VCU news

By Joan Izzo and Jim Norvelle

Virginia Commonwealth University and Dominion, one of the nation’s leading energy providers, will partner to use the VCU School of Engineering's West Hall as a five-year test site for efficient energy technologies and research as a micro-grid project.

VCU and Dominion signed an agreement that calls for the use of Dominion experts, VCU School of Engineering faculty and VCU Facilities Management personnel and third-party products and services to gather and share power-consumption data. The project will make continuous, real-time energy adjustments to the building, lights and equipment to save energy and lower costs. It is expected to reduce energy costs by $20,000, or 4 percent, annually.

"Leading the way in addressing sustainability challenges is one of the core themes of our Quest for Distinction strategic plan,” said VCU President Michael Rao, Ph.D. “Working with Dominion on this project is a wonderful opportunity for VCU to provide a powerful example of environmental responsibility while delivering valuable data for the development of more efficient energy technologies."

Paul Koonce, chief executive officer of Dominion Virginia Power, said, “This project with the VCU School of Engineering will open doors for the establishment of energy-saving micro-grids in many other locations such as universities, military bases and industries. Using the latest technology to collect data on electricity use at the outlet will help us fine-tune the delivery of electricity to where it is needed when it is needed, reducing waste, saving energy and saving money for the customer.”

VCU and Dominion, through its Alternative Energy Solutions group, will split the $500,000 cost of the project, which includes the installation of hardware, control systems and solar panels to enable both parties to gather voltage data and analyze energy volume, timing, noise and cleanliness, as well as establish energy usage trends and equipment performance.

VCU’s Facilities Management staff will install 230 portable voltage monitors from Dominion’s technology partners to manage electrical usage and reduce peak power consumption. EDGE^sm technology, a product developed by Dominion, will be installed to capture energy and demand savings while the other technologies will predict power consumption and power reduction potential, send notifications prior to peak events and control and verify power reduction.

“We’re excited to create a working model that can be used by students and researchers to investigate and create innovative methods for maximizing energy conservation and cost savings,” said Ed Bennett, executive director of the VCU Physical Plant and deputy for facilities management at VCU. “We foresee this as an extension of our efforts to predict and save future maintenance costs based on equipment energy analysis.”

Dominion’s technology partners include Greenlet Technologies of Israel (www.greenlet.net) and Power Tagging Technologies of Boulder, Co., (www.powertagging.com). Greenlet’s pluggable outlets, which can be installed by consumers, automatically communicate with a utility’s central management system to help utilities control power consumption of individual pieces of equipment. Power Tagging’s Grid Location Aware™ technology is a grid resident solution for granular command and control of electrical distribution.