Electricity Demand on a University Campus in the framework of the ECOCAMPUS collaboration: Case-study from the University of Bordeaux 1

Panel: Panel 2: Technologies and Products (innovation, marketing, market transformation)

Authors:
Patrick Faucher, University of Bordeaux
Jean-Francois Bonnet, University of Bordeaux
Christophe Devel, University of Bordeaux
Jacques Roturier, University of Bordeaux

Abstract

The ECOCAMPUS collaboration, partly funded by the European Commission under the THERMIE Programme had an important goal : to create a European network of University campuses and Research laboratories whose managers, academic staff and scientists are deeply concerned by the In-House issues of Sustainable Development. Over the past two years, an analysis of data concerning the electricity demand, heating energy and water consumption has been carried out, with special attention being given to the specific use of electricity in buildings and facilities. Members of the ECOCAMPUS collaboration were obviously committed to implement a feasibility study in at least one University of their own country. The Bordeaux group, while completing a survey of the overall electricity consumption, decided to focus on the stand-by electricity consumption. The latter is far from being negligible, particularly in buildings devoted to research activities where scientific equipment is plugged in even though it is not necessarily permanently used. This is one of the electricity issues that is commonly ignored. In the present paper an overview of the main data is given and the electricity demand is analysed at each level of decision identified as in the following :

first, the whole area that includes most of the higher education teaching facilities, research laboratories and related facilities (students residences and restaurants, sports halls, public lighting, …) was investigated. Gross data (annual consumption, real cost of kWh, indicators, annual growth, …) have been calculated mainly through an analysis of the electricity bills;
in a second step, the activities of the Science and Technology sector (University of Bordeaux 1) were considered in a more thorough manner, not only from an analysis of the electricity bills but also from metering campaigns and interviews with users and building managers. Two categories of equipment are identified, namely those shared between all users or those assigned to a single experiment : their relative contribution, both in terms of power load and annual consumption in relation to the whole installed power load is now being accurately assessed;
then, the resulting third level is analysed though two case-studies. The first one was carried out on a laser physics experimental set-up where not only the electricity consumption but also the water demand was metered (the water demand results are not shown here). The second case study was observed after the recommissionning of a Research building where a facility was recently installed in order to improve the Air Quality in Chemistry laboratories which now have to comply with more stringent requirements. In a brief survey, a preliminary analysis of its impact on the building power load is shown.