Stanford University
IN-25: Innovation B

During spring and summer 2014, the Office of Sustainability hired 12 Stanford student interns to collect inventory data on plug load equipment throughout 220 main campus buildings, totaling nearly 9 million square feet of building space. Interns walked through each room in each building, observed equipment plugged into wall outlets, and recorded the equipment type and equipment attributes in a smartphone/tablet application developed by Stanford's Land, Buildings and Real Estate Applications Support team. The application combined electronic versions of floor plans for each of Stanford's buildings with web forms developed for every room that contained drop down lists for recording equipment information.

During the inventory, interns collected data on 55 types of equipment located throughout these buildings in the following categories: Computers and Monitors; Kitchen and Breakroom; Audio/Visual; Laboratory; Printers & Scanners; Occupant Comfort; Gym & Training; and Laundry. The Office of Sustainability also partnered with other campus departments to collect additional information that would be mutually beneficial, including occupancy, water fixture flow rates and flush rates, and "red flags" to indicate leaks, safety hazards, etc. Interns also collected "attributes" for each type of equipment recorded that could affect the energy consumption of that piece of equipment. Extensive research was then conducted by staff to develop energy consumption estimates for every type of equipment based on the attributes recorded, and the data was aggregated and analyzed to determine Stanford's detailed plug load profile and most valuable plug load energy savings opportunities.

Due to the success of this initial inventory effort, an expanded equipment inventory was conducted in Summer 2015, covering 43 additional on- and off-campus buildings. The expanded inventory allowed Stanford to develop a more complete picture of plug loads on campus, especially by including student residences. Two interns collected data throughout these additional buildings and assisted the Office of Sustainability in analyzing the complete results. Ultimately, the equipment inventory not only provided operations staff with crucial plug load data, but it also increased the visibility of sustainability initiatives across campus.

Altogether, the original and expanded inventories covered 263 buildings and 10.2 million square feet of building space, which is 93% of Stanford's gross square footage. Over 200,000 pieces of equipment were identified across the 20,000 rooms that were inventoried. In total, the electricity consumed by this equipment amounts to approximately 34% of Stanford’s total electricity consumption and costs the university $9 million per year.

The Office of Sustainability distributed the building-specific findings to building managers and used the aggregate equipment data to identify 33 viable plug load reduction opportunities. These divide into five overarching programs: basic energy efficiency measures through the existing Energy Retrofit Program; space heating improvements; sustainability in information technology; green labs; and procurement strategies. Since completing this analysis, the Office of Sustainability has formed partnerships and developed strategies to execute each of these programs.

To date, these efforts have led to initiatives such as the establishment of the Cardinal Green Labs program; the formation of a Direct Install program for programmable timers; a campaign to exchange space heaters for Sustainable Stanford fleeces; the identification of several server relocation projects; and a pilot in Athletics buildings of a new energy management technology called Keewi, which utilizes a smart phone app to increase occupant engagement in energy savings at individual work stations. As of May 2016, these programs have saved the university approximately $65,000 per year and will continue to save more as the Office of Sustainability works to expand each of the plug load reduction programs to new parts of campus.

Finally, because of the thoroughness of the equipment inventory and the high potential for applicability to other campuses, the Office of Sustainability released a white paper detailing the inventory and its results, available here: http://sustainable.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/resource-attachments/Plug%20Load%20White%20Paper%20FINAL.pdf.

Stanford has also presented on the plug load equipment inventory at conferences such as the California Higher Education Sustainability Conference, the AASHE Conference, and the Better Buildings Summit. The results were also presented via a Better Buildings Alliance webinar and will be presented at the 2016 Greenbuild Conference.