sustainable campus model at the university of campinas ... · jorge yasuoka, joão g. i. cypriano,...
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Sustainable campus model at the University of Campinas – Brazil: An integrated
living lab for renewable generation, electric mobility, energy efficiency, monitoring
and energy demand management
Luiz C P. da Silva, Marcelo G. Villalva, Madson C. de Almeida, José L. P. Brittes,
Jorge Yasuoka, João G. I. Cypriano, Daniel Dotta, José Tomaz V. Pereira, Mauricio
Salles, Giulianno Bolognesi Archilli, Juliano Garcia Campos
Sustainable University Management Group
University of Campinas - Zeferino Vaz Campus, Campinas City, São Paulo, Brazil
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Keywords: Living Labs, Sustainable Campus, Energy Sustainability, Energy Efficiency
Abstract The aim of this article is to describe the concept of a Living Lab to be
implemented at the University of Campinas through a partnership between UNICAMP
and CPFL (local Utility Distribution Company). This project was recently submitted to
a strategic and priority call from the Brazilian Regulatory Agency (National Electric
Energy Agency – ANEEL, acronym in Portuguese). The Living Lab is divided into six
subprojects integrating energy efficiency with research and development in distributed
generation. These subprojects include: 300 measure points for a Power System Control
Center; 400 kWp PV-Minigrid installation, distributed into 18 plants; Electric Mobility
with a recharge facility and an electric bus; retrofit in an electrical facility as a
prototype; an innovative IoT-based DMS energy management tool; and training in
Distributed Generation (DG), Smart Grid and Energy Efficiency. The complementarity
of the subprojects will empower the living lab in terms of innovation, research and
teaching in energy management, measurement and verification, photovoltaic energy
generation, electric mobility and sustainability in energy consumption at the University.
All these actions comply with the ISCN/GULF Sustainable Campus Chapter policies,
signed by UNICAMP a few years ago.
Introduction
Higher education institutions play an important role in developing society by training
and educating new leaders, managers and entrepreneurs transforming and creating
paradigms that provide a conscious future for new generations. As they have this
regional and international socioeconomic influence, many universities have committed
themselves to promoting sustainability regarding their activities and operations by
signing national and international declarations, charters and partnerships of sustainable
commitment (Lozano, 2013). Considering this, various academic communities are
currently engaged in establishing new standards for Research, Development and
Innovation (RDI), education, organizational structure, operation and infrastructure,
based on sustainable development.
The aim of this article is to present a sustainable campus model to be adopted by the
University of Campinas (UNICAMP) by implementing an energy efficiency and
Research and Development (R&D) project promoted by the public-private partnership
with CPFL Paulista (Local Utility Distribution Company) responding to the 001/2016
call from ANEEL, entitled "Priority Project on Energy Efficiency and Strategic R&D -
Energy Efficiency and Mini Generation in Public Higher Education Institutions".
As a final result, a Living Lab will be set up for energy sustainability by integrating the
creation of new technologies, products and patents in a real application context counting
on the university's RDI capacity (Veli-Pekka, 2006) in areas of renewable energy mini-
generation, electric mobility (electric bus), energy efficiency in buildings, monitoring
and energy demand management.
The University
The University of Campinas (UNICAMP) is located in the state of São Paulo and has
four campuses, namely: the main campus (Cidade Universitária Zeferino Vaz) in
Campinas; the School of Dentistry in Piracicaba; the School of Applied Sciences and
the School of Technology in Limeira; and the Chemical, Biological and Agricultural
Pluridisciplinary Research Centre (1CPQBA in Portuguese). The university is made up
of 24 teaching and research centres and has a vast health complex on the Campinas
campus, as well as 23 centres and interdisciplinary centres, two technical colleges (Cotil
and Cotuca) and many support units in a place where approximately 60 thousand people
circulate on a daily basis (UNICAMP, 2017).
All this infrastructure has led to UNICAMP being responsible for 8% of all academic
research in Brazil, including 12% of postgraduate education in Brazil. There are 34,000
enrolled students (52% undergraduates and 48% postgraduates) in 66 undergraduate and
153 postgraduate programs with an annual average of 2,100 thesis and dissertation
defenses (UNICAMP, 2017). Thus, the university has become a "research factory" and
an education centre for highly qualified professionals, combining teaching with
research.
Commitment to Sustainability
In addition to being a national reference in research, education and development,
UNICAMP signed the ISCN-GULF Sustainable Campus Charter from the International
Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN) in April 2015 (GGUS, 2017). The ISCN provides
a global forum to support key colleges, universities and corporate campuses in
exchanging information, ideas, and best practices for achieving sustainable operations in
institutions and integrating sustainability into research and teaching, counting on
members such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
and Yale University (ISCN, 2017).
