Bill Kipnis, senior business development manager, Siemens Building Performance & Sustainability Division
I recently moderated a higher education panel at Microgrid Knowledge’s Virtual Microgrid Conference that featured Sonoma County Junior College District, California State University at San Marcos, and Montclair State University. As you could probably guess, the pandemic and Covid-19’s impact was a major topic of concern. Over 500 people listened to the discussion, becoming members of a larger community who understand the value of microgrids in a portfolio of campus efforts towards resiliency, utility and operations savings, digitalization of information, and energy sustainability.
In response to the pandemic, some colleges/universities will adapt new and longer schedules in order to de-clutter their buildings, require some on-campus education to be online, and make other changes that potentially increase utility and maintenance costs. In turn, energy efficiency measures are at risk. Those campuses that have transitioned to a microgrid strategy, and gained greater independence from the utility, will use their systems to maintain their energy savings programs. For campuses that have adopted distributed energy (e.g., solar PV), the transition to a fully functional microgrid is relatively inexpensive.
As one example, we presented Sonoma County Junior College District’s goals and objectives, which, are representative of many higher education institutions: