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DEREGULATION PROVIDES INCENTIVE TO CONSERVE New Meters at LCRA Offer a Closer Look at Facility Costs Marcia P. Roberts, M.Arch, AIA, Tom Knutsen, M.A., LCRA Energy Services

ABSTRACT: However, without meters in place, it was Prior to Texas’ electric utility deregulation, impossible to know whether facility operations the Lower Colorado River Authority’s (LCRA’s) were energy efficient. Energy use in LCRA facilities and plant station service energy use was facilities was considered merely a cost of doing considered a cost of business — power business. The parasitic loads at plants were consumed and never sold. Preparation for regarded as power LCRA could not sell, but that competition under Senate Bill 7 meant meters has changed. had to be placed at all of LCRA’s generation facilities; electric bills followed for the first time First, a little background on the company’s in 2001. Plant managers now must include the mission and purpose. The Colorado River metered cost for station service in their operating LCRA manages is not the famous one whose budgets. This change provided an important Hoover Dam powers Las Vegas, Nevada. Texas’ incentive to conserve. Senate Bill 5 set goals to Colorado River begins in eastern New Mexico reduce energy use by political entities such as and flows southeast to the Gulf of Mexico at LCRA. LCRA’s in-house energy auditor had Matagorda Bay. previously performed energy audits for LCRA’s wholesale customers whose retail customers The Texas Legislature created the Lower needed help to improve energy efficiency. LCRA Colorado River Authority by an act signed into energy services developed experience in law by Governor Miriam A. “Ma” Ferguson in contracting to install interval data recorder 1934. A conservation and reclamation district meters for its customers. Now this department is operating with no taxing authority, LCRA’s helping facility managers monitor their own mission is to provide reliable, low-cost utility energy use as they begin paying bills for the first and public services in partnership with its time. Impacts of metering; case studies of plant customers and communities. LCRA is to use its and administrative facilities that requested leadership role and environmental authority to audits; and implementation of recommended ensure the protection and constructive use of the measures follow. area’s natural resources.

Clearly, production implies use of the area’s natural resources. LCRA’s INTRODUCTION mission statement also implies it must reduce the Recent legislation impacting utilities in environmental impacts of that power production. Texas related to Electric Restructuring and Providing those utility services at a low cost Emissions Reduction caused the Lower Colorado implies a third critical challenge. River Authority (LCRA) to take a fresh look at how it uses energy in its own facilities. Energy LCRA generates electricity at a -fired efficiency in building operations and metering go power plant (three units at Fayette Power Project hand in hand. New electric metering spurred by in Fayette County), two -fired plants legislative requirements along with subsequent (Thomas C. Ferguson at Marble Falls, Sim energy audits provided information that gave the Gideon at Bastrop), and one combined-cycle gas- utility more incentive to invest in energy fired plant (Lost Pines 1 at Bastrop). LCRA also conservation measures in its plants and generates hydroelectric power at its dams — administrative buildings. Buchanan, Inks, Wirtz, Starcke, Mansfield and Tom Miller — and purchases from This paper will discuss how, without an three West Texas wind projects — Texas Wind energy bill at certain LCRA facilities, it was Power Project and Delaware Mountain Wind difficult to justify energy efficiency Farm in Culberson County, and Indian Mesa improvements at the LCRA. Wind Farm in Pecos County.

In its role as an environmental steward, LCRA and its customer base, eight rural LCRA has always met or exceeded pollution electric cooperatives and 33 municipal utilities, prevention requirements for generation. are public entities not subject to the competitive

