University of Kelaniya consists of Faculties of commerce and Management, Humanities, Science, Social Sciences, Medicine and Graduate studies with 44 Academic departments. It caters to about 8,500 internal students and around 92,000 distance learning students. The staff consists of about 600 Academics and 650 non-Academic members. University of Kelaniya as the first Sri Lankan national university that adopted an environmental policy expects to demonstrate the theory and practice of sustainability through taking action to understand and reduce the unsustainable impacts of its own activities. In this context, University of Kelaniya has planned to reduce its energy consumption and hence to reduce its carbon foot print by adopting energy conserving strategies.

A systematic energy audit was conducted from December 2014 to February 2015 covering all the buildings and other facilities in the Dalugama premises of the university to survey the electricity usage pattern and to identify the electricity waste sources. University consumes 44% and 21% for air conditioning and lighting, respectively and these areas should be given priority in energy conservation planning in future. The high unaccounted loss (6%) of energy shows the poor electricity management procedures employed and immediate attention should be paid to introduce proper energy management plan with well-defined targets to increase the efficiency of energy consumption.

Electricity consumption of the University by loads,

Installation of sub meters to quantify the electricity usage in different areas of the university will provide a better picture on the electricity consumption by the university community. This will further give an opportunity to compare energy usage among different sections of the university and to find out the results of implementation of their own energy saving strategies.

Share of Monthly Electrical Energy by different Areas

 The major recommendations to reduce electricity consumption at the University,

• Improving the power factor at metering points
• Replacement of individual AC units with a central AC system
• Avoiding shortcomings in conditioned spaces
• Avoiding idling operation of AC units
• Avoiding air leaks in conditioned spaces
• Introduction of VSDs for cooling tower pumps
• Replacement of FLs with LED tubes in general lighting
• Replacement of inefficient lamps with efficient lamps in security lighting
• Avoiding idling operation of lamps
• Efficient use of daylight
• Avoiding shortcomings in lighting system
• Efficiency improvement in lighting system
• Efficiency improvement in water pumping stations
• Introduction of efficient water taps, showers, cisterns, etc.
• Introduction of solar water heaters for hot water generation in  the  canteen
• Installation of sub electricity meters, water meters
• Implementation of proper data recording & analyzing system
• Obtaining commitment of the university community towards energy conservation measures.

This report is prepared based on the recommendations given by the energy auditors and it should only be used as a guideline to improve energy usage efficiency of the university. Therefore, there is always room to suggest and implement better and more efficient energy management strategies by the university community. It is necessary to take the views of the staff and student communities before any recommendation is implemented as student – staff support is paramount in achieving the goals in energy conservation. The improvement of energy utilization efficiency is a continuous process and regular monitoring and reviewing of the energy saving strategies are necessary.

Green Practices Committee – 2015