Dive Brief:
- Carnegie Mellon will become the first university to pilot IBM’s cloud-based analytics system to help reduce energy use and its associated costs.
- The university announced that nine buildings on the Pittsburgh campus will start with the new technology, which will be expanded over about three years to cover 36 buildings and ultimately save up to $2 million.
- The technology will help Carnegie Mellon keep HVAC costs down in the first years of the program and eventually expand to monitor lighting, water, and other utilities, according to the university.
Dive Insight:
While saving money is the primary goal of this partnership, Carnegie Mellon is expected to generate massive amounts of data by tracking its building energy use that will, in turn, be used by the university’s own research teams. IBM markets its product as a solution for campuses of all sizes. Carnegie Mellon expects its energy savings to provide a substantial return on the initial technology investment. As the project reaches full implementation, it will be something campus leaders elsewhere should monitor for their own scalability.