Overall Rating Gold - expired
Overall Score 81.02
Liaison Sam Lubow
Submission Date June 29, 2016
Executive Letter Download

STARS v2.1

Stanford University
IN-24: Innovation A

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 1.00 / 1.00 Moira Hafer
Sustainability Specialist
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Name or title of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome:
Enterprise Optimization Solution

A brief description of the innovative policy, practice, program, or outcome that outlines how credit criteria are met and any positive measurable outcomes associated with the innovation:

Stanford’s Executive Director of Sustainability and Energy Management developed a modeling tool to determine the optimal daily operation of Stanford’s new heat-recovery central energy facility. Once patented, Stanford collaborated with Johnson Controls to transform the tool into an industrial-grade software, known as Enterprise Optimization Solution (EOS), and to hardwire it into Stanford’s energy system. EOS is now both an energy modeling and dispatch system using over 1,220 variables (including building occupancy, ambient conditions, time of year, projected energy prices, weather forecast, current system conditions, etc.) to develop 15-minute dispatches that show the optimal way to run the plant.

The system predicts the university’s background electrical profile for the next ten days and schedules hourly operations of the plant’s heat recovery chillers, conventional chillers, hot water generators, and thermal storage tanks each day so as to minimize the overall electrical footprint of the university on the grid and avoid the use of this energy-intensive equipment during peak hours. EOS will perform this forward-looking analysis and recalibrate the machine operating schedules as needed every 15 minutes on a continual basis. It can be used be used in either advisory or fully automated modes. The software also has a Planning Tool aspect that can be used by energy operations personnel to forecast future loads and model plant operations needs for the future.

EOS is currently the only sophisticated tool to measure the potential for district-level heat recovery. As a result, Stanford has shared it with many other institutions that are interested in heat recovery for their campuses.


Which of the following impact areas does the innovation most closely relate to? (select up to three):
Public Engagement
Air & Climate
Energy

A letter of affirmation from an individual with relevant expertise or a press release or publication featuring the innovation :
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The website URL where information about the innovation is available :
Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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