An ESCO is an accredited Energy Service Company that provides all of the services required to design and implement a comprehensive project at the customer facility, from the initial energy audit through long-term guarantee of project savings through an Energy Performance Contract (EPC). The EPC provides customers with a comprehensive set of energy efficiency, renewable energy and distributed generation measures and is accompanied with guarantees that the energy and operational savings produced by the project will be sufficient to finance the full cost of the project.

The equipment used to heat or cool a building often generates heat as a by-product of the HVAC work.  This heat generally escapes when fresh air is brought into the building.  A Heat Recovery Wheel recovers that heat that would escape to the outside, and uses it to make the entire HVAC system more efficient. 

Air-to-air heat recovery systems are required by the university’s Facilities Standards for new capital projects. As a part of the LEED certification and deferred maintenance process, heat recovery wheels have been installed in multiple facilities on campus.

Today's Deferred Maintenance Program is designed to systematically address many maintenance needs, including improved electrical service, ventilation, building envelopes, interior finishes, and other deferred maintenance needs. Energy conservation projects are also being undertaken to reduce energy costs and provide a more sustainable campus.

Occupancy Sensors provide automatic ON/OFF switching of lighting loads to enhance convenience, security and long-term energy savings. Daylight sensors are battery-powered sensors that save energy by dimming or turning off electric lighting when sufficient daylight is available. The sensor detects light in the space and then adjusts the lights to take advantage of daylight, thus conserving energy. These sensors are being incorporated into most new projects and as many retrofit/retrocommissioning projects as possible, with funding and electrical/mechanical application being key factors.

With the careful use of motion detectors, we can reduce energy demands for unoccupied space.  Rather than turning lights off when no one is in the area, we can use bi-level lights to reduce the energy going to the light fixture.  The results in parking lots have been shown to reduce energy demands by as much as 60 percent over the course of a month.  This technology is available with different styles of lighting, including Metal Hallide, LEDs, and Fluorsecent.  Campus is developing a project using bi-level LEDs in Parking Lot E-15.

There are nearly one million fluorescent and incandescent lighting fixtures on campus, and the majority are fluorescent fixtures in buildings.  In 2008, the majority of these fixtures were the T12 style, which are no longer produced.  The new T8 fixture is thiner and much more energy efficient.  To replace all the T12s with T8s will take many years and millions of dollars.  However, the energy savings are great, with each replacement bulb dropping the energy demand from 40 Watts to 28 Watts.  This program has been ongoing for a number of years, and has had fund

Retrocommissioning (RCx) is an analysis of a building's Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning systems as well as their maintenance program. The purpose of this group is to restore the most favorable operating conditions while optimizing energy conservation, sustainability, and client comfort satisfaction. This group is important on our campus because deferred maintenance is becoming very detrimental to campus buildings.

A recent evaluation of potential energy conservation measures on campus was performed by the international consulting firm Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC). The subsequent report described conservation strategies with the potential to reduce campus energy use by about 32 percent, resulting in a 114,500 MTE CO2 reduction (this is about 22.5 percent of current emissions).

The energy on campus must always be balanced, so that energy demand and energy production are equal.  To reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from energy production, we can reduce the amount of energy demanded.  Thus, we should reduce the energy consumption in as many ways as possible.  This is a good primary focus for the beginning of the iCAP implementation because energy savings lead to cost savings.

The University purchases about half the electricity for campus through the wholly owned subsidiary of the University, Prairieland Energy Incorporated.  In the 2010 iCAP, we committed to being carbon-neutral by 2050.  The majority of campus emissions can be eliminated by implementing more sustainable practices and integrating renewable energy sources for the campus energy supply.  One option for integrating renewable energy sources is to purchase green power through a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).