Demand Side Management (DSM)Program

In 1992 the Center for Energy Systems Research of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the ASU Facilities Management Department formed a demand-side management (DSM) team dedicated to reducing energy consumption at ASU.  The team's goal is to reduce ASU's annual energy costs by $1,000,000. The DSM committee elected Ray Tena , Manager of  Engineering of Facilities Management, as chairman to direct the projects and obtain funding for the various energy saving programs. The DSM team includes students, faculty, and staff working with representatives from Arizona Public Service Company, Southwest Gas, and the Arizona Energy Office.  The DSM team focuses on improving the quality of energy driven services, such as lighting and air conditioning, while reducing costs for energy and environmental pollution.  To date, the team's accomplishments include educating and training students and staff in energy and pollution cost saving concepts and techniques; conducting comprehensive lighting energy audits; completing a lighting energy database for 7.5 million square feet of campus buildings; analyzing the electric and water metering systems; and analyzing air conditioning systems.  Cost savings resulting from retrofits of six major buildings and other measures taken by the DSM team are projected to save the University more than $166,000 annually for an initial cost of $649,000, yielding a simple payback of 3.9 years.  Payback is reduced to 2.4 years when the $98,400 received from APS in grants and retrofit incentives for student engineering support is included as a direct cost saving to ASU.  The payback period will be reduced even further (to about 2.2 years) as cost-share money requested for completion of technical audits by students is received from DOE's Institutional Conservation Program.  Return on investment is between 26% to 45%. Recent completion of three additional buildings, Farmer, Physical Science-D wing, and Community Services Building increased annual savings to $229,000 per year.

Cost savings resulting from lighting retrofits in the first nine buildings mentioned above reduced ASU's annual energy consumption by about 2,705,600 kilowatt hours.  Concomitant reduction of air pollution by-products from conversion of primary fuels to electricity is 1,512 tons of oxides of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and volatile organic compounds.

Current work is focused on retrofits of  seven other buildings with potential annual cost savings of $175,000.  The team has generated more than $100,000 in supporting grants and incentives from utility companies.  That money is used to support student energy analysts. 

Arizona Public Service has been a major supporter in this effort.  APS has provided special metering of five buildings.  The meters were installed in July, 1993. Additional meters have also been installed in recently retrofitted buildings. They provide data on energy demand and consumption so that accurate comparisons can be made of each  building's performance prior to and after retrofit.  By that means we are able to improve estimates of potential cost-savings when considering retrofits of other buildings.  In fact, that data has already been used to reassess original estimates, based on measured performance, rather than computations made from general data in reference manuals and information from vendors.  In-kind costs donated by APS as part of the special metering program and continuing special analysis of data is estimated at more than $50,000.

The success of ASU's DSM program has been widely acknowledged.  Since May, 1994, the DSM team has received a Governor's Team Excellence Award (1994, 1995, and 1996), a bronze President's Medal for Team Excellence from ASU's President Coor (1995), recognition by the Arizona Chapter of the Association of Energy Engineers as the Energy Project of the Year (1994).  ASU's DSM program has also been recognized by  the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and by the U.S. Department of Energy for a national recognition award in the "utility technology" category.
 

Fiscal 93/94 marked the beginning of retrofitting campus buildings with new lighting systems.  The COB was selected as the first building for retrofit with modern fluorescent lighting; to include energy efficient T8 lamps and electronic ballasts.  The new system is designed to reduce power requirements by 30%, while maintaining light levels.  The new lights also improve the color rendering of objects which are part of, or within, the building.  Because of the age and condition of the old fixtures it was decided to replace them as part of the retrofit.  As a result of trial installation of occupancy sensors (OC's) and data analysis of their effectiveness in reducing energy consumption, it was decided to install OC's throughout the COB.  Initial cost estimates had not included changing the fixtures or installing occupancy sensors, so total costs for the retrofit were considerably higher than estimated.

While Facilities Management was supervising the retrofitting of COB, the student team performed detailed lighting audits of five other buildings (Physical Sciences F-Wing, Noble Science Library, Psychology building, Engineering Research (ERC) building, and Physical Education East (PE East).  The student team also audited and analyzed the motor and fan system for the HVAC system in the Psychology building.  Concurrently, the APS element of the DSM team installed and calibrated meters on the same five buildings.  Data collection began in July, 1993 and is to continue until twelve months of after retrofit data is recorded for each of the buildings.  From that data more accurate experience-based models of expected costs and cost-savings associated with retrofits can be constructed.

Retrofits were begun on the five buildings selected and monitored during FY 93/94.  Costs to retrofit the five buildings were estimated at $517,000.  An allocation of $430,870 was made for the job.  That amount was sufficient to complete three of the buildings and 90% of the fourth (ERC).  About $75,000 was needed to complete the ERC and PE East. The retrofits were done by ASU's Electric Shop, supplemented by temporary hires.  They deserve kudos for their careful attention to detail and excellent technical work.  Many students, staff and faculty have praised the efficacy of the new systems.  A summary of projects scheduled and completed in FY 94/95 is in table 2.

The DSM team recently completed the lighting retrofit of Stauffer hall with assistance from an energy grant from the Department of Energy.

That the DSM project has resulted in significant energy dollar cost savings is incontrovertible.  APS metered the buildings before and after the retrofits to calculate the project rebates, which now exceed $100,000. Data and graphs from metering compare demand and energy consumption before and after retrofit of each of the buildings which have been completed.  Reduction in demand and energy consumption is apparent and dramatic.

Costs of retrofits, resulting cost benefits and time to realize simple payback of the investment in various buildings are in Table 3.  Annual cost savings are projected from the first four to seven months of data taken from the first three buildings (Physical Sciences F-Wing, Noble Science Library and Psychology) of the five fully metered buildings.  From the present data an inference can be drawn that the average costs to retrofit a building with T8 lamps, electronic ballasts and occupancy sensors is about 98 cents per square foot; and that resulting cost savings can be expected to be about 24 cents per square foot - a 24% return on investment.  Estimates will be adjusted as more data becomes available through the twelve month period after completion of retrofits.  Presently estimated average simple payback is 4.1 years.  When incentive rebates from APS are included in cost-savings, the payback becomes 3.8 years.  Cost-sharing by DOE will further reduce the time for payback significantly.  The conclusion is that while incentives are available from APS and DOE, the lighting retrofit program should proceed.  If those incentives are withdrawn, then the best course of action would be to retrofit buildings when group relamping of present lamps is scheduled.

In addition, Farmer, Physical Science D wing, and Community Services Building has increased the annual savings to $229,000 per year.

The Demand Side Management team plans to continue working year by year towards its goal of reducing ASU’s energy costs by a million dollars a year.