Interpretation of the Power Consumption Characterization of an Urban University Campus toward Power System Planning

Abstract

The power consumption analysis of a university campus can provide a unique opportunity to gain insight into the patterns and trends of multipurpose commercial buildings. The result of such an analysis may lead to the exploration of methods to integrate local and cleaner power generation. In this paper, we discuss the consumption patterns of the campus buildings of the Wentworth Institute of Technology for one calendar year. We analyzed the campus’s power consumption, comparing weekdays vs. weekends, academic vs. residential. The aggregate consumption of all buildings and examples of individual building consumption data were also included. This study was conducted on a campus that has unique characteristics such as being in an urban area, having a New England climate, and being composed of a mixture of old and new buildings. The findings could provide insightful information to other universities and commercial campuses in moving toward energy consumption improvement and efficiency.