- Johnson Controls
- Insights
- Stanford University - Stanford, USA
Stanford University - Stanford, USA

About Stanford University
Stanford Energy System Innovations (SESI) project represents a transformation of university energy supply from a 100% fossil-fuel-based combined heat and power plant to grid-sourced electricity and a more efficient electric heat recovery system.
Challenges
- Stanford University sought to radically reduce its
energy, fossil fuels, and water consumption. - They needed to replace an end-of-life gas-fired
trigeneration plant.
Solutions
- Johnson Controls OpenBlue technologies deployed to deliver reduced energy and water use in the central plant
- Key features of the CHC system include:
- Large heat recovery chillers (heat pumps)
- Replacing steam production and distribution with hot water
- Both hot and cold water thermal energy storage
- Advanced “model predictive control” energy management software
- Large heat recovery chillers (heat pumps)
Results
- Increased system efficiency with 6% more heat recovery
- 17% reduction in peak energy demand - 7.3 MW (35.9 MW vs 43.2MW)
- This combined with the energy use savings translated to ~$500,000 per year (10%) in cost savings vs highly efficient, modern plant baseline
- Reduced campus greenhouse gas emissions by 68% (and growing)
- Reduced domestic water use by an additional 15%
- Saved $459 million over Business as usual case over next 35 years
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