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003 ESL-IC-03-10-05

retail electric market in Texas. The elected an electrical bill. No date has been set for that to governing boards of cooperatives and occur (due to factors explained in the previous municipalities may vote to join the competitive paragraph). market (referred to as “opting in”). One of LCRA’s customers has “opted in.” Cap Rock IMPACT OF DEREGULATION Energy, whose McCulloch Division buys power Who says you can’t legislate efficiency? wholesale from LCRA, entered the market in the On January 1, 2002, the retail electric market in summer of 2003. De-regulation, however, has Texas was deregulated for all customers of forced LCRA to prepare for a changed market. investor-owned utilities. This means many consumers have a choice as to where their Two laws related to electric utilities, Senate electric power comes from. However, public Bill 7 and Senate Bill 5 in Texas have impacted utilities such as co-ops and city-owned electric facilities operations at LCRA. They required new systems can decide whether to opt-in to metering at LCRA’s power plants and spurred a competition. Each system will continue to fresh look at energy efficiency measures for evaluate the market and decide at the local level, administrative and office buildings. Unbundling based on the interests of its consumers. As meant that generation and transmission services LCRA prepares for the eventuality that its were separated by law. It increased separation customers will opt into a deregulated market, between different services within the company, LCRA’s concern in Wholesale Power Services and yet required them to work together to meet has been to reduce the business costs of electric the new rules. generation. The plant power bills are charged against operation and maintenance and therefore When LCRA facilities and plant managers raise power costs. struggled with how to meet the legislative requirements, Energy Services Department staff Before deregulation, power plants received shared their expertise for metering and energy no billing for station service. Deregulation for efficiency to help them out. electric utilities under Senate Bill 7 required unbundling, metering, preparation for Lack of appropriate metering and no billing competition1. Before that a meter register was had created an atmosphere at LCRA that located some place at every plant. Operators “electricity was too cheap to meter.” LCRA plant would read and record hourly generation and and building managers have faced a special consumption, rounding to megawatts. obstacle in trying to improve building efficiency. Since its inception, LCRA has operated closely New Metering Required. in energy and water businesses with its neighbor, The Texas Electric Grid was previously the City of Austin, whose public utility is Austin organized in 10 Control Areas. Now it has been Energy (AE). The two utilities share ownership consolidated into one, through the Electric of the production from two generators at Fayette Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Power Project (FPP). For years, LCRA and ERCOT wanted to be able to read all generation Austin have made formal and casual agreements produced in the state at 15-minute intervals. about power and water exchanges that have meant they net the dollar value of water and In January of 2001 LCRA began installing energy monthly instead of sending each other ERCOT Polled Settlement (EPS) meters. A year bills for discrete services or purchases. A result before the market opened, LCRA and the other is that the electricity AE delivers to LCRA’s electric generators in Texas scrambled to install central office complex gets mixed in with the the ERCOT-mandated metering on plants and monthly netting calculations. With no bill, the plant services. The idea is simple: ERCOT facility managers have had difficulty justifying collects data from all generators, receives data investments in improving energy efficiency. for all major users and profiles the minor ones. From the sum of energy produced, ERCOT LCRA plant managers received bills for subtracts the sum of measured and estimated station service for the first time in 2001. LCRA energy used and arrives at a net called began receiving bills for the main service and “Unaccounted For Energy,” UFE. It apportions operations centers in Austin, Texas, for the first the cost of UFE among the participants. time in April of 2003. LCRA’s General Office Complex in Austin, Texas still does not receive

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003 ESL-IC-03-10-05

In practice, setting up the system was With every generator in ERCOT needing the complex. Meters on plants – all generators a same kinds of meters and CTs on the same megawatt or larger – had to meet ERCOT deadline, planning, ordering, and installing was specifications. Meter technicians who installed frantic. and check those meters (ERCOT-polled settlement meters or “EPS meters”) had to LCRA Energy Services’ Tom Knutsen then complete special training. And the current became involved because of the need to help the transformers collecting the pulses for EPS meters LCRA’s customers turn power plants into on plants had to have the sensitivity to record customers. The idea of billing power plants was megawatts or amperes. so new LCRA’s customers had to design a rate for it. The model for rate design was the Hays Energy-Power Plant Rate—Wholesale Power Bill plus $1000. Fayette Electric Co-op didn’t have a rate for LCRA until February, 2002.

The impact of metering was fourfold: (1) loads were identified; (2 )costs were identified. (3) LCRA’s role changed toward its customers as they now required help with billing LCRA. (4) Finally, it became more difficult for LCRA Wholesale Power to ignore the cost of station service.

