Feature
Story
Targeting 2020:
Energy stewardship at Princeton
Patricia Burns Sakal, Patricia Burns Sakal Media Relations
If energy management were an Olympic sport, the team at the energy plant at Princeton University would be a serious
contender for gold. Ted Borer, the plant
manager, and his operations team are
firmly committed to helping the university reach its goal of reducing campus
carbon dioxide emissions to 1990 levels
by 2020.
The team is making fast strides. Since
2003, the university has reduced total
steam consumption every year. Since 2004,
the university has steadily reduced
chilled-water consumption (used for air
conditioning), and for the past two years,
it has made headway in reducing total
electricity consumption. Each of these
actions has directly resulted in lower
CO2 emissions. Currently, peak campus
demands are 205,000 lb/hr of steam,
13,000 tons of cooling, and 25 MW of
electric power. These are used to meet
electrical, comfort and research requirements for a daytime campus population
of more than 10,000. A total of 8. 8 million
sq ft is supplied with district energy.
deeded 10 acres of property for the construction of the first buildings of what is
now Princeton University, the gift included
“200 acres of woodland for fuel." In 1876,
four years after the first boilers were
installed on campus, they were relocated
and coupled with a steam-driven generator.
The move enabled the university to generate power and use exhaust steam to
heat nearby buildings – an early example
of district heating and combined heat
and power.
The university’s Facilities Engineering
Department continues to use CHP on
campus. A new plant was built in 1996
equipped to meet the growing needs of
the campus population, the laboratories
and computer facilities. It took more than
a decade of research and design studies
to ensure that the new plant met all the
A History of Combined
Heat and Power
Energy planning at Princeton dates
back to the campus's first days. In 1753,
when the FitzRandolph family and others
Courtesy Princeton University. Photo Christopher Lillja, Facilities Organization.
The energy plant at Princeton University.
