Project Brief

Under PSE&G's energy efficiency program, KeRi Engineering performed an investment-grade (ASHRAE Level 3) energy audit of Middlesex College's main campus in Edison, NJ: 26 buildings across roughly 200 acres, spanning classrooms, laboratories, the library, performing arts, physical education, and administrative facilities. The campus is served by a 13.2 kV substation, central chiller and boiler plants, air handling and packaged rooftop units, and a campus-wide building management system.

The audit followed ASHRAE's Energy Audit Guidelines for Commercial Buildings: two years of utility bills were analyzed against daily weather data, equipment was catalogued building by building, and the campus was benchmarked at 104.07 kBtu/SF/yr against the 84.3 kBtu/SF/yr Energy Star average for colleges and universities. Every candidate measure received its own savings calculation, vendor-based cost estimate, simple payback, and an IPMVP-based measurement and verification plan, giving the College an investment-grade basis for its long-term capital improvement plan.

KeRi then led the full engineering design phase to implement the recommended energy efficiency measures, produced bid-ready construction documents, managed the competitive bidding process, and provided construction administration through close-out and final true-up. The work delivered measurable results: 5,297,198 kWh of electrical savings, 133,759 therms of natural gas savings, and 3,814 tCO2e of carbon emissions avoided.

Inside the Investment-Grade Audit

26 Buildings, One Campus-Wide Baseline

KeRi surveyed every audited building on the 200-acre Edison campus and built the energy baseline the College now plans against:

• Site surveys of mechanical and electrical systems, with facilities staff interviews and design-document review
• Two years of utility bills (January 2020 to December 2021) analyzed against daily weather data
• Equipment cataloguing and BMS data review, building by building
• Bin-data energy models for each conservation measure, calibrated to actual bills
• Vendor-solicited implementation costs and simple-payback ranking for every measure

What the Audit Found

Energy Conservation Measures Engineered

Measures were developed building by building, then carried into full MEP design. Representative measures across the campus:

MEP Engineering Scope

What We Engineered

The audit did not stop at recommendations; KeRi engineered the full MEP design to implement the energy efficiency measures campus-wide:

• Investment-grade (ASHRAE Level 3) audit of 26 buildings with EUI benchmarking and IPMVP M&V plans
• Campus-wide LED lighting retrofits with automatic controls, per the NJ Technical Resource Manual
• Replacement designs for aging AHUs, RTUs, split systems, energy recovery units, and exhaust fans
• Chiller plant measures: air-cooled chiller replacement, chiller reset controls, and high-efficiency condensing boilers
• Chilled, condenser, and hot water pump replacements with VFDs, plus step-down transformer replacements
• Demand-controlled ventilation and BMS integration, with bid-ready CSI MasterFormat documents through construction close-out

The Challenge

Delivering real, verifiable savings across a multi-building campus under PSE&G's program required moving from a credible baseline all the way through bidding and construction close-out.

Our Solution

KeRi performed an investment-grade audit with EUI benchmarking, designed targeted ECMs across lighting, air-side systems, the chiller and boiler plants, and controls, then ran competitive bidding and construction administration, delivering 5,297,198 kWh, 133,759 therms, and 3,814 tCO2e avoided.