Reduction in Facility Energy Use Required. Senate Bill 5 (SB 5) was passed by the 77th Texas Legislature. It went into effect in September of 2001. It required affected political subdivisions to do three things:

1. Undertake all cost-effective energy efficiency projects on existing facilities that will

Figure 1. LCRA Transmission Construction result in a reduction in the use of electricity. crew installing an optical current transformer on 2. Adopt a goal to reduce their electric overhead 138KV lines at a Sim Gideon consumption by 5% a year for five years Generator. beginning in 2002; and 3. Annually report to State Energy Once advanced metering2 was established Conservation Office on their results and the with an optical Current Transformer (CT) reader progress of their efforts. on every line on each generator and each auxiliary transformer, a highly accurate current The legislation did not define clearly what a measurement was derived, and could be read “facility” was or whether it would affect plant remotely. Metering at the Fayette Power Project operations as well as administrative buildings. (FPP) in La Grange, LCRA’s three-unit coal- When it passed, LCRA was unclear whether it fired plant shared with Austin Energy, was the had to report all electrical energy usage at every 3 most complicated with 14 meters wired to panels facility. LCRA had just begun to install meters in the control house. They are now read by at its plant facilities. Most LCRA facilities are ERCOT and LCRA. metered as a primary load tariff. There had been no previous attempt by LCRA to track It required that LCRA’s transmission group consumption by facility; therefore, there was no design and install full metering service for each baseline from which to begin. And if the measured point. Briefly, the work required the requirement to report applied only to the “non- construction of stands to support the large plant” energy use, LCRA could not break out the current transformers, install new metering panels consumption of those particular facilities. No for plant meters in substation control houses, sub-metering was in place to measure LCRA’s connect the CTs to the meter panels, and energy consumption by individual buildings. establish telecommunications with the meters.

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003 ESL-IC-03-10-05

IMPACT OF ENERGY AUDITS FOR LCRA Manager David Freeman. However, facility FACILITIES operations had become inefficient due to lack of An indirect consequence of the legislation monitoring and feedback from facility contained in Senate Bill 7 made metering an management. Scope of work in the audit request important tool for LCRA to gain control of its included identification of loads, and detailed energy costs. Similarly, new legislative recommendations for improvements in central requirements contained in Senate Bill 5 made plant and lighting. metering and energy audits essential tools to establish baselines and to develop strategies to At the beginning of the audit process, find energy reductions in its facilities. putting together metering and consumption data 1. General Office Complex (GOC) audited was harder to come by than for typical by an outside engineering firm in 2001. commercial facilities. Merely acquiring load Before Senate Bill 5 went into effect, and to shapes for the GOC was a challenge. Owing to demonstrate corporate responsibility for the evolution of the relationship between the two reduction of air emissions in its facilities an utilities, LCRA owned the primary meter and energy audit was requested by LCRA’s separate data recorder for the GOC, but Austin Corporate Environmental Department managers Energy read the meters monthly and supplied the in the Spring of 2001. The request was for the total kWh for the buildings for inclusion in the GOC to make sure LCRA’s headquarters campus monthly netting. Because they never received a buildings were as energy-efficient as they could bill, the GOC’s facility managers did not know be. At the time of the audit, the GOC was not where the site was metered. At last the audit receiving an electric bill. LCRA’s facilities’ team learned that LCRA’s own Data Translation manager expected the power swap with Austin group, which reads the wholesale meters for Energy––which went back a long way—would billing, also read the GOC recorder and had end soon (in response to requirements in SB7). years of historical interval data for the buildings. That gave him an additional incentive to perform At last the auditors had load shapes; however, an audit. coming from a primary meter, the data included all five buildings in the complex. LCRA’s Wholesale Power Energy Services Department had negotiated a long term contract Energy Services requested a monthly with Carter-Burgess Engineers to perform summary report. As part of the audit the team detailed commercial energy audits for LCRA’s revisited the original submetering and controls wholesale customers three years previously. The installed when the facility was constructed. common view was that for a study to have Outdated software, incompatible with new 32-bit credibility, even if much more expensive to computer systems meant no monitoring had obtain, it had to be done by an outside firm. occurred for 10 years at the General Office When the decision was made to have them do the Complex. LCRA called in Cutler Hammer audit, it was rushed due to the fact that LCRA’s Engineering, responsible for the original long term contract with the vendor was due to installation. They recommended replacing expire. The Austin office of Carter-Burgess hardware and software eventually deemed cost performed the audit in June and July of that year. prohibitive. Also during the audit, Johnson They submitted a final written report in Controls was in the process of updating the September, 2001. control systems.