Having signed the Charter, UNICAMP publicly committed itself to the sustainability of
its objectives and alignment of its research, teaching and administrative operation
following three principles set out in the charter, described in Figure 1.
1 The authors decided to leave some abbreviations in Portuguese throughout the paper to make it easier
for the reader to refer to these places and groups on Brazilian websites.
Figure 1 - Principles of the ISCN-GULF Sustainable Campus Charter (ISCN, 2017).
Sustainable University Management Group (GGUS in Portuguese)
Therefore, at the end of 2015, the University created the Sustainable University
Management Group (GGUS) with the purpose of planning, developing, enabling and
managing actions, projects and institutional programs related to socio-environmental
sustainability, based on the continuous improvement and environmental, economic and
social performance (GGUS, 2017).
Through GGUS, UNICAMP seeks to become a reference in Sustainability and provides
a benchmark for a living lab for social and environmental actions. Taking this into
account, an organizational structure was created, divided into technical and
administrative topics, as can be seen in the organisational chart in Figure 2.
Figure 2 - GGUS Organisational chart (GGUS, 2017).
Technical Chambers (CTs in Portuguese) are study groups comprising faculty members
and collaborators specialized in the specific subjects, subdivided into 6 major areas:
water resources, fauna and flora, energy, urban environment, waste and environmental
education. Based on the goals and guidelines set out by the GGUS, the CTs plan and
determine their short, medium and long term activities, always operating together.
The Sustainable University (SU) model described in this article is based on energy
sustainability and is led by the Energy Management Technical Chamber (CTGE in
Portuguese), which is responsible for developing the Energy Management program at
UNICAMP campuses. Its objective is to reduce energy consumption by developing
management programs and technical procedures, improving the university's energy
efficiency counting on the participation of bodies from the UNICAMP managerial and
operational structure.
The Waste Management Technical Chamber (CTGR in Portuguese) is closely integrated
with the CTGE as it is important to properly dispose of any waste in the energy
efficiency and retrofit activities (exchanging old equipment for more modern and
efficient apparatus). This technical chamber is currently one of the most structured,
managing various chemical, biological and hospital waste and treatments, as well as
standardising and raising awareness of the program which has a differential by
separating this waste.
Living Laboratories
Among the principles described in the "Sustainable University" Charter is the term
"living labs", which consists of an open innovation ecosystem through the integration
between users, academia and the market (private companies). This new way of
generating innovation and products aligns technical and scientific possibilities
(research) with the users´ desires and the market feasibility of implementing them.
Thus, the knowledge generated will be used, according to the current needs in the
regional environment of the living lab, financed by a public-private partnership with
real applications and tests. The diagram in Figure 3 exemplifies this integration and
where innovation is located.
Figure 3 – Living Lab Concept Diagram.
Energy sustainability will be the basis of the living lab implemented and will include six
subprojects (described in the next topic) which will enable the interoperability of
different systems, helping innovation and implementation to take place more quickly.
The Project
Having the aim of developing and putting sustainability into practice in the academic
culture of UNICAMP, the 001/2016 call from ANEEL, entitled "Priority Project on
Energy Efficiency and Strategic R&D - Energy Efficiency and Mini Generation in
Public Higher Education Institutions" is a clear opportunity whereby the university can
put this major plan into practice.
The "UNICAMP Sustainable University" project is a long-term project and will be
carried out based on a series of initiatives. However, through this call, UNICAMP will
have the opportunity to carry out energy sustainability projects, defined through goals
and guidelines from the Energy Management Technical Chamber.
Figure 4 – Corporative Structure.
The project will consist of: photovoltaic energy micro-generation with various
generation plants spread around the main campus; electric mobility by electric bus,
mapping the socio-environmental impacts of using this technology; retrofit and sensors
for energy efficiency; energy monitoring and network evaluation; and finally,
knowledge compiled in programs, courses, lectures, booklets and books.
Figure 5 – Integration of the projects.
Subproject 1 - Mini-centre operation of the University's power system
This subproject aims to implement a smart mini-centre for data consumption and power
system operations for the main UNICAMP campus (Cidade Universitário Zeferino Vaz)
by installing electronic meters in all the consumer units (faculties, institutes,
laboratories, interdisciplinary centres, administration, etc.) to monitor the actual
consumption of each consumer. Currently the university is a free consumer and only has
the interface measurement with the network of the utility, and therefore does not have
much knowledge about the internal losses of its distribution network.
