UEA Campus | Ice-interreg

THE UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA CAMPUS

The University of East Anglia is a campus-based university located close to Norwich in Norfolk, in the East of England. The site covers approximately 330 hectares and consists of teaching space, laboratories, offices, retail shops, catering outlets, a sports center and student residences. The campus was constructed in 1963 and has since been expanded several times. Some of the original buildings are ‘grade II listed’ as having cultural significance.

There are approximately 14,500 undergraduate students and 4,500 postgraduates and staff using the campus daily throughout term time; the campus has 4,500 resident students, mostly first-year undergraduates. Outside of term time the campus continues to be used by post-graduates and staff and also plays host to conferences and events.

The site includes much green space including woodland and a lake. It is connected to the local gas and electricity distribution systems with sufficient capacity for its energy requirements now and in the future.

In the ICE project, UEA campus focuses more on new Smart Grids solutions implementation. The aim is to optimize the use of innovative low carbon technologies on large campus facilities, delivering a comprehensive optimized system. The UEA’s sustainable campus is already equipped with low energy buildings as well as energy efficiency technologies (such as Smart Grids) that will host ICE demonstration activities and provide valuable experience. The Smart Grid system to be developed and tested will combine both innovative and existing solutions, the latter being either further improved or efficiently integrated in a comprehensive smart energy management. New solutions include:

efficient automation tools and sensors,
a new software,
digital tools for data collection and smart management.

These analysis and tests will serve as foundation for the creation of a commercial offer that will be transferable to other isolated or remoted territories worldwide

As explained before, UEA already has a large number of state-of-the-art facilities for Low Carbon Energy systems; therefore, it will require only limited extra funding for investment. The focus will be on making the best possible use of the existing innovations and optimizing their performance given the first assessment of local conditions. The first works of ICE partners on analyzing UEA revealed: firstly, that there were a large seasonal disparity of solar generation not coinciding with demand; and, secondly, that there were considerable barriers for consent to build wind turbines and no appetite for such development. Solar and biomass technologies combined are hence likely to be the most effective, with the possibility of wind energy if planning constraints permit and if the university is interested in this after consideration of any local concerns. Energy storage solutions are thus likely to play an important role in smoothing the power supply and ensuring resilience.