Energy Office

1978-2020: 42 Years of the UCB Energy Office

The Energy Office tracks, monitors, and manages energy usage campus-wide to reduce energy costs; improve design, performance, and operation of buildings; and provide feedback on energy usage to building occupants. We continuously monitor the operations and maintenance of campus facilities and are in contact with Building Managers regarding their facilities’ operation and utility consumption.

Winter Break Curtailment Success!

Each winter break the Energy Office works with the EMS, Stationary Engineers, and Electric shops to turn down buildings to save energy. Lighting, ventilation and heating are turned off or set back for about a week and a half each year. This year (2019-20) curtailment saved 1,026,000 kWh of electricity and 5,551,000 lbs of steam. Compared to the prior month’s baseline, electric use was 16.5% lower and steam use was 16% lower when normalized for weather. Together these savings totaled $157,400 and 673 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. With labor costs of just $29,000, the ROI was 544%! See more on our full curtailment flyer.

Energy Data and Dashboards

Energy Dashboard

We installed building-level meters that track energy use in campus buildings. The Pulse Dashboard shows this real-time energy use of over 137 campus buildings. We are in the process of adding water meter data to the dashboard as well. The dashboard provides a visualization of energy and water savings associated with behavioral and technical improvements. We are also using integrated analytics to provide real-time feedback from this data to help identify anomalies and address large system malfunctions.

Energy Policy

The campus's Energy Use Policy, which came into effect in 2014, was developed to provide a local framework to support energy-efficient decisions. The policy outlines required energy conservation practices for heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, equipment, construction and renovation projects. The policy is currently being updated. 

Energy Efficiency Projects

The Energy Office manages and provides input to a variety of energy efficiency projects. Through these projects we strive to make the campus as energy efficient as possible, and meet or exceed the UC system’s goal of 2% reduction in energy use each year. Many of these projects focus on HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) and lighting systems, since these systems are major contributors to energy usage in buildings. However, we also work on many other types of projects such as energy use of labs and IT equipment. 

Pre-Plan Check Review for Campus Projects Impacting Utility Use

The Energy office reviews plans for projects on campus that impact utility use. This process encourages efficient design that will not increase building utility use, and informs Berkeley Administration of the quantified estimate of utility increase, if any. If you are a project manager working on a project that will impact utility use, please contact the Energy Office for procedures at energyoffice@berkeley.edu. 

Manager of Energy Office: Bruce Chamberlain

Meet The Team

Bruce Chamberlain Ahmed Hassani Kume Wolde Catherine Patton
Energy Manager Energy Engineer Energy Engineer Energy Analyst

Other Resources

Return to Engineering and Technical Services

Energy Office Logo - 40th Anniversary

By the Numbers

99,000 Gallons of water saved per year by one autoclave modernization

49% energy saved from fluorescent to LED lighting

49,000 Number of average Bay Area households powered by electric use of UC Berkeley

$112,000 Savings from 2017-2018 Curtailment

200,000 kWh and 67,000 therms Annual energy saved by efficient design of Berkeley Way West

Million Lamp Challenge Logo