They used a hypothetical rate to calculate 2. New State Legislation (Senate Bill 5)4 paybacks, since no rate with Austin Energy was required LCRA to report energy reductions in established and no bills received by LCRA. No certain facilities. improvement would be cost effective, except Out of five facilities identified that must from the “air emissions reduction standpoint,” reduce energy use under the new legislation, until the swap ended. three are in Bastrop County, two are in Travis. Three are associated with Wholesale Power The GOC (General Office Complex) Services; one is a gas-fired electric generation Campus was designed with three new main plant; one is a gas storage facility; one is a railcar headquarters buildings and two retrofitted maintenance facility that services railcars existing buildings incorporating (in 1990) bringing coal to the Fayette Power Plant. energy-efficiency under the direction of General Transmission services occupies the Service

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003 ESL-IC-03-10-05

Center, Wholesale Power Services manages the HVAC design with Ener-Win version plant facilities, and Corporate Facilities 97.02 5 models the load at 14 tons, 300 Management is responsible for all LCRA sq. ft. per ton. The current capacity at facilities overall, including the Service Center. around 200 sq. ft. per ton is much higher than average for a typical office Audit Reports Summary building in the region. 1. The Sim Gideon Power Plant • Additional ceiling insulation would The plant facility has been in operation at its reduce the requirements for cooling to location in Bastrop since 1965. The 12 tons. Staggered starts would cycle administration building, which has changed little equipment for maximum efficiency. in 40 years, consists of a steel structure with • Replacing manual controls with locking insulated curtain walls and single pane windows. programmable thermostats would Within the past year two new Trane split system facilitate a night setback in the office heat pump units were installed, with electric areas, and prevent users changing too resistance back-up. A flat metal roof was high or low settings, which cause units installed over minimal R-2 rigid insulation on to operate inefficiently. top of the former built-up roof, over lightweight concrete on a steel deck. 2. LCRA Dalchau Service Center— Stores Building. The auditor reviewed the facility's electric LCRA Stores Facility has been in operation consumption and bill history compared to the at its location on Montopolis Boulevard in typical schedule of operations. Auditor Austin, Texas since 1985. Total enclosed air estimated kilowatt–hour consumption from conditioned area is approximately 71,000 square typical run times for equipment in the facility feet. Only office areas are air-conditioned. Unit and compared that with annual consumption heaters and Protective Equipment Testing Lab estimates using the week’s recorded data for the equipment are the largest energy users. Three administration building. split system air conditioning units serve the office areas and breakroom. Electric radiant Findings: heaters heat the warehouse space. Sim Gideon administration building has had only minor changes since 1965, and exhibits At the time of the audit LCRA Stores energy consumption characteristics of typical Facility had above average energy use per- office building construction from that era. By square-foot compared the average warehouse controlling lighting and air conditioning loads storage facility in the southern United States. and improving the thermal envelope of the Meters had still not been installed for the facility. building we estimate the facility can find savings Meters were placed in early 2003. The Service of 25% during the five years of this project. Center began receiving bills from Austin Energy in April of 2003. Cost-effective improvements are summarized below: The audit suggested a combination of • Lighting improvements could provide architectural and mechanical solutions to address as much as a 40% reduction in the the major concerns of the business owner, building’s annual energy usage for building comfort and energy costs. lighting. Higher efficiency lamps and ballasts, along with improved controls 3. Hilbig Gas Storage Facility. are recommended to reduce lighting The Hilbig facility has been in operation at energy usage. This would include a its location in Rockne since 1991. Total enclosed proposed decrease of 3KW connected air conditioned area is approximately 10,000 lighting load with a simple payback of square feet; about 3800 square feet of office about three years. areas and 1000 square feet of equipment control rooms are air-conditioned. Pumps associated • The two new split system Trane heat with gas extraction and injection and air pump units, one at 10 tons and the other conditioning in the main offices and equipment at 15 tons are oversized for the load. control rooms are the largest energy users. Split- While the existing structure has system heat pumps serve the office areas and minimal insulation in the roof, even so,

