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Mark Deming knows that the buildings in his school district are among the least energy-efficient in the country. That’s because the vast majority of public school buildings in Connecticut—from the elementary- to the high-school level—routinely earn failing grades when it comes to providing power, heating, and cooling for their students without wasting large amounts of energy while doing so.

But Deming, director of facilities for the Branford Public School District in Branford, CT, also knows that at least one of the schools in his district, Branford High School, now ranks as one of the most energy-efficient, not only in the state but also in the country.

In March of this year, a microturbine-powered combined heating and power system manufactured by South Windsor, CT-based UTC Power began operating at Branford High School. The system, which provides onsite power, cooling, and heating at the 1,200-student facility, freeing it from the often-unreliable public energy grid, is able to boost the building’s energy efficiency levels to 90%, far greater than the energy efficiency rating of 33% that is typical of the US electrical grid.

This is a significant move in a state whose schools rank so poorly when it comes to conserving energy.

“I’ve been impressed so far with this system,” says Deming. “We’re still learning how to use the system most effectively, of course, but there doesn’t seem to be many bugs for us to work out. This first year will probably be a learning experience for us and for UTC. But, we’re happy to be taking this step to improve energy efficiency at the school.”

The high school has made a bit of history: The UTC Power PureComfort tri-generation system providing power to it marks the first installation of this particular model of microturbine.

If UTC officials have their way, though, the Branford installation will be the first of many.

Jan van Dokkum, president of UTC Power, says that the PureComfort system could help reduce energy costs at hospitals, schools, government buildings, retail establishments, and other buildings across the country. And this is a time when building owners and operators are actively looking for systems such as the PureComfort. The pressure of rising energy costs is convincing building owners and operators across the country to consider onsite power, and combined heating and power systems, fueled by natural gas–fired microturbines, make sense because they are so efficient.

“Rising electricity rates and the availability of incentive funding for clean energy alternatives are sparking growing national interest in our power systems,” says van Dokkum. “Besides schools, similar systems are installed at hotels, hospitals, supermarkets, and data centers.”

Photo: UTC Power Corporation It was relatively easy to connect the UTC Power PureComfort system to the building, because UTC Power did not have to change out any of the school’s distribution systems.

According to the institute, during the 2004–2005 academic year, public schools in Connecticut spent more than $124 million in energy costs. If these same schools were able to increase their energy efficiency rating to the countrywide average of 50, they would save about $46 million annually in energy costs, the institute says. The savings gains would be even more impressive if the schools could increase their energy consumption levels to federal Energy Star levels, a ranking of 75. That would save $69 million for the state schools each year, the institute reports.

The project at Branford is important not only for the obvious boost in efficiency it provides to the high school, it’s also one more example for proponents of decentralized onsite energy to point to when citing industry success stories. Not only does the UTC Power system provide reliable power, it is doing so in a state where efficiency has never been a strong suit among public schools.

Kevin Wyman, manager for onsite power products at UTC Power, says that the Branford project has already generated significant interest from other schools looking to cut down on their own energy, heating, and cooling costs.

“We’ve gotten a lot of phone calls from this installation,” says Wyman. “I think we’ll be seeing more schools go this route in the future.

“Plus,” he adds, “Mark Deming at Branford has been a big advocate at meetings that have occurred throughout the state promoting this type of energy production. We’re keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that this project, and others like it, do lead to more interest in combined heating and power systems.”

The biggest hurdle preventing even more districts from installing their own similar systems is that most school officials don’t quite understand the technology associated with onsite power and microturbines, Wyman says. Other school officials are leery of changing from a known source of power—even if that source is, at times, unreliable and often costly—to one that they’ve never worked with before.

“The first hurdle is getting school districts to understand the requirement to be proactive and manage energy use in buildings more on a local level rather than just relying on the grid,” says Wyman. “We’re getting to that point, but we still have a ways to go.”

The Branford installation comes with another benefit: Thanks to its onsite power system, Branford High School now serves as an emergency shelter in the town. Because Branford is a coastal town, it is subject to some extreme weather. If power does go out throughout the municipality, the high school—and its reliable power source—becomes a benefit to the rest of the Branford community.

To Wyman, such an additional benefit is crucial, because it provides one more reason for school districts, hospitals, community centers, and other town-center type buildings to go with onsite power generation.

“The big challenge for all onsite systems is that the inherent status quo is a tough inertial pull to overcome,” says Wyman. “It takes someone with a vision like Mark [Deming] had, to continually try to expand the envelope and decrease the amount of energy spent, to look for creative solutions like this, to relieve the taxpayers of some of the burden of paying for the high energy costs in some of these buildings. In this case, part of the driving process in getting this installation in place was the fact that the tri-generation system would allow the high school to operate as an emergency shelter, providing one more additional benefit.”

Deming agrees with Wyman’s assessment. In fact, the Branford installation became a reality in large part, because officials with the local Department of Homeland Security approached Deming with the idea of turning the high school, through onsite generation, into an emergency shelter in case of large-scale power outages.

The main benefit, though, is still the fact that the combined heating and power system will significantly boost the high school’s energy efficiency and lower its yearly energy bills. For public school districts, traditionally strapped for cash, this is an important matter.

