State University of New York at New Paltz
IN-2: Innovation 2

SUNY New Paltz has invested heavily in infrastructure, central building management and metering systems, staff development, and contractor support for the college's campus-wide building-level utility submetering. All buildings on campus greater than 2,000 square feet are submetered for electricity (36 buildings). The main electric meter providing electricity to the vast majority of the campus has its own separate meter. All buildings on campus greater than 5,000 square feet are submetered for domestic water (36 buildings). All non-residential buildings connected to the campus’s high temperature hot water (HTHW) system are metered (19 buildings). Two residence halls, LeFevre Hall and Crispell Hall are metered for high temperature hot water. The remaining residence halls are being submetered for HTHW as they are renovated or constructed. Over half of buildings on campus are metered for natural gas. The Central Heating Plant, by far the greatest user of natural gas, is submetered for natural gas.

Facilities managers across the country are beginning to adopt building-level submeters for utilities. SUNY New Paltz's submetering program and energy management practices are innovative because:

(1) The extent of our submeters. Many facilities just have electric submeters, whereas we have the full range of electric, natural gas, high temp hot water, and domestic water.

(2) The investment we have made in ensuring meter data accuracy. Many facilities have submeters but do not have confidence in the quality of the metering data, limiting the usefulness of the entire submetering system. SUNY New Paltz rigorously evaluates meter data quality to ensure that it is accurate and usful.

(3) The extent to which we incorporate utility trend data into energy monitoring, metering, and planning. SUNY New Paltz tracks building-level demand data to evaluate HVAC systems and building scheduling. We incorporate actual utility trend data into long-term energy planning through our Energy Master Plan. We incorporate the meter data in our Monitoring-Based Commissioning Plan focusing on 22 academic, administrative, and athletic buildings. We evaluate the effectiveness of our winter session setback program and demand response program with meter data. We use the data to evaluate construction projects including comparing the energy usage of:
* New LEED Gold residence halls vs. unrenovated residence halls
* Air conditioned residence halls vs. un-air conditioned residence halls
* LEED Silver academic buildings vs. pre-LEED academic buildings
* Existing buildings vs. prospective net zero energy buildings.

* The Offices of Campus Sustainability, Facilities Operations, and Design and Construction, as well as our contractors, more effectively manage energy use because the campus has building-level real time and historical energy data.
* Actual meter data has been used to analyze building source energy use in the campus's Energy Master Plan, rather than engineering calculations.
* The Office of Campus Sustainability developed a building-level monitoring-based commissioning program with Siemens.
* The Office of Campus Sustainability has sought to improve energy efficiency of two similar residence halls, both designed to meet LEED Gold certification, that have very different energy use patterns.
* The Office of Campus Sustainability tracks its energy conservation performance during Winter Session Setback with our building-level utility data.
* The Office of Campus Sustainability, with the Office of Design and Construction, has established energy consumption reduction goals for Coykendall Science Building to guide a retrocommissioning study, HVAC upgrades, and a chiller replacement. Coykendall, a science laboratory building, is second highest energy consuming building at SUNY New Paltz.
* SUNY New Paltz is piloting Flow Dynamic's patented Smart Valve to improve the accuracy of domestic water meters in a single building. Results will be shared with facility managers across the SUNY System. http://www.thesmartvalve.com/