With its diverse sources of electricity, UC Davis is faring fairly well through the energy crisis compared to other consumers in Northern California. But even with the core campus's expected immunity from rolling blackouts, the university's Facilities Services department is searching for ways to make UC Davis more energy efficient and put less pressure on the state's power grid.
Facilities officials are communicating to the staff, faculty and student body the need to cut back on power consumption. Outlying areas on campus, which are served by Pacific Gas & Electric-including some student residences, university offices in downtown Davis and the Center for Aquatic Biology's fish hatchery-have already experienced one blackout.
Assistant Director of Facilities Charles Kennedy and campus Energy Conservation Manager Keith Roberts say they plan to soon meet with all university departments to develop office strategies for saving power.
The central campus, which is powered by commercial supplier Western Area Power Administration and the university's own steam and electricity co-generation plant, will likely not endure rolling blackouts except in an extreme emergency, Kennedy said.
However, whatever the campus does to cut power usage will reduce costs and increase supplies to other grid users, Roberts and Kennedy said. The co-generation plant produces 2.8 megawatts of power which can be added to the grid.
For now, energy reduction strategies include turning off lights and office equipment when they are not in use and shutting office doors to keep ventilation systems working most efficiently
Another option is getting researchers and students to shift their time-controlled experiments to periods when the energy load is at its lowest. Typically, those tests are conducted during the day. "If they could move them from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., that would help us," Roberts said.
Campus employees like Janet Krovoza, said they'd be glad to do whatever she can to save power. In her office, Krovoza, the College of Engineering assistant dean for development, shuts off all her lights and works by the illumination of her computer as well as sunlight. She's found that a number of her colleagues are employing similar energy-saving techniques.
"What I'm seeing is that most people in the office are independently, or in consultation with co-workers, making modest sacrifices on their own," she said
But Krovoza is disappointed that top university leadership has not made a strong plea to the campus to cut power usage. "I think people would react more if the university was breathing down their neck," she said.
Krovoza would also like to see daily reports issued by the university on how much energy the campus has conserved.
The campus will soon implement more long-term, high-impact energy-saving measures, Kennedy said. In the next few weeks, Facilities Services will release a reduction plan designed to meet conservation goals recently outlined by Gov. Gray Davis.
Davis would like all public agencies to cut energy consumption by 8 percent daily and by 20 percent during Stage 2 power emergencies. Additionally, the governor would like the public sector to develop an energy curtailment plan for the summer, when energy consumption is the highest.
UC Davis already has a strong background in cutting energy costs and use, Kennedy said. Since the early 1990s, the campus has spent $15 million on energy efficiency programs. Facilities Services has installed 5 million square feet of high efficiency lighting and increased its use of energy efficient pumps, fans and motors. Overall, the plan has reduced campus energy use by 15 percent over the past decade.
"With this aggressive posture we've taken, we feel we'll be very effective in (future) energy reduction strategies," Kennedy said,
The campus's response to Gov. Davis' request is still in the making, but Facilities Services already has some ideas. One is to run electrical systems on generator power. Another is to have engineers conduct building surveys to see if maintenance equipment needs to be upgraded.
And Facilities Services may reduce lighting in campus parking areas, while keeping enough lights on make sure lots remain safe. The bright lights in the parking garage near Interstate 80 and the new Center for the Arts have already been dimmed.
"The lights were off when I drove in this morning," Roberts said Monday. "That's the first time I've seen that."
Paul Lutes, facilities manager for the Center for Aquatic Biology, is grateful for any measures taken to ensure that his fish hatchery has power.
Last week, when a blackout hit the hatchery the facility's lights, computers and data recording equipment went out. Most importantly, Lutes and his staff also had to scurry to get generators up and running to keep water flowing for 15 species of fish. "Without that we would have dead animals very quickly," he said.
While many people may be bothered by a blackout, at a research area like the hatchery, the fish cannot survive without power, Lutes said.
"Without our constant attention and input they die very quickly," he said. "In an office a blackout is inconvenient, but you can just go home."