Engineering and Energy

Take a look at the historical usage and cost of the west campus utilities over the past decade.  While domestic water and sewer usage has remained relatively flat, both electric and natural gas usage has steadily increased in step with our campus growth. Please note that more updated figures are now available in the latter pages of the above Annual Energy Reports.

About $380 is spent each year per Full Year Equivalent Student. This equates to 4% of full time student's tuition (based on 15 credit hours for two semesters). As of FY2010, cost per square foot was approximately $2.50 annually.

We need your help! A significant amount of electricity is used during the night time and weekend hours. The University maintains at least 2 megawatts of electrical consumption throughout evenings and weekends. Each of the spikes is one day. The spikes are grouped a weekly pattern of five high usage days and two weekend days. 

Our summer electrical usage peaked at just over 7.5 Megawatts.

A significant portion of this off-peak usage comes from equipment that is not turned off! Lights, computer monitors, computers, printers, copy machines, etc... should all be turned off during the evening to extend their operating life, save energy, and save on pollution the resulting to our environment.

Natural Gas: Oakland University purchases its natural gas on the wholesale market from various suppliers. The wholesaler then delivers the gas to our local distribution company (Consumers Energy), who then delivers it to our door via one gas meter located at the Central Heating Plant. To view the past wholesale gas prices, look at the monthly New York Mercantile Exchange prices for natural gas contacts originating from Henry Hub. Henry Hub is a pipeline hub in Louisiana and is the reference delivery point for all U.S. natural gas futures contracts. View the real time pricing for natural gas on the NYMEX. Trading starts at 10AM weekdays.

Electricity: In 2002, Oakland University entered into a two year contract to purchase electricity under our State's Electric Choice program. The University saved approximately $500,000 in FY03 and $380,000 in FY04 on the program. The situation is nearly identical to the natural gas purchasing program. An alternative electrical supplier delivers our required electricity to our local distribution company (Detroit Edison), who then delivers it to our switchgear at the south substation.  The contract has been completed, and we are monitoring market conditions and regulatory issues to see if a second contract will be favorable.

Water: The west campus receives its domestic water supply from the City of Auburn Hills via three meters. Our campus water piping connects all three supply mains together, forming redundant paths of delivery. The east campus receives its water from the City of Rochester Hills.

Individually metered buildings: Numerous smaller buildings on the east and west campuses are individually metered for gas, electricity, and water directly from the Consumers Power, Detroit Edison, and Rochester Hills. The cost of these individually metered locations is approximately 1% of our annual utility purchases. Several of the east campus auxiliary units purchase their own gas and power. 

Calculated by Oakland University, Energy Management
Oakland University Facilities Management purchases utilities from Detroit Edison, Consumers Energy, Auburn Hills, Rochester Hills, and other various suppliers. All but a few campus buildings are submetered so that utility usage is know building by building. Where a department occupies only a portion of a building, an estimate is made on percentage of square footage basis.

Below is an overview of the utilities supplied by Facilities Management to the various Auxiliary Departments. Others are paid for directly by the individual auxiliary department.

* For GHC and MBT, costs are 50% Heating and 50% Electrical

Please direct questions to Rafi Bayrakdarian, Director of Engineering & Energy.

A Cogeneration system is also called a Combined Heat and Power; it consists of a turbine generator that burns natural gas which produces electrical power and waste exhaust. The waste exhaust is recovered and converted into hot water.

This system produces electric and thermal energy from a single source of fuel and consumes the natural gas in the turbine to generate electricity and recoverable heat from the exhaust air stream. The exhaust air stream, at approximately 950 degrees F, is ducted into the Waste Heat Recovery Unit (WHRU) to produce high temperature hot water.

The hot water is then sent out to the campus buildings via the hot water piping distribution system. The hot water is used for heating the buildings, for domestic hot water usage, and also for cooling with the absorption chillers.

When the University’s heating requirement exceeds the recovered energy from the exhaust, a supplemental duct burner in the WHRU provides additional heating at 90% efficiency.

When the University’s heating load is less than the recovered energy from the exhaust, the diverter bypass damper located in the WHRU releases the excess exhaust heat.

Why did Oakland University install Combined Heating and Power (CHP)

1. Modernize the energy infrastructure and replace two aging hot water generators.
2. Increase University’s energy efficiency and power reliability.
3. Reduce overall energy costs by up to 33%; $9.87 Million in net savings over the 15-year term of the project.
4. Reduce CO2 emissions by 34,854 metric tons annually, the equivalent of preserving 311 acres of mature forest.

The cogeneration project is a major step towards Oakland University’s sustainability commitment and goals.

• The project was a Public Private Partnership with no cost to OU.
• The cost of the project is being paid by the energy savings on a 15-year term.
• The total project cost is $12.7 million, and the payback is less than 8 years.
• The system is capable of producing approx. 67% of the campus electrical load and over 95% of the campus heating load.
• The net savings, after paying the financing and the maintenance fees, is $600,000 per year.

January 2012 - Facilities Management team started working internally on the feasibility of a cogeneration project.

April 2013 - The project RFP was issued, and a project developer and construction manager were selected.

October 2013 - The Board of Trustees approved the project.

December 2013 - The Engineering design and project development phase began.

December 2014 – After 3 months of project financing negotiations, the final contract documents were signed.

January 2015 - Construction at the Central Heating Plant began.

July 2016 - The Cogeneration system started producing electric power and hot water.

• Name and Model number of Turbine: Solar Turbine, Centaur 50
• Electrical capacity: 4,600 KW
• Thermal capacity: 60 Million BTUH (with Duct Burners), 25 Million BTUH (without Duct Burners)
• Electricity produced: 30 Million KWH per year
• % of electrical load of campus: 67%
• % of thermal load of campus: >95%
• Thermal Energy produced: 300,000 Million Btu per year
• Payback period: 8 years simple payback
• 25-year cash flow: $24 Million (after 15 years, there are no finance fees)
• 15-year cash flow: $9.0 Million
• Annual Projected Energy savings: $1.6 Million dollar
• Annual Guaranteed Energy Savings: $1.2 Million dollar
• Annual net savings after paying financing cost & other fees: $600,000
• Efficiency: 90% at full capacity
• Project Cost: $12.7 Million

View the CoGen Charts and Tables on the Employee Research Network.