It is widely known that power consumption without due monitoring and financial
accountability is the greatest incentive for inefficiency and irrational use of electricity.
Therefore, in order to fulfil the goals towards developing a Sustainable Campus, it is a
priority for the university to build a data centre for measuring consumption. It should
also take advantage of this opportunity to build a hardware and software infrastructure
which can use network analysis and optimization tools, aiming at efficiency gains both
from the consumption point of view, as well as the most suitable operation, planning
and maintenance of the electrical grid.
Any energy efficiency project depends on sound information to succeed. Implementing
this project will continuously and permanently provide information in real time on the
energy consumption in the Barão Geraldo Campus. This subproject is vitally important
for all initiatives to be implemented at the university in the area of energy efficiency and
energy conservation. It will also be a living lab to develop research on the topic of
power system operation centres.
Figure 6 – Communication Structure between projects
Subproject 2 –Photovoltaic microgeneration
Installing renewable microgeneration at UNICAMP is an important initiative to reduce
the cost of power purchases at the university, encourage and disseminate the area of
photovoltaic generation in Brazil and set up a living lab for research, education and
training technicians and specialists in photovoltaic power generation. It will be installed
in various parts of the campus, such as at faculties, institutes, administrative buildings
and car parks, micro-generation plants with power ranging from 7 to 80 kWp (kilowatt
peak), totalling 534 kWp of installed capacity.
The photovoltaic generation living laboratory will be able to: assess the use of
crystalline photovoltaic modules using double-glass technology and compare their
performance with conventional modules; carry out studies concerning solarimetry, solar
radiation modelling, photovoltaic module modelling and energy simulation
methodologies and evaluate the performance of photovoltaic systems; create a computer
simulator to evaluate the performance of photovoltaic systems, having mini-aeration
systems implanted on the campus as a validation laboratory; develop equipment to plot
IV curves for testing photovoltaic systems and solar plants.
Figure 7 – Photovoltaic microgeneration
Subproject 3 - Electric Mobility
Mobility is fundamental in terms of developing cities, connecting distant places and
allowing for social and environmental encounters of people who live or visit cities. This
subproject proposes to implement electric mobility in the campus´ circular
transportation system, i.e., to introduce electric buses to the university, as well as to
build a research and innovation infrastructure considering this topic.
Currently, the Barão Geraldo Campus offers a circular transportation system to its
students, faculty members and employees, including four microbuses with internal
combustion engines. This project will replace one of the microbuses by an electric
microbus, which will circulate daily on routes already stipulated. Therefore, a
comparative analysis can be made of the socio-environmental, technical and economic
impacts using this technology in urban environments.
Figure 8 – Electric bus route.
Subproject 4 - Energy Efficiency in Buildings
Power consumption in Brazilian Federal Universities is the third largest expense for
these institutions on a yearly basis (001-2016 Call, ANEEL), most of which is used for
air conditioning. Air conditioners account for the highest percentage of consumption in
electric energy bills in buildings, from 35% to 60% depending on the technology, size,
different attributes of the installed place and the energy regime.
This project will improve energy efficiency by exchanging 166 air conditioners in the
School of Mechanical Engineering buildings, as a pilot project. Real time energy
consumption monitoring (integration of subproject 1 - monitoring mini-centre),
measuring the temperature and noise of indoor environments and continuous evaluation
of efficiency will be carried out.
Figure 9 – School of Mechanical Engineering blueprint
Subproject 5 – Smart Efficiency
This subproject aims to develop a tool for Energy Management at Unicamp, integrating
supply and demand with the concept of Smart Efficiency of the behavioural elements,
supporting management and energy efficiency programs monitored in real time. It will
be implemented using a pilot test in the School of Mechanical Engineering with low
cost market hardware and free software, based on Arduino with radio frequency.
In the proposal, in addition to objectively maximising the efficiency of the installation,
the aim is to also continuously and subjectively maximise the efficiency for its users,
monitoring the conditions that ensure continuous improvement of the rational use of
electrical energy. Therefore, it is a new frontier for Energy Efficiency, Subjective
Efficiency, i.e., which reduces loss resulting from an increase in user perception,
improving the use of equipment, systems and utilities in general that consume electrical
energy, rationalizing their use and not causing damage to their personal and/or
functional well-being.
This is due to the continuous monitoring of internal conditions (thermal mapping,
humidity, lighting, gas, presence, etc.) and the environment of the building, as well as
electrical magnitudes connected to important equipment, which, after being processed,
are communicated through an interactive interface with the user(s), instructing them on
the best ways to consume electrical energy, giving suggestions about saving energy by
changing habits, maintaining the level of thermal comfort, lighting and ventilation.
