The challenge
A university campus isn't one building repeated. The University of Melbourne runs chilled water plants serving a neuroscience research facility, a rare books library, a performing arts school, a biocontainment institute and a law school, and each of those has a different load profile, a different tolerance for variation and a different set of constraints on what the plant is allowed to do.
Plant capacity across the portfolio ranges from 1,198 kWr at the Nancy Millis Building to 5,300 kWr at the Peter Doherty Institute. Chiller counts range from two to three. Some plants serve laboratories that can't deviate. Others serve teaching space that empties for months at a time.
A single control philosophy applied across all of them would have been simpler to deliver and would have left most of the saving on the table. The university's energy team wanted each plant tuned to its own building, and wanted the results measured rather than asserted.
Every building was modeled on its own data, and every result reported here was measured against that building's own pre-implementation baseline.
Portfolio profile
Verified results
Nine buildings, measured over 12 months
Each verified building was measured over a 12-month reporting period against its own baseline. The measured saving is the reduction in plant energy against that baseline. The portfolio average of 11.1% is weighted by each building's baseline energy. Carbon is converted at 0.87 tCO2e/MWh, the NGA Factors 2025 figure for Victoria (0.78 scope 2 plus 0.09 scope 3). No cost savings are reported for this portfolio.
| Building | Plant | Measured saving | Realized kWh per year | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 144 Kenneth Myer, Neurosciences | 4,200 kWr | 21.8% | 126,321 | Verified |
| 248 Peter Doherty Institute | 5,300 kWr | 13.6% | 69,961 | Verified |
| 401 Nancy Millis Building | 1,198 kWr | 8.5% | 50,417 | Verified |
| 110 The Spot | 2,280 kWr | 10.2% | 45,415 | Verified |
| 864 Dance Building, Southbank | 1,900 kWr | 10.0% | 42,311 | Verified |
