Efficient and Cost-effective Energy Production on UI Campus
UI Power Plant Video Feature
Oakdale Renewable Energy Plant Project
Within its combined heat and power production cycle, and use of biomass fuels, the University of Iowa is able to co-generate energy for cost-effective electricity, cooling and water treatment on campus.
The University of Iowa operates and maintains a central Power Plant, three Chilled Water Plants and a Water Plant on the main campus and satellite facilities at the Oakdale Campus. The plants provide steam, water, high-quality water, chilled water, electricity and sewer to the entire campus, including The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The Utility Enterprise is a recharge cost center that sells energy and services to the campus to fund its zero-profit budget.
The University of Iowa has operated a co-generation plant at its current location since 1926. The main Power Plant contains the following equipment:
- 4 Boilers - capacity totaling 580,000 lbs/hr of steam
- 3 Turbine Generators - totaling 24.7 megawatts
The University of Iowa Power Plant has an innovative partnership with Quaker Oats on the biomass fuel project. The University uses a biomass material, oat hulls, produced by the Cedar Rapids, IA Quaker Oats facility. About 60 tons of discarded oat hulls from Quaker Oats are delivered daily to the UI Power Plant. The organic material is burned with coal to produce energy. Photo, right - Tom Jorgensen. |
It converts the following raw materials:
- 93,000 tons of coal
- 36,000 tons of oat hulls
- 261 million cubic feet of natural gas
- 9,000 tons of limestone
- 49,375,000 gallons of potable water
Into energy directly consumed by the campus as follows:
- 75,000,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity
- 2,288,000 MMBtu of steam
Electric generation currently supplies between a quarter and a third of electric demand on campus.
The Chilled Water Utility has 16 Chillers, totaling 34,800 tons of cooling and converts:
- 350,000 MMBtu of steam
- 50,000,000 Kilowatts of electricity
- 166,770,000 Gallons of water
Into 88,413,000 ton-hours of annual cooling.
The University of Iowa is one of only a handful of Universities that also operates it’s own Water Plant. In addition to providing a cost-effective source of water for the campus, it also serves as an important teaching facility for future engineers and water treatment specialists.
The Water Plant uses 3,816 MMBtu of steam and 2,104,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity to purify and distribute 855 million gallons of water annually.
In addition to the steam, electricity and water produced by the above facilities, the Utility Enterprise also distributes 255,870,400 kilowatt-hours of purchased electricity and sends 494,000 ccf of sewage to the City of Iowa City.
Utility customers for the main campus include General Fund Buildings, Residence Services, Athletics, and the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, paying according to usage.
