NYU Saves Energy During the Heat Wave

The spell of hot weather last month would seem an unlikely time to reduce energy consumption, but New York University shaved approximately 15% off their normal energy usage. A heat wave may seem like an inopportune time to reduce electricity use, but demand during the summer has created problems in the past, like the blackouts of 2003.

According to a news brief from NYU, the University’s “Executive Vice President Michael Alfano announced in a university-wide email that unnecessary lighting, elevators and air conditioning were to be shut off to curtail the university’s electricity usage, per the request of Con Edison, which faced a peak power emergency as a result of record-breaking temperatures across the city.” By reducing demand from places like NYU, Con Edison, which is the largest utility in the tri-state area, can ensure uninterrupted service to its customers.

Scheib reports that “NYU cut total energy use by about 3.5 megawatts during the nine-hour curtailment that occurred over two days. The university saved about 31,500 kilowatt hours, roughly 15 percent of the university’s total energy usage.” For a point of comparison, Scheib provided the following analogy, “‘That would power one average New York City home for six years solid, or it is like taking about 15,000 NYC homes off the grid.’”

While the 15% reduction sounds impressive, it actually lags behind a similar effort to conserve energy last summer. Although numbers are estimates, Cecil Scheib, NYU Director of Sustainability and Energy, put last summer’s savings around 25%.

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