A new school of systems controls

Engineered Systems, June, 2002 by Joanna R. Turpin

Spurred by motivators including its insurance company, Catholic University has spent several years implementing a gradual hvac overhaul. Campus energy efficiency has increased with each retrofit, but new metering has also earned extra credit by allowing facility staff to identify and pursue smarter operating procedures.

The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, DC was founded in 1887 and first opened its doors to 37 students on November 13, 1889. Today, the university enrolls a combined total of 5,500 undergraduate and graduate students and has approximately 50 buildings spread across 144 acres. Given that the university is well over 100 years old, it can be expected that some of the buildings' mechanical systems would be in need of repair.

To upgrade all the university's hvac systems at one time, however, would be extremely expensive. So a decision was made in the late 1990s to phase in new equipment and systems through performance contracting and as capital funds became available.

Slowly but surely, change is taking place at the university. A new central steam plant, submetering system, and EMS are now in place, as well as all-new lighting and plumbing fixtures. The effect of these new systems on the utility bills has been tremendous, but a bigger bonus may be that it is now possible to have much more control over most of the hvac systems on campus.

LIGHTS AND METERS FIRST

Like many universities with older buildings, CUA has always done what it could at the moment to keep its systems operating as well as possible. When Robert Burhenn came aboard 10 years ago as director of energy and utilities management, he saw that a comprehensive plan was needed to bring the systems up to date.

"We started looking around at different ways we could do things, and we looked at performance contracting. We talked with different groups, and we met Custom Energy (a national energy services company whose corporate headquarters is in Overland Park, KS). They presented a phased-in approach to performance contracting, so we didn't have to bite the whole thing off in one chunk, which a lot of companies want to do," says Burhenn.

Phase 1, which was finished in 1999, consisted of an energy-efficient lighting retrofit throughout 42 buildings on campus, representing over 2 million sq ft of building area. The lighting portion alone is estimated to save CUA over $140,000 annually. "We didn't do the one-for-one change-outs like a lot of people do. We changed some fixtures at the same time. It hurts payback when you do that because it's running up your initial costs," notes Burhenn.

A utility submetering system was also installed during Phase 1. Each building now has its own meter in order to measure actual electricity and steam usage. This will help Burhenn and his staff determine savings opportunities for future phases and to establish a load profile for individual buildings.

Burhenn is very excited about this particular part of the project, because before Phase 1, he only had one meter for the whole campus. He had no idea what was happening in each individual building. Now he can use that information to identify energy-hungry buildings and start looking for ways to save energy in the future.

NEXT UP, BOILERS

Phase 2 started shortly after Phase 1 ended, and it originally consisted of mechanical upgrades to five buildings as well as replacing the central steam plant, which provided heat to over 50 buildings on campus. The steam plant contained four 750-hp vertical watertube boilers that were approximately 50 years old.

However, it was determined that the whole project was too expensive, so something had to go. "This is where the phased-in approach was nice. Instead, I went through the shopping list of the proposal and started cutting things out. What we ended up with was just the central boiler plant, which was a $1.2 million project," says Burhenn.

What really helped CUA with this project was its insurance provider, of all things. The insurance company inspected CUA's boilers and refused to insure them for the upcoming season unless they were completely overhauled. It would have cost approximately $400,000 to rebuild two of the boilers, then in four years the other two boilers would have to be rebuilt.

That helped clinch the deal, and Phase 2 was underway. Before the new boilers could be installed, it was first necessary to remove the asbestos, demolish the old boilers, and take off part of the roof of the boiler room. Having the roof gone made it much easier to install the new boilers, as a crane was used to place the boilers rather than trying to squeeze them through little doors.

Only two of the old boilers had to be removed, as the four new, Kewanee three-pass, wetback, firetube boilers were so much smaller, they took up a lot less space. The other two old boilers were simply abandoned in place.

Because of higher efficiencies, the new boilers are only 500 hp each, and right now CUA only needs to run two of the four boilers. A new student union building is currently being built, and Burhenn estimates that the third boiler may then be needed on really cold days.