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ECI worked with Hunt Energy IQ, and Delta controls to deploy a seamless BACnet integration between the BACnet systems in more than a dozen campus buildings and GEMS. A similar integration was executed between Tridium JACE and GEMS to access Btu energy data from systems that pick up this data from industrial controls on HVAC.

The project deploys automated demand response. This integrates utility systems with home and building control and energy information systems. Technical development and software programming at each customer's site may include a smart thermostat or a building automation system programmed to shut down equipment and reduce electrical demand if it receives a signal to do so. Or, the thermostat will signal a start-up of the CHP system to generate power on campus when the utility grid can't keep up with demand.

“The UNM project was designed to show how this level of performance data could be combined with automation and energy technology to provide a new generation of smart green building. We believe that smart buildings use energy in a clean and efficient way, to become green buildings,” McGowan says.

The site's “ultimate” green building is — not surprisingly — the mechanical engineering building. As part of this project, ECI's team rebuilt the solar thermal system with vacuum tube collectors and 400,000 gallons of thermal storage in the building. The project completely upgraded the system, added a 200-ton absorption chiller, and connected the building to the campus chilled water loop. As a result of the work in just this one building, the project can actually take the entire building “off the grid” for cooling, with the exception of some fan and pump loads. Centennial Engineering, the newest building on campus, was designed for optimum energy performance including a connection to the thermal storage loop from the mechanical energy building.

“The total campus project shows the next generation of smart building/smart grid strategies for energy management and load management, to support the power grid. It provides a great example of optimized Design/Build delivery,” McGowan says.

Inspiring Future Generations

Mammoli says working with McGowan and the team from ECI has helped him see the real-world, practical applications of the theories that underlie the smart grid. And while no one really knows exactly what a city-wide smart grid is going to look like, or how it will ultimately function, putting one on a college campus is the right thing to do.

“The campus is like a small city, so it's very exciting to look at the potential of smart grids, and to think that someday we'll say this is one of the places where it all started,” Mammoli says.

Mammoli is not the only one excited by the technology. “One of the things I really enjoyed about working with ECI is that doing practical things like this on buildings and energy systems really fires up students,” he says.

“There are a lot of students that are really interested in this topic, and I think the interaction with ECI has been instrumental in sparking that interest. This is where the people who are going to be doing this type of work in the future are going to see it.”

Winner at a Glance:

COMPANY:

Energy Control, Inc.,
Albuquerque, NM

PROJECT NAME/LOCATION:

Smart grid project,
University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque, NM

TOTAL MECHANICAL SYSTEM COST:

$1.2 million

PRODUCT KEYS TO SUCCESS:

• Hunt Energy IQ GEMS web service
• Delta Controls DDC control for 26 buildings with HVAC and energy control
• Tridium Java application control Engine (JACE), Green JACE, Vykon, and AX integration components
• Cimetrics BACnet-to-SOAP interface for web services; vacuum tube solar collectors for solar thermal hot water
• Yazaki 200-ton absorption chiller for solar thermal cooling
• Samsung touch screens for web interface