This $1.5B project utilizes cutting-edge technology and clever design to get the most out of the resources provided by New York University's Trigeneration Plant. Key strategies include active desiccant air conditioning, digital optimization algorithms and a high-tech building skin. This presentation will show how District Energy can successfully partner with Building Services Engineering to achieve the next level in energy performance!

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Keywords: TriGeneration, Desiccant, Controls

Optimizing operations and saving costs are crucial in central plant management. Advanced simulation tools help identify optimization opportunities, showcase ROI, and provide insights to leadership. This talk explores plant simulation and digital twin tools for central plant optimization and effective stakeholder communication. Through these tools, owners and operators can simulate scenarios, evaluate designs, and demonstrate energy consumption, costs, and savings. Attendees will learn to quantify energy savings, calculate ROI, and present a compelling business case. Strategies for highlighting long-term financial benefits and sustainability are also covered. Participants will gain knowledge and tools for successful central plant optimization procurement, driving business success, cost savings, and securing funding for initiatives.

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Keywords: Heat pumps, geothermal, Digital Twin, Simulation, Central Plants, Central Plant, Energy Storage, Chilled Water, Hot Water, Optimization