Energy Planning from Square One
Mike Walters, Affiliated Engineers, Inc. (AEI)
Rob McKenna, Affiliated Engineers, Inc.
Public utilities have long used the process of "integrated resource planning" as a means to prepare for—and influence—energy supply and demand changes to their service areas. Such proactive preparation facilitates readily-available and reliable energy supplies. The university, college, or research campus is often at a sufficiently large scale to make use of such methodical planning to address business continuity concerns. Integrated resource planning is also an effective methodology for addressing other institutional or corporate goals such as fiscal responsibility, environmental stewardship, and carbon neutrality.
The presenter will review the key components of integrated resource planning and illustrate how the methodology was used at Ohio State University (OSU) to develop a campus-wide Energy and Infrastructure Plan. OSU's Energy and Infrastructure Plan is used as the foundation for its Climate Action Plan (CAP) and has guided the investment of operating and capital dollars for central generation of efficient utilities and a growing energy conservation program. The information in this session will provide insight on the tools and processes used in integrated resource planning and how they can be used at the campus and individual capital project scale.
Biography:
Mike Walters, as AEI's sustainable practice leader, brings insight and innovation on planning and design issues to public, private, and government projects worldwide. He continues to seek new ways to advance stewardship of the natural world in the built environment through professional practice, education, and speaking engagements. A popular ASHRAE, GreenBuild, and Labs21 speaker, Mr. Walters is a guest lecturer and adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he teaches the sustainable building design and LEED® course for the College of Engineering. He guided the National Institutes of Health's Sustainable Design Initiative, plotting a concurrent reduction of 2 percent annual energy consumption during the extensive expansion of the institute's laboratory and medical research campus, and led the design of energy efficiency strategies for the 5-million-square-foot LEED Platinum King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. He planned the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (UNC) demand side energy reduction program, which included building audits, calibrated energy modeling, and statistical methods for prioritization of cross-campus measures. His design for the North Carolina sustainable master plan was a cornerstone of UNC's plan to achieve carbon neutrality in conjunction with signing the American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment. Mr. Walters is currently directing Cornell University's first step in executing the ACUPCC, a Climate Action Plan that will eliminate roughly 320 kilotons of greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately achieve carbon neutrality.