Case Study
Penn State University - Harrisburg Campus Pennsylvania, United States
| TOTAL ENERGY SAVING |
45.87 MCF |
| CO2 SAVING |
5,500 lbs CO2e |
A proof-of-concept pilot was run by Penn State University at Church Hall in the Harrisburg Campus (also known as Capital College). Church Hall was chosen because its operation was not changed significantly due to COVID-19 and its boiler is ONLY used for space heating.
The chosen methodology takes guidance from Option B/C of the International Protocol for the Measurement & Verification of Performance (IPMVP) and normalises consumption (MCF) with Heating Degree Days from Harrisburg International Airport (KMDT) at a base temperature of 65°F.
A three year baseline review identified a significant drop in consumption in October 2019 due to a boiler replacement over the summer of 2019. Thus only the shorter baseline from 2019-2020 will be used in this analysis.
For each billing month; a predicted value for consumption will be calculated using the trend-line from the 2019-2020 data using the regression formula y = 0.0799x + 16.256. This will be used as a comparison with the recorded consumption from the bill. The cumulative sum (CuSum) of each month will be used to determine overall energy savings over the pilot period between October 2020 and May 2021.
Results
| Meter Reading Period | HDD | Predicted Consumption | Actual Consumption |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-10-17 – 2020-11-16 | 367.6 | 45.63 MCF | 50.3 MCF |
| 2020-11-17 – 2020-12-16 | 675.4 | 70.22 MCF | 73.8 MCF |
| 2020-12-17 – 2021-01-19 | 993.4 | 95.63 MCF | 88.4 MCF |
| 2021-01-20 – 2021-02-17 | 972.2 | 93.93 MCF | 76.8 MCF |
| 2021-02-18 – 2021-03-19 | 758.3 | 76.84 MCF | 68.5 MCF |
| 2021-03-20 – 2021-04-20 | 379.5 | 46.58 MCF | 45.1 MCF |
| 2021-04-21 – 2021-05-19 | 227.6 | 34.44 MCF | 14.5 MCF |
Savings
| Energy Saving: |
9.90% |
| Total CO2e Saving: |
5,500 lbs CO2e |
It is noted that the first two months were estimated reads which explains no savings between Oct-Dec 2020 and a large saving when an actual read was taken in January 2021.
Carbon Reduction Equivalents:
