Last December, the University was selected to receive a grant of $1.5 million by the U.S. Department of Energy by joining 27 other schools as a part of the Industrial Assessment Center (IAC) program. Industrial Assessment Centers are universities across the United States that provide local businesses with “energy audits” — on-site assessments made by engineers about how to reduce power consumption.
The IAC program was initially established under the Department of Commerce as the Energy Analysis and Diagnostic Center (EADC) program in 1976, and later transferred to the newly-established Department of Energy the following year. The program was created to help small businesses reduce cost and waste, but by using university students in the program IACs provide a secondary benefit.
“Half of this project involves providing these energy saving opportunities to small businesses,” Hyun Woo Jeon, an assistant professor of industrial engineering at the University said. “The other half is training energy-aware engineering students for facilities and manufacturers.”
The IAC faculty team at the University is composed of Jeon, Jonathan Shi and Chao Wang, all faculty within the construction management and industrial engineering departments. The IAC employs 11 undergraduate students along with the faculty members.
The students and faculty in the program connect with small to medium sized businesses in the area and provide a start-to-finish audit of the facility’s energy consumption. Audits include pre-assessment meetings, an on-site assessment and a post-assessment recommendation.
Of the 28 schools involved in the program for the next five years, the University received a middle-of-the-pack grant of $1.5 million. This grant will sustain the program for the next five years, including tools required, travel expenses and the pay of the students involved.
“We need tools to measure energy consumption in the facility,” Jeon said. “The cost of this [piece of equipment] is three to several thousand dollars. We cannot do anything without tools.”
According to the Department of Energy, IACs typically identify more than $130,000 in potential annual savings opportunities for every manufacturer assessed, nearly $50,000 of which is implemented during the first year following the assessment. Over 16,000 IAC assessments have been conducted in the existence of the program. The University is contracted to be involved in the IAC program for the next five years. This is the first time in the history of the program that the University will be involved.