Sustainable Campus Model at the University of Campinas—Brazil: An Integrated Living Lab for Renewable Generation, Electric Mobility, Energy Efficiency, Monitoring and Energy Demand Management

Abstract

The aim of this article is to describe the concept of a Living Lab to be implemented at the University of Campinas through a partnership between UNICAMP and CPFL (local Utility Distribution Company). This project was recently submitted to a strategic and priority call from the Brazilian Regulatory Agency (National Electric Energy Agency—ANEEL, acronym in Portuguese). The Living Lab is divided into six subprojects integrating energy efficiency with research and development in distributed generation. These subprojects include: 300 measure points for a Power System Control Center; 400 kWp PV-Minigrid installation, distributed into 18 plants; Electric Mobility with a recharge facility and an electric bus; retrofit in an electrical facility as a prototype; an innovative IoT-based DMS energy management tool; and training in Distributed Generation (DG), Smart Grid and Energy Efficiency. The complementarity of the subprojects will empower the living lab in terms of innovation, research and teaching in energy management, measurement and verification, photovoltaic energy generation, electric mobility and sustainability in energy consumption at the University. All these actions comply with the ISCN/GULF Sustainable Campus Chapter policies, signed by UNICAMP a few years ago. This paper is important because it will result in a replicable model for sustainable campuses for Latin America, with a detailed step-by-step procedure covering local mini-grid EMS, IoT-educational DMS, Mobility, real-time retrofitted efficiency and institutional energy governance, which is a pioneering approach in South America.