How the data will be used

• All billing days will be normalized to a 28-day billing period (to compare equal-length months).
• All monthly consumption estimates will be normalized to the baseline 3-year average of the number of students on your campus. This is not to compare perstudent energy intensity, but to adjust for any sudden changes in the size of the student body. We do not adjust for area of campus buildings because this entails additional energy waste unless also accompanied by a comparable rise in student enrollment.
• Heating, but not electricity, will be normalized to the baseline 3-year average of the heating degree days (HDDs) in your region to compare equal-intensity winters.
• Percent reductions between the three-year baseline and '08 consumption will be determined by dividing the normalized '08 data by the normalized baseline data. Energy savings for your college (not used in the competition, but reported) will be calculated by subtracting the '08 consumption from the normalized baseline.
• For the combined heat-electricity awards, heating BTU will be converted as if that amount of natural gas was burned to produce of electricity, instead of using the amount of BTU a kWh of electricity produces, which ignores substantial production inefficiency. Converting BTU to kWh requires the heat rate, which depends on the type of power plant used. We use the conventional gas plant estimate provided by the US Department of Energy, which is 10,807 BTU / kWh (http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/assumption/pdf/electricity.pdf#page=3) . Because we want to convert BTU to kWh, we use the inverse 1 kWh / 10,807 BTU for the conversion factor = 0.0000925326 kWh / BTU. Though not needed for the competition, since a kWh in direct energy =3413 BTU, the assumed efficiency rate of electrical conversion is 3413 BTU / 10,807 BTU = 0.315813824 = 31.58%.

Important considerations

• Your billing period may not start on Feb. 1 and go to Feb. 28. It is acceptable to use a different period as long as you report the exact number of days and it corresponds generally to February and is similar to monthly billing periods in past years. You probably will want to coordinate with Facilities so they can choose when to start the billing period or at least you know when they will be measuring and can coordinate actions to that period.
• Some Facilities departments may have trouble accurately reporting all this data. Please walk through the process step by step beforehand to make sure every item is clear and try to get data in as early as possible – if possible, submit baseline data before the end of Fall Semester.
• BTU are often reported in thousands or millions (10^3 or 10^6). Please make sure you are using the right number of zeros.

Natural gas:
1 MCF (thousand cubic feet) = 10 CCF (hundred cubic feet) = 10 therms = 1,000,000 BTU

Conversion factor for combined competition (automatically calculated using this factor): 1 MCF of natural gas (1 million BTU) burned to produce electricity in a conventional natural gas plant yields 92.53 kWh. This is calculated using the Department of Energy heat rate estimate of 10,807 BTU / kWh for conventional natural gas plants (the factor we use) as found in: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/aeo/assumption/pdf/electricity.pdf#page=3

Exceptional cases

• We are assuming that your campus burns some kind of fuel (natural gas, fuel oil, etc.) and buys electricity for non-heating needs from off-campus. If you heat using electricity, identify a way to isolate what portion is used for heating (convert to BTU) and what is non-heating (leave in kWh). Otherwise, participate in the electrical competition only and make sure you can record this fact as a note when reporting data. 1 kWh of electricity converted into heat yields 3,413 BTU.
• We are assuming that no campuses use air conditioning in February, and thus are not including Cooling Degree Days, which would significantly complicate measuring electricity.
• If you generate electricity on campus in any significant quantity, please include it in your electrical reporting. If this is not feasible, make sure you can record this as a note. If you co-generate electricity with your heating system, please record the amount of BTU your generator produces as heating, but count only purchased (not co-generated) electricity in the electrical consumption.