05-23-2016 BPU RPT 11 - Laserfiche WebLink

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W A T E R 1 E N E R G Y 1 L I F E CITY VOf RIERSIDE RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES lag Board Memorandum P U B L I C U T I L I T I E S BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES DATE: May 23, 2016 ITEM NO: 11 File16 -1610 SUBJECT: THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE'S PROPOSAL FOR RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES' ENERGY INNOVATIONS GRANT FOR $100,000. ISSUE: The issue for Board of Public Utilities consideration is to recommend approval for an Energy Innovations Grant (EIG) to the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in the amount of $100,000 to fund research for Coordinated Energy Management in Net -Zero Mixed -Use Buildings. RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of Public Utilities approve and recommend that the City Council approve the UCR request for an Energy Innovations Grant in the amount of $100,000, to be paid in three installments to be funded in Fiscal Year 2016 -17, to research Coordinated Energy Management in Net -Zero Mixed -Use Buildings. BACKGROUND: One of Riverside Public Utilities' (RPU) programs funded through the Public Benefits Funds is the Energy Innovations Grant Program. This Program was developed for the funding of research, development and demonstration programs for the public interest to advance science or technology in electric related projects in the institutions of higher education within the City of Riverside. Participation in the EIG Program is restricted to public or private post - secondary institutions whose primary activities fall within City limits. The grant funds must comply with the relevant portions of California Public Utilities Code Section 385 related to the use of Public Benefits Funds. Section 385(a)(3) provides that Public Benefits Funds may be used for "Research, development and demonstration programs for the public interest to advance science or technology, which is not adequately provided by competitive and regulated markets." UCR has been awarded grant funds through this Program in the past in various separate projects ranging from: the Control of NOx (nitrogen oxides), SOx (sulfur oxides) and Particulate Matter in Biological Filters to the establishment of the Southern California Research Initiative for Solar Energy (SC- RISE). To date, UCR has received more than $2 million in grant funding through this program. Today the utility is focusing these projects and funding request towards applications that directly affect the utility, its operations and potential impacts to RPU's electric system. A new proposal was recently submitted for grant funding by Assistant Professors Shaolei Ren and Qi Zhu. This project proposes a new coordinated approach to optimize energy consumption for cost saving in mixed -use buildings that have both datacenter operation and other non - datacenter usage as an integrated cyber - physical system. As typical complex facilities, both datacenters and buildings are energy- intensive and have received a significant amount of attention to optimize energy efficiency in the past. The majority of datacenters are physically located within mixed -use buildings that include both datacenter operation and a significant space for other non - datacenter usage (e.g., office). Nonetheless, the existing efforts on datacenter energy efficiency have dominantly centered around dedicated datacenter, which by itself is a stand -alone building where all the spaces and supporting infrastructure (e.g., cooling, electrical) are directly