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003 ESL-IC-03-10-05

breakroom; large package units serve the efficiency and environmental sensitivity, due to compressor and switchgear control rooms. lack of control system upgrades over time, the efficiency of the system had declined. Findings: • The walk-through audit and bill history The consultants LCRA hired were a large show that station service operations firm, with offices world wide, and a good track account for approximately 98% of record doing energy assessment. Lacking data kilowatt (kW) Demand, and about 93% from submetering and other factors, such as no of the kilowatt-hour energy usage. No billing for the site at the end left us with an improvements were identified for this incomplete picture of LCRA’s actual operations heavy equipment, which included two- or potential savings. 2500 horsepower gas compressors. LCRA asked Texas Energy Systems • Lighting improvements could provide Laboratory to review the audit report. Their as much as a 1% reduction in the summary stated, “Apparently LCRA has done a facility's annual energy usage. The good job with previous facility currently uses 36 kilowatts of projects at their office complex. The site energy lighting. Higher efficiency lamps and consumption …is on the low side for an all- ballasts, along with improved controls electric facility. You have upgraded your lighting are recommended to reduce lighting system, installed Variable Frequency Drives on energy usage by approximately 75%. pumps and air handlers and have a good controls This would give a simple payback of system. Other than the thermal storage system, less than two years. only relatively small projects were identified.”8

• Improved control of HVAC units would Findings. reduce run-time on the equipment, • Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs) which is currently 24-hours, 7 days a recommended from the energy audit week. Replacing manual controls with included installing programmable locking programmable thermostats thermostats and energy efficient HVAC would facilitate a night setback in the units for smaller auxiliary buildings office areas, and prevent users changing such as multipurpose center and print too high or low settings, which cause shop. Those units were running 24 units to operate inefficiently. Heat hours with no setbacks. pumps should not be set up or set back more than two or three degrees at a • Energy Conservation Measure Number time. 2 called for implementing a chilled water temperature reset control • Consider improvements to shop air sequence for the HVAC system when compressor system. Typical savings appropriate conditions exist to allow the average 26% from leak detection and set point temperature of the chilled optimal pressure settings. Increased water being supplied to the air handling productivity results from higher quality units to be adjusted upwards. air. • The Lighting control software for the • Since the existing compressors are four office buildings was supposed to nearly 14 years old, and life expectancy turn lights off automatically at a certain is usually 15 years, premium high time of day. Occupants could dial up for efficiency compressors should be lighting once they were on the floor by investigated and replacements located entering a dial up code number. now. Avoid the necessity for less-than- Currently this system is not working, optimal purchase and delays at the and employees complain they find critical point of burnout. lights on all over the campus at all times of the night and on weekends. 4. LCRA GOC (General Office Complex) While the campus is relatively new and • The biggest recommendation from designed as a “state-of-the-art” for energy Carter-Burgess was a thermal storage

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003 ESL-IC-03-10-05

system that would not have saved any ROCC, and BUCC) that need A/C 24- kilowatt hours, but would have 7.After hours we run the discharge air temps qualified for a $100,000 rebate from the from 55 to 60 on all the AHU's we can. City of Austin. If LCRA were to be placed on a time-of use rate, the • We currently purchased the latest version of measure would have a 14.4 year simple software for the Lighting Control here at the payback. The prohibitively high costs GOC. We also purchased network modules for the measure had to do with siting of that will improve reliability and will make the storage tanks downhill and across the system more user friendly. We should the street and costs for piping uphill to have it installed within the next couple the chillers. of months.

In spite of some problems noted with • The Multipurpose Center is on a timer calibration of the software, the independent which only lets the A/C run for a maximum review by the Energy Systems Laboratory of 6 hours. The restrooms A/C's are on a stated the analysis done was thorough and programmable timers.” suggested that the smaller measures should be implemented. “LCRA will have to Energy education for LCRA employees was determine if a 15-year investment in a discussed as a desired outcome when the outside thermal storage system makes sense to audit was requested for the GOC. Two years them. An alternative approach might be to have passed, and the momentum and impetus to optimize current HVAC system educate employees has slowed. Partly due to the performance, i.e., making your current outside firm’s audit report for the GOC which system operate more efficiently.” said the facility was already “very” energy

efficient. Also, the GOC still does not receive an Implementation of Audit Recommendations energy bill. 1. Hilbig Facility Improvements.