Figure 10 – Communication structure of (Internet of things) IoT sensors
Subproject 6 - Teaching and Professional Training
Having the objective of improving and training future professionals by disseminating
technical and academic knowledge gained from this Sustainable University project in
energy efficiency, photovoltaic mini-generation, electric mobility and energy
monitoring and management, a subproject was created responsible for joining the
results and knowledge acquired by all the previous subprojects and transforming them
into courses, lectures, training sessions, educational materials and instruction booklets.
The aim is to instruct other public-private institutions when implementing sustainability
in their management and operations, ensuring the growth of the country towards
technological and sustainable competitiveness.
This initiative ensures that energy efficiency, energy conservation and distributed
generation are disseminated to the university's internal and external community.
Courses will have a differential in terms of integrating theoretical knowledge with
practical applications within the living lab's own infrastructure, enabling students to
experience market realities and acquire new skills.
For the administrative technicians and the external community outside the university,
training and development courses will be created in the outreach modality.
Furthermore, short lectures will be given to ensure the knowledge gained is
disseminated. Therefore, it is expected that at the end of the project we will have many
courses and training sessions for different levels of education, such as postgraduate
studies, high school, etc.
As a final result, by implementing the R&D and Energy Efficiency subprojects,
integrated with the bibliographic material provided by this subproject, we will have a
book on methodologies to set up sustainable campuses, which can be used as a
reference for educational institutions in Brazil, extending to the whole community of
Latin America.
Figure 11 – Knowledge flow
Expected Results
As cited in Larrán Jorge et al., (2015) and Schmitt-Figueiro and Raufflet (2015), the
obstacles in terms of implementing sustainability in Higher Education institutions and in
education are: the resistance to change concerning the existing Cartesian model; a lack
of support from the university administration; a shortage of academic professionals
specialised in sustainability and a lack of funding.
For this sustainability project, all the items pointed out as difficulties will not be
decisive in terms of beginning the implementation of the Sustainable Campus, as after
signing the ISCN/Gulf Sustainable Campus Charter and creating the GGUS
(Sustainable University Management Group), the administrative and Cartesian
resistance is lower.
On the other hand, the public-private partnership will allow for an initial contribution of
funding to implement the six subprojects, creating a solid infrastructure to continuously
develop sustainability.
Regarding the specialization of professionals, it is expected that this project will begin
by training future multipliers of the knowledge gained, educating in total 1,350
undergraduate, and postgraduate students, as well as outreach and technical and
administrative staff in 11 courses, divided into: the introduction and project sizing in
photovoltaic energy; energy efficiency and energy management; electric mobility;
energy sustainability; and distributed generation. The whole project will be carried out
with the participation of 14 university lecturers who hold PhDs from the University of
Campinas (School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, School of Mechanical
Engineering and Interdisciplinary Centre of Energy Planning), 6 PhD students, 6
Master's students and 9 undergraduate students doing scientific projects.
The project was institutionally formatted to develop an Integrated Energy Management
System for a Sustainable Campus, i.e., a platform that will guide energy governance
actions at UNICAMP with assertive actions to reduce consumption, adopt energy
management methodologies, provide support to the criteria of expanding units,
educational campaigns, systematically implementing IoT (Internet of things), finding
partners for projects concerning progressive Energy Efficiency until the whole campus
is covered, radar of sustainable and efficient technologies, building energy labelling
program and many other possibilities.
This platform connects the monitoring systems installed in each consumer unit with the
subprojects of electric mobility, photovoltaic generation, IoT sensors of maximising
energy efficiency in environments and energy efficiency programs inside the campus, so
that data and information can be collected. Later on, these data can be analysed to
produce guidelines related to the conscious consumption of energy, expansion plans and
contracting energy, asset management, training and continuing education in energy
sustainability.
In the first three years, this sustainability model proposed for UNICAMP through
public-private partnership will be able to: reduce up to 50% of losses in the distribution
system of the university and transformers, scaling and planning the consumption of each
institution; cut down on the consumption of 1066 MWh per year due to the photovoltaic
mini-generation (850 MWh per year) and energy efficiency in the air conditioning at the
School of Mechanical Engineering (216 MWh per year); reduce 64.8 tons of CO2 per
year including an electric bus in the internal urban mobility fleet; reduce 43.41 kW of
demand during the peak period; and publish a book about energy sustainability in
universities.
References
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