Overall Rating Reporter - expired
Overall Score
Liaison Patrick McKee
Submission Date April 15, 2013
Executive Letter Download

STARS v1.2

University of Connecticut
SD-9: Energy Initiatives

Status Score Responsible Party
-- Reporter Richard Miller
Director
Office of Environmental Policy
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

The percentage of total building space square footage that has undergone energy retrofits or renovations within the past three years:
55

The percentage of overall energy consumption reduced as a result of retrofits and renovations completed within the past three years:
6

The percentage of electricity consumption reduced as a result of retrofits and renovations completed within the past three years:
6.18

The percentage of thermal energy consumption reduced as a result of retrofits and renovations completed within the past three years:
5.11

The combined gross square footage of all buildings that were constructed or underwent renovations in the past three years that are ENERGY STAR labeled:
0

The names of all buildings that were constructed or underwent renovations in the past three years that are ENERGY STAR labeled:

No buildings are explicitly Energy Star labeled


The combined gross square footage of all buildings that are ENERGY STAR labeled:
0

The names of all buildings that are ENERGY STAR labeled:

No buildings are explicitly Energy Star labeled


Data source(s) and notes about the submission:

Lighting retrofits cover 3,913,293 square feet of building space

Energy retrocommissioning projects cover 2,605,128 square feet

Total space, excluding duplicate entries, is 5,639,078

An additional 1,000,000+ square feet is currently in process of retrocommisioning and/or relamping.

Review of the energy expenditures at UCONN by the Costs, Operations & Revenue Efficiencies Task Force (CORE) formed by President Austin in November 2008 revealed opportunities to conserve. One opportunity given approval was Retro-commissioning (RCx), the process of measuring and verifying that a building’s systems are operating at maximum efficiency as designed and currently used.
The RCx projects were developed as a joint initiative pursuant to the CORE recommendations and the proposed energy action items in UConn's Climate Action Plan, which, at the time, had been written and was pending approval.

RCx is a four step process where:
1.An engineering firm performs a quick initial SURVEY to determine if energy conservation opportunities exist at the location provided. UCONN is responsible to ensure that all needed maintenance or repairs are complete prior to the next step.
2.From the survey a Master List of Findings is developed enumerating the energy conservation opportunities which the engineering firm determines to INVESTIGATE in order to develop costs and savings data. UCONN and the utility review and approve the Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) prior to investigation.
3.From the investigation, the engineering firm develops the IMPLEMENTATION PLAN which includes quotes for all work and final determination of savings. UCONN and the utility review and approve the plan. UCONN issues purchase orders to the vendors and payment does not occur until final acceptance by both UCONN and the utility that the selected ECMs have been fully implemented functioning as intended, UCONN staff are trained, and all documentation received.
4.All ECMs must be reviewed one year after implementation under a MEASUREMENT AND VERIFICATION PLAN to prove the energy conservation and savings.

Using utility bills, campus sub-metering, campus Andover Building Management System (BMS) trending, and reports by building tenants and Facilities Operation maintenance staff the CORE Energy Team identified and prioritized the most energy usage intensive buildings and infrastructure systems.

Consulting with the local utilities and the CT Clean Energy Fund determined that certain projects would be eligible for rebates and incentives. The CORE Energy Team developed three phases or groups of twelve buildings to commence RCx due to manpower and budget considerations. The RCx program is designed to:
•achieve a return on investment within 5 years for each building selected,
•demonstrate the program applicability to diverse building classes,
•reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint,
•leverage the available incentives, and
•provide a noticeable impact on campus stakeholders to raise awareness of conservation measures.
.


Lighting retrofits cover 3,913,293 square feet of building space

Energy retrocommissioning projects cover 2,605,128 square feet

Total space, excluding duplicate entries, is 5,639,078

An additional 1,000,000+ square feet is currently in process of retrocommisioning and/or relamping.

Review of the energy expenditures at UCONN by the Costs, Operations & Revenue Efficiencies Task Force (CORE) formed by President Austin in November 2008 revealed opportunities to conserve. One opportunity given approval was Retro-commissioning (RCx), the process of measuring and verifying that a building’s systems are operating at maximum efficiency as designed and currently used.
The RCx projects were developed as a joint initiative pursuant to the CORE recommendations and the proposed energy action items in UConn's Climate Action Plan, which, at the time, had been written and was pending approval.

RCx is a four step process where:
1.An engineering firm performs a quick initial SURVEY to determine if energy conservation opportunities exist at the location provided. UCONN is responsible to ensure that all needed maintenance or repairs are complete prior to the next step.
2.From the survey a Master List of Findings is developed enumerating the energy conservation opportunities which the engineering firm determines to INVESTIGATE in order to develop costs and savings data. UCONN and the utility review and approve the Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) prior to investigation.
3.From the investigation, the engineering firm develops the IMPLEMENTATION PLAN which includes quotes for all work and final determination of savings. UCONN and the utility review and approve the plan. UCONN issues purchase orders to the vendors and payment does not occur until final acceptance by both UCONN and the utility that the selected ECMs have been fully implemented functioning as intended, UCONN staff are trained, and all documentation received.
4.All ECMs must be reviewed one year after implementation under a MEASUREMENT AND VERIFICATION PLAN to prove the energy conservation and savings.

Using utility bills, campus sub-metering, campus Andover Building Management System (BMS) trending, and reports by building tenants and Facilities Operation maintenance staff the CORE Energy Team identified and prioritized the most energy usage intensive buildings and infrastructure systems.

Consulting with the local utilities and the CT Clean Energy Fund determined that certain projects would be eligible for rebates and incentives. The CORE Energy Team developed three phases or groups of twelve buildings to commence RCx due to manpower and budget considerations. The RCx program is designed to:
•achieve a return on investment within 5 years for each building selected,
•demonstrate the program applicability to diverse building classes,
•reduce campus greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint,
•leverage the available incentives, and
•provide a noticeable impact on campus stakeholders to raise awareness of conservation measures.
.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.