Gulf Coast CHP - Universities & Colleges

Universities & Colleges

In 2004, there were 3,382 colleges and universities granting baccalaureate and advanced degrees in the United States.1 The number of junior college campuses in 2004 totaled 933.1 In the Gulf Coast region, there are a total of about 400 higher education campuses. The table below shows the breakdown by state.2,3,4

State	Community Colleges	Colleges & Universities	Total Number of Campuses
Louisiana	51	14	65
Oklahoma	31	36	67
Texas	169	108	277
Region Total	251	158	409

Why are colleges and universities installing and/or using CHP systems? They are doing so in an effort to meet increasing campus load growth and to accommodate the shift toward year-round operations, as well as to meet the growth of attendant air-conditioning loads in an environmentally responsible manner.5

The Technical Fit of CHP on Campuses6

Multiple building loads under common ownership enables loads to be aggregated and served by a central plant.
Close proximity of buildings ensures that connecting buildings with piping is not cost prohibitive.
Buildings are occupied by "owners" making a higher degree of control and comfort desirable.
Occupancy levels are high creating high load factors that amortize the investment in CHP systems.

Current Status of CHP on College/University Campuses

A November 2003 survey conducted by International District Energy Association found that nationwide, a total of more than 967 MW of CHP capacity was installed on university and college campuses.5 Almost 200 MW of this total exists in the Gulf Coast Region as shown in the tables below.7

Louisiana - Existing CHP Capacity
Location	Capacity (kW)
Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge)	18,000
Louisiana Tech University (Ruston, LA)	5,000
Tulane University (New Orleans)	5,300
State Total	28,300 kW

Oklahoma - Existing CHP Capacity
Location	Capacity (kW)
Oklahoma State University (Stillwater)	9,500
University of Oklahoma (Norman)	16,300
State Total	25,800 kW

Texas - Existing CHP Capacity
Location	Capacity (kW)
Baylor University (Waco)	3,300
Rice University (Houston)	7,000
Texas A&M University (College Station)	40,000
Texas Tech University (Lubbock)	935
University of Texas - Austin	87,000
University of Texas - Richardson	3,500
University of Texas - San Antonio	3,500
State Total	145, 235 kW

Case Studies

University of Texas at Austin (Austin, TX)

Cogeneration with redundancy for added reliability

Baylor University

Rice University (Houston, TX)

(286 KB)

Stanford University (Palo Alto, CA)

Cogeneration with ice thermal storage

University of Iowa (Iowa City, IA)

Cogeneration using oat hulls as the fuel source

Cornell University (Ithaca, NY)

Cogeneration operations based on enterprise business model

University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill, NC)

Cogeneration using coal as the fuel source

Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)

A 14.6 MW cogeneration plant consisting of one GE LM1600 gas turbine generator coupled with a HRSG and duct burner. Two auxiliary boilers provide peak steam requirements and backup capacity.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA)

A 22 MW cogeneration plant consisting of a dual-fuel combustion turbine with low emissions burner (developed by MIT Combustion Research Facility and ABB) and a HRSG. This university was involved in a rate dispute with its local utility over alleged "stranded costs".

University of Illinois at Chicago (Chicago, IL)

A 20.2 MW cogeneration plant consisting of two (6.3 MW each) dual-fuel reciprocating engines, two (3.8 MW each) natural gas-fired reciprocating engines, 4 exhaust gas heat recovery systems, 2 jacket water heat recovery systems, several remote building absorption chillers activated by the hot water loop, one 2-stage absorption chiller, three high-temperature hot water generators, and three electrical centrifugal chillers.

California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA)

This university was awarded a 2004 Energy Star CHP Award for its cogeneration plant that boasts an efficiency of 73% which results in a 30% decrease in fuel consumption compared to separate heat and power systems. This system can generate up to 90 percent of the campus's energy needs.

Middlebury College (Middlebury, VT)

A 1.8-megawatt cogeneration system consisting of four fuel-oil-fired boilers and three steam turbine generators. The steam turbine generators satisfy up to 20 percent of the college's electricity demand. Operating at more than 81 percent efficiency, the CHP system requires an estimated 6 percent less fuel than typical purchased electricity and onsite thermal generation. This university was awarded a 2005 Energy Star CHP Award.

