Smart People, Smart Grid

Should there ever come a time when cities of the future are powered by “smart grids,” projects such as one undertaken by Energy Control, Inc. (ECI), at the University of New Mexico (UNM), will be looked upon as one that led the way to that future. For the present time, we gladly award this project with a 2009 ContractingBusiness.com Design/Build award.

For those not familiar with the concept of the smart grid, Jack McGowan, CEM, CEO of ECI, is happy to provide a brief primer. After all, he was a founding member of the U.S. Department of Energy GridWise Architecture Council, and served as its chairman for two years.

“August 14, 2003, when the eastern seaboard of North America went dark, was a significant date in electric industry history that captured the attention of both the media and Capitol Hill,” McGowan says. “It quickly became evident however, that the blackout was a symptom of a much larger problem, which many have begun calling the ‘energy perfect storm.’ This problem begins with an aging electric infrastructure that has not had major technological advancement in a nearly a half century. It is exacerbated by a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)-projected 40% increase in electric demand over the next 20 years that will cost utilities a projected $3 trillion. That includes the impact of cap and trade, which is part of the third element of this perfect storm: climate change.”

Thus was born GridWise™, an initiative created under the DOE Office of Electricity and Energy Reliability. The focus of GridWise is on stimulating the development and adoption of an intelligent energy system, or smart grid, to make the U.S. electric system more reliable and efficient.

UNM was an ideal site for a GridWise project because of ongoing technology investments the university had made. UNM had built a mechanical engineering building in the 1980s equipped with solar thermal and thermal storage, but the systems had fallen into disrepair and were not operating. In fact, Andrea Mammoli, Ph.D., associate professor of engineering at UNM, stepped up to lead a team of academics and facility engineers to work with ECI on the design and construction of this project. The university had also invested in a smart meter system, a district heating and cooling plant with power generation capability of eight megawatts of combined heat and power, and numerous automation and integration technology projects over several decades.

The advent of smart grid, according to McGowan, presented an opportunity for a truly cutting-edge Design/Build energy project, and the ultimate Green Building system. Using this rationale, ECI was successful in acquiring around $600,000 in pre-stimulus DOE funding, partially matched by UNM and the state. “This was a perfect example of the type of design/build shovel-ready projects sought under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act,” McGowan says.

“This unique Design /Build project leveraged wide ranging relationships and skills,” according to McGowan. “ECI has had a strong presence in building automation and in the smart grid market since its inception. We recognized the connection between smart buildings and smart grid, and saw how this market offered explosive opportunity for design build solutions that blend automation, system integration, mechanical/renewable energy systems, and efficiency.”

An Intuitive Tool to Understand Energy Use

This Design/Build energy technology project leverages existing technologies that have been implemented at UNM, with new technology and Internet-based web services. The project touches many campus buildings with automation, metering and integration. In addition, an “energy business intelligence tool” from Hunt Energy IQ, called GEMS (Global Energy Management and Sustainability) provides full information for more than 100 buildings. Energy data from the mechanical engineering building is reported in real-time through an integration using Tridium Java Application Control Engine (JACE) and Delta Control technology. Energy data from 84 other buildings is reported in less than 20-minute intervals and can be displayed in key performance indicators such as energy consumption or cost per square foot.

“This system provides an intuitive management tool for building owners to understand the impact of energy on their business and to provide for real-time manage of building performance,” McGowan says. “The system also integrates multiple BACnet and legacy automation systems to provide seamless interface to building operations. This smart campus can use this tool to manage energy use, energy cost, and its carbon footprint.”