We would like to share stories about how our campus power distribution systems evolved — sharing ideas about topologies, economic and reliability operating constraints, etc.   We had one session like this — an overview of the Michigan Technological University power system, presented by Ed Maki (See frames 18:30 through 30:00 in this link: https://youtu.be/KZ_5-fpLmaM).  We would like to do more.

Very often new buildings are designed with regard only for how the new building power system shall be connected to the central campus system.   This usually means that Architect/Engineers will retain an electrical consultant to only deal with that building.   It is only with a Master Plan — which is usually developed by mechanical engineers — that the broad overview about how the campus power distribution system as a whole operates presently, and how it might evolve in the future.  Considerations such as the following usually get lost in Master Plans:

• The use of aluminum medium voltage cabling.   This reduces the cost of feeders by 2/3rds and makes the partitioning of feeder circuits from, say a district energy play, possible.
• Resistance grounding methods.  University of California – Berkeley has a resistance-grounded system.  So does the University of Washington.  They are limiting fault current on their medium voltage grid to 100 amperes. This has obvious safety advantages.  They also get an early warning about cable leakage and can schedule outages.   How to transition to resistance grounding from solid grounding is possible.

Mike Anthony (University of Michigan), Lorne Clark (University of Alberta) will host special teleconferences with our colleagues elsewhere in the education facilities industry.