By going with onsite power, Branford officials also gain a measure of control over their energy costs. When relying on the public grid, district officials never could predict where the energy costs at the high school would land from month to month. Deming expects that the savings at Branford High School will be large enough to quickly make up for the cost of the new heating, cooling, and power system.

“We are expecting our energy savings to not only help us break even on this system, but to even be high enough to allow us to pay off the equipment,” says Deming. “That’s our goal. Our electric rates are now fixed for five years. If over the next 10 years, we can pay for the equipment and save a little money while doing the right thing and creating an emergency shelter, we’ll be happy with what we’ve done.”

An Innovative Approach
The UTC Power system boasts such high efficiency ratings because it captures the waste heat generated by its microturbines, and then uses it for space heating, hot water and air conditioning.

There are environmental benefits, too, something that is important at a public school where teachers routinely stress to students the importance of preserving natural resources. UTC Power officials consider the PureComfort system a “green” one, because its emissions are so low and its energy efficiency so high.

The PureComfort tri-generation system combines an absorption chiller with four 65 kW microturbines. This makes the system the onsite industry’s first integrated microturbine and double-effect absorption chiller. The hot exhaust from the natural gas-fired microturbines drive the absorption chiller, meaning that the system can provide both heating and cooling simultaneously, ideal for those mid-year days that start out cool and then grow hot.

This may not seem overly significant, but for school buildings, the ability to offer both heating and cooling at the same time is more than just a luxury, Wyman says.

“Because the chiller can both heat and cool at the same time, it avoids the seasonal changeover that typical absorption chillers have,” he says. “For typical chillers, building operators have to decide, say on April 15, to go into cooling mode. On October 15, they’ll have to go into heating mode. If you guess wrong, you’ll have an uncomfortable building on an unseasonably hot or cool day.

“With simultaneous heating and cooling, you can do heating in the morning and cooling in the afternoon if you need to,” he continues.

While there is no guarantee on how much money Branford High School will now save on its energy bills, Wyman expects the final total to be significant. He cites a similar project that UTC Power took on for a middle school that had been using 80,000 gallons of oil every year. After installing an onsite microturbine system, the school now uses less than 40,000 gallons of oil on an annual basis.

Choosing the Right System
The first challenge for UTC Power and Branford school district officials was to choose the right microturbine system for the high school. Several factors played into the final decision to install the PureComfort system.

First, Branford High School already had both existing chillers and boiler systems. This meant that it was relatively easy to connect the UTC Power PureComfort system to the building. UTC Power did not have to change out any of the school’s distribution systems.

UTC Power officials also had to consider the way the school operated. Branford High School is a building that doesn’t close in the summer. There are summer school classes, sports camps, and extracurricular activities taking place onsite 12 months a year. The school’s hours of operation, especially during the academic year, are extensive. It’s not unusual for the building to be housing meetings, classes, and after-school activities from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m.

The PureComfort system, with its high efficiency, low emissions, and low levels of noise pollution made the most sense for Branford, Deming says.

“We think this system is going to make a big difference for us,” he says. “The energy savings alone make it worthwhile.”

Once they had selected the proper system, UTC and the Branford school district faced all the normal challenges associated with installing a new power system. The biggest was the number of approvals the school district needed to earn from a variety of governmental bodies to move the project forward.

The bidding process and the approval of contracts did not happen quickly. Wyman says UTC and the Branford school district spent two years getting from the early planning stages to the actual installation process.

Once installation began, though, it did move at a fast pace. Construction crews began installing the PureComfort system in December 2007. The installed system was then commissioned in late March of this year.

Wyman says everyone is pleased with the way the system is performing.

“So far, it’s working quite well,” he states. “We commissioned it at a difficult time—that
interim period when you are not certain whether you’ll need heating or cooling. But so far, the turbines are working well and the absorption chiller is working exactly as we would expect it to.”

Battling a History of Inefficiency
Branford High School is now one of the most energy efficient in the state of Connecticut. And Wyman expects that other state schools will be inspired by Branford’s decision.

It’s little surprise that Connecticut school buildings perform so poorly when it comes to conserving energy. The report from the Institute for Sustainable Energy cited the age of many of the state’s schools. According to the report, about 90% of Connecticut’s public schools were built before 1978. That, of course, was before the last great energy crisis, and before municipal officials placed an emphasis on conserving energy.

“The age factor is certainly a major reason for the energy inefficiency of these schools,” says Wyman. “And then, there’s the fact that there has been a lot of deferred maintenance in a lot of school buildings. That can lead to energy inefficiency, too.”

Branford school district officials no longer have to worry about their high school being one of these energy-inefficient schools. And Wyman has made sure that at least some of the students at the school realize this.

Shortly after the PureComfort system went into operation, Wyman made a guest appearance in front of one of the school’s physics classes. He explained how the system works, pointed out many of the system’s physical characteristics, and highlighted the physics behind the system.

Wyman isn’t sure how much of his lecture sank in, but he does think that the students at least gained an appreciation of how important it is to boost the energy efficiency in public buildings.

“Well, it was two weeks before graduation, but given that, the students were pretty attentive,” says Wyman. “This was an Advanced Placement physics class, so the students in this class were taking it because they are already interested in science in general. I was pleasantly surprised at how attentive they were. I hope that the system did make an impression on them.”