The College of New Jersey (Ewing, NJ)

A 5.2 MW cogeneration system consisting of one 5.2 MW Solar Turbine dual fuel turbine (natural gas and #2 low sulfur oil), one 6 MW Ideal generator, one Davis duct burner, one ERI heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and two Gardner Denver natural gas reciprocating compressors with lead/lag controls. The cogeneration plant utilizes a Wonder Ware data highway with Allen-Bradley programmable logic controls (PLCs) platform

The University of Missouri - Columbia

A cogeneration plant consisting of six boilers, four steam turbine generators, two gas turbine generators with steam heat recovery, and five deep wells providing steam, electricity, and water to the MU campus.

College of Wooster (Wooster, OH)

The unit is a 375 kW, topping cycle, backpressure turbine driving an induction generator set. The hand valves on the turbine are automated to allow the unit to maximize output as steam flows fluctuate to meet steam requirements on campus. The automated hand valves are operated in reference to generator speed and turbine backpressure.

University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI)

A 42.5 MW cogeneration system consisting of six conventional gas/oil fired boilers, three 12.5 MW back-pressure/extraction steam turbine generators, two gas/oil Solar combustion turbines, and two HRSGs with supplemental gas firing.

University of New Hampshire - Durham

A 7.9 MW cogeneration system with dual fuel combustion turbine generator train and a Heat Recovery Steam Generator (HRSG) with a duct burner with a total capacity of almost 100,000 pounds of steam per hour, was the best configuration. The campus constantly imports power from the local utility, which could also be used for redundancy in the event the CHP facility was out of service

University of California - Los Angeles

A cogeneration system that utilizes landfill gas as its fuel source. Unique project financing discussed.

Indiana State University

Elgin Community College (Elgin, IL)

A load following cogeneration system operates during peak hours to reduce the college's energy costs.

University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA)

This cogeneration system is one component of the university's multi-pronged energy plan to reduce costs and its impact on the environment.

Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ)

The Busch Cogeneration Plant has an overall efficiency of 73 percent and meets approximately 90 percent of the Busch and Livingston campuses' winter electric demands (two of the four campuses located at the New Brunswick site) and about half of the demand in the summer.

Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN)

The decision to cogenerate electricity was driven by the economics of comparative costing between electricity and coal. Since the cogeneration units could produce sufficient revenue to pay the debt service on the new plant and provide sufficient depreciation reserves to maintain the plant at a high level of reliability, the capital cost of the plant was not passed on to customers through the steam rate structure. Funds that would have otherwise gone to the local electrical utility were used to pay the capital cost of the new plant.

Colby College (Waterville, ME)

A 500 kW cogeneration system built as a direct result of a 1998 ice storm that knocked out power to several other colleges in Maine but spared Colby. This university opted to build the plant itself.

Yale University (New Haven, CT)

For 80 years this university produced the steam the drove heating and cooling systems of many buildings on its Central Campus. The addition three natural gas-fired turbines allowed the university to generate up to 18.4 MW of electricity for on-campus use.

Loma Linda University (San Bernadino County, CA)

Loma Linda University and Loma Linda Hospital share 1.5 million square feet of facilities. The cogeneration plant provides up to 11.2 megawatts of electrical power and as much as 86,000 pounds per hour of steam to the institution for use in space heating, cooling, food preparation, domestic hot water and sterilization of hospital equipment.

University of California - San Diego

A 27 MW cogeneration plant installed in April 2001 by Solar Turbines. In April 2002, the project received a VIP Clean Air Award from San Diego Earthworks.

Eastern Michigan University (Ypsilanti, MI)

A 3.5 MW cogeneration system installed in 1998 was financed through bonds issued by the university as part of a package for overall capital improvements. The system provides approximately 50 percent of peak electric and steam needs for the university. The project had a four year simple payback.

University of Montana - Missoula

This cogeneration system was one of the first at a state-owned facility. The system provides approximately 5 percent of the total electrical consumption on the campus. The project received partial funding from the US DOE Institutional Conservation Program

State University of New York - Stony Brook

This cogeneration system generates and supplies up to 280,000 pounds of steam per hour to the university for its heating and cooling needs. The plant also generates 40 megawatts (MW) of electricity, satisfying all of the university's power needs. Excess capacity is sold to the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). This plant is owned in a 50/50 partnership between two corporations.

University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI)

The cogeneration facility, which is jointly owned by MGE and the state of Wisconsin, has a capacity of 150 MW of electricity, 20,000 tons of chilled water and 500,000 lb./hr. of steam. It provides heating and cooling for the university campus and electricity for customers of MGE.