From Kevin Stark, Operations Manager: Following the GOC audit, Marcia Roberts “The shop overhead lights used to be left on wrote several articles about the energy use at almost 24 hours a day, but now are turned off at LCRA facilities and quantified potential savings, night or when not in use (about 8 hours a day highlighting measures that were in employee now). Heaters are lowered at far as they will go control. Certain measures such as upgrading task (50 F) in most cases. The office printer will lighting and encouraging employees turn them "sleep" after 3 hours of non use, but the power is off have yet to be implemented. not turned off just greatly reduced. The A/C

located in the rear of the office is normally set to A company-wide newsletter, LCRA’s about 80 F.” Monday Morning, printed her short article,

“Shut Down to Avoid Wasting Away.” (It took a A separate meter was installed on the lot of doing to convince personnel in our administrative and shop buildings to get data information technology group that was a good valid for reporting to SECO under SB 5. idea for employees to shut down their PC’s and

other office equipment at night and on 2. General Office Complex. weekends.) Comments from numerous The report filed with Texas State Energy employees who read the article were noteworthy, Conservation Office in 2002 stated that LCRA “what good does it do to turn off my computer had only reduced energy use by 2% in its when I come to the campus late at night and on administrative buildings in those affected weekends and all the lights are burning in every counties. Reasons given: the GOC facility was building.” already energy efficient; at other facilities

metering was not in place or Other articles slated for LCRA website on

dispelling energy myths have yet to be published From the GOC facility manager, the only measures implemented from the audit were as follows: 3. Sim Gideon Plant, • Our current chilled water set point is 45 degrees. We have several areas (Gendesk,

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003 ESL-IC-03-10-05

Once sub-metering is in place the operations Lessons learned: manager has agreed to try out several of the audit 1) New Texas legislation focused attention recommendations. of the operations and facilities management side • LCRA’s electrical supply house of the company on considering energy is in the process of locating samples for conservation measures within LCRA. them to test in the plant facility — screw- 2) The result of deregulation was the in compact fluorescent lamps in place of unbundling of the various parts of the company incandescents. so that for the first time, the actual costs of • Disconnecting one of the new electricity for facilities operation and station heat pumps for the administration service became available. building will also follow the new meter. 3) Because sub-metering is currently in the process of being installed, not enough data has Employee initiative has recently made a accumulated to prove out the argument for difference at several LCRA facilities. upgrades in specific administrative buildings. 4) Employee initiative is important. For instance, one of our maintenance staff at Besides the legislation, employees initiative has the GOC— who has worked here only a year or made a difference. Many people already knew so — convinced his supervisor that compact that conservation was the right thing to do and fluorescents would work well in the lobby down convinced their managers to make needed lights and pendant fixtures that burn 24 hours a changes. day, and save labor costs. He bought them from 5) Employee education is a key component a local supply house and installed them himself. of efficiency. Employees need to know when This was not one of Carter-Burgess audit facilities personnel have initiated some measures measures studied in the report. But he knew to improve energy efficiency. Awareness and these lamps would burn cooler and last longer, as efficient operations go hand-in-hand. The bottom well as saving energy. line will dictate what investments are made in new equipment; but where individuals have At the Stores building at the Service Center, control, education will make a difference in an electrician who accompanied the auditor on consumption. her walk-through became aware of the excessive energy consumption of the 88 electric radiant In the mind of some employees, no obvious heaters in the warehouse area. Almost improvement in energy efficiency has taken immediately following the audit, he disabled half place at the GOC. Recently a colleague sent the of the units, halving the demand for electric heat authors an email titled “Energy Hogs.” It asked in the warehouse. what had been done lately to educate LCRA employees about what they could do to save Employees at Smithville Railcar Facility–– energy. which was already a retail customer of the City of Smithville––when faced with high demand As we have outlined, at LCRA the mind-set bills, convinced upper management to switch out of electricity being too cheap to meter has long electric unit heaters to radiant gas heaters in the been part of the company culture, and it won’t open shop area, reducing electric demand at the change over night. At LCRA’s power plants and facility in half. That was before the audit. administrative office buildings, as a result of combined pressure from legislation and the CONCLUSION obligations of environmental stewardship, LCRA Even though LCRA has had in-house began to address ways to conserve energy. A expertise to develop metering and conservation process was identified and progress has been programs for its own customers, it has not made. Knowing actual costs of energy use will previously employed these experts to improve its make conservation easier to justify. own facilities. While the expertise was there to analyze costs and recommend energy-saving FOOTNOTES measures, the costs, thus the incentive to address 1Senate Bill 7 by Senator David Sibley these measures had not been great enough until and Representative Steve Wolens is landmark deregulation forced LCRA to meter their legislation that restructures the partially facilities. deregulated electric utility industry to allow retail competition and provide customer choice

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003 ESL-IC-03-10-05

in Texas on January 1, 2002. On the date of 5 Ener-Win 97.02 ENERCALC for competition, rates from investor-owned utilities Windows, Department of Architecture, Texas drop 6 percent and establishes a "Price to Beat" A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. for competition. The bill was signed by 6 W. D. Turner, P.E., Ph.D., Director, Governor George W. Bush on June 18, 1999 and Energy Systems Laboratory, Texas A&M took effect September 1, 1999. University, letter dated October 1, 2001. 2This important innovation was initiated 7Trane Trace 700 is an hourly building when the Texas Electric Restructuring Act was simulation and analysis program. signed into law in 1999 to introduce a 8 Joel Hugghins, EI, Guanghua Wei, EI, competitive state energy market on Jan. 1, 2002. W. D. Turner, P.E., Ph.D, Report on Review of The act obligated all transmission utilities to LCRA General Office Complex General Audit provide power plant settlement meter data to the by Texas Energy Systems Laboratory, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) September 28, 2001. ISO. Under the act, ERCOT operates a Meter Data Acquisition System (MDAS), which REFERENCES collects generation and consumption energy data “Clean Air Through Energy Efficiency”. on a 15-minute-interval basis from all 2003 Texas SB5 Report from the State Energy transmission utility companies in the state. Conservation Office (SECO). 111 East 17th St. §25.127. Generating Station Meters, #114, Austin, Texas 78701. Publication #96- Instruments, and Records.(a) 1034. Generating station meters. LCRA General Office Complex, Austin, Instruments and meters shall be Texas, Detailed Energy Audit, LCRA 3700 Lake installed and maintained at each Austin, Blvd. Austin, Texas 78703. Prepared by generating station as may be Carter Burgess, Consultants in Engineering, necessary to obtain a record of the Architecture, Planning and the Environment, output as required, and to show the 901S. MoPac Expressway, Suite 200, Austin, character of service being rendered Texas 78746, September 2001. from the generating station. Report on Review of LCRA General Office Complex General Audit by Joel Hugghins, EI, (b) Record of station output and Guanghua Wei, EI, W. D. Turner, P.E., Ph.D, purchases of energy. Each electric September 28, 2001. utility shall keep a daily record of the Knutsen, Tom. “Advanced Metering and load and a monthly record of the output Web-Based Data — A New Partnership to Help of its plants. Central Texas Public Power.” Article prepared for publication in Electric Energy T&D 3 Legal opinion from Steve Burger, Magazine, October, 2003 issue. LCRA. Council Health and Safety Code Section 388.005 was enacted in 2001 as part of the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan, and requires political subdivisions in “affected counties” to establish a goal to reduce energy consumption by five percent per year for five years in existing facilities. The term “facilities” is not defined. However, it appears from the context in which the term is used that it is not intended to include industrial operating processes, such as power production and water and waste water equipment. There is no legislative history, nor any case law or Attorney General’s Opinion that would suggest otherwise. 4 Senate Bill 5 (SB5), also known as the Texas Emissions Reduction Plan, applied to all political subdivisions within 38 designated counties, LCRA facilities are located in two of those counties..

Proceedings of the Third International Conference for Enhanced Building Operations, Berkeley, California, October 13-15, 2003