A unique partnership between California’s public universities and the investor-owned utilities will spend $150 million to $300 million to achieve energy reduction on all 33 campuses in the four utility service areas. They are responding to an executive order issued late last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) directing all state agencies to "actively participate" to "reduce grid-based energy purchases by 20% by 2015, through cost-effective efficiency measures and distributed generation technology." Click here to view map of California state universities

California State University (CSU) Chief of Plant Energy and Utilities Len Pettis sees "a tremendous opportunity" for university campuses to be part of the solution to California’s energy crisis through a "hybrid" approach to power that includes energy efficiency and the building of distributed generation plants on college campuses. Utilities participating in the program include Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Francisco; San Diego Gas & Electric; Southern California Edison Co., Rosemead, and Southern California Gas.

The program consists of energy retrofit, monitoring-based commissioning of existing building and training and education programs for facilities staff. Pettis estimates that about half the budget will go to infrastructure improvement to achieve conservation and the other half will go to self-generation through clean, ultra-clean and renewable sources where possible.

For funding, CSU will look to the legislature first. Other options include bonds and equipment lease-financing. The system has pre-approved seven third-party providers for advice on the most efficient way to meet campus energy needs (see box below). Companies will bid on a comprehensive design-build contract. Those that don’t get the contract will be paid for their time. "We see it as a partnership where we are fair with them and they are up-front with us and don’t pencil us to death later," says Haaziq Muhammad, a lead contract specialist for the CSU Chancellor’s office.

Distributed-generation plants, usually defined as power-generation plants on the user’s premises to serve its load, would reduce large power transfers on overloaded transmission lines, but they are difficult to get permitted. Pettis says, "no one wants a powerplant in their backyard." Placing them on campuses supplies power for the 409,000 students and 44,000 faculty and staff served by the growing system. "In addition to relieving the demand, we can share the power with the community," Pettis says. But he estimates it will take at least a year to create a new action plan to carry out the program.

Each campus works independently to determine local needs, Pettis notes, but the systemwide strategy would call for clean and renewable energy-efficient building wherever possible. A renovated facility at Sonoma State completed in December 2002, for example, uses 1,325 photovoltaic cells to run fans and evaporative-cooling equipment that replaces a traditional mechanical cooling system. The 106-kW facility cost approximately $7 million with PG&E covering about half of the cost to promote energy efficiency.

"The cost savings have to be greater than the debt service starting in year one, "says Marco Garcia, a major accounts manager for Berkeley-based PowerLight Corp., which did the technical design and economic analysis and facilitated the financing of a low-interest loan for the Sonoma State project. PowerLight also built a 1-MW pv system–the largest at any university in the world–for Cal State East Bay.

But Pettis maintains that pv doesn’t pay for itself over its 30-year lifespan without significant incentives. Since none of the campuses are located in good wind-generating areas, he will be looking at fuel cell technology as an alternative.

Four of CSU’s 23 campuses–Humboldt, San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego–currently have power generation on site. Long Beach has a 500-kW natural-gas cogeneration plant that heats the pool and is in the process of planning a 15-MW combined-cycle natural-gas plant. "We would like to move away from fossil fuel eventually, but right now, it is still the most cost-effective way to generate power," Pettis says.