Q&A: What's next in Stanford's plan to reduce energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions
In a recent meeting of the Faculty Senate, Joseph Stagner, executive director of the Department of Sustainability and Energy Management, explained Stanford's $250 million Energy and Climate Plan. Under a long-term plan unveiled Oct. 12 to the Board of Trustees, Stanford could reduce the campus carbon impact by as much as 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, far exceeding the aggressive goals of California's landmark Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006.
The plan is one of the most ambitious carbon-reduction programs taken on by a major U.S. university. It includes higher-than-required energy standards for new buildings, major retrofitting of existing buildings, a significant transformation of the campus energy plant and programs to teach students, faculty and staff how to cut back on their energy use.
In an interview with Stanford Report, Stagner explains what comes next.
Q: The university has approved an ambitious plan to reduce its energy costs and greenhouse gas emissions. What happens now?
A: Now we begin engineering work to finalize the detailed system design and fine-tune cost estimates, which we expect will take from nine months to one year to complete. The end product will be a 25 percent complete system design with detailed plans, specifications and cost estimates, which we will take back to the Board of Trustees for formal concept approval. As with any major building project, we will follow the normal processes used for obtaining board approvals at each major step in the process.
Q: What type of reaction among environmental scientists and professionals, including our peers, has the plan gotten so far?
A: Mostly very positive and excited reactions that such a win-win environmental and economic solution is possible and that Stanford is continuing to show leadership in sustainability by pursuing it. We've also had some constructive inquiries and advice from several very knowledgeable faculty that, despite our outreach, had not seen the details of the plan before. We've incorporated their advice into the plan and how we are presenting it to the public.
This next step of optimizing the scheme and developing more detailed designs presents a great opportunity for our staff to collaborate with faculty, innovative engineering firms and others to bring more great ideas to the process with the goal of developing the most innovative and efficient new, long-term energy system for the university that the best minds can put together.
Q: What kind of construction and disruptions should faculty and staff expect to see as the university's new heating and cooling scheme is implemented, and when will the work begin?
A: Work at the central energy facility should begin in two to three years, and work to convert steam pipelines to hot water is now beginning in select areas of campus already undergoing major changes that require the conversion at this time, such as with construction of the new Knight Management Center and Law School complexes.
Q: Cardinal Cogen has been such a mainstay on campus for many years. What will happen to the facility?
A: The facility's buildings and certain other infrastructure, such as some electric chillers and the ice plant, may be reused for the new regeneration plant, while the cogeneration unit itself as well the 50-year-old backup steam boilers and steam-powered chillers will be decommissioned and removed for salvage.
Q: What efforts is Stanford now pursuing to encourage state regulators to allow "Direct Access" to other energy providers?
A: California just enacted SB 695 to allow a limited reopening of Direct Access (DA), and we are examining our arrangements with Cardinal Cogeneration and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to determine if Stanford might take advantage of this opportunity should we determine it is in our best interest.
By contract, Stanford is currently required to purchase about 75 percent of its electrical load from Cardinal Cogeneration, and so there may be an opportunity to fill the balance of our load from DA – if it is attractive to do so. After DA was suspended in 2001 due to the California energy crisis, some of the power that had previously been provided to consumers by independent Electric Service Providers (ESPs) under DA decreased, as some of those customers may have closed their businesses, shifted loads to other sources or enacted energy conservation measures to reduce demand. Because DA has been suspended, that amount of power previously provided by ESPs could not be redirected to other customers, and so the ESPs have been disadvantaged by the suspension of DA.
SB 695 reopens DA to allow the amount of ESP-supplied power eroded by the suspension of DA to once again be made available to California consumers. The process for how this will be done is now being developed by the regulatory agencies, ESPs and investor-owned utilities such as PG&E. However, we expect that the volume of new DA power to be made available will be equal to about 10 times Stanford's total annual load, and that it will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis once the door opens in six months or so. Efforts to fully reopen DA to unlimited access by all are ongoing in the regulatory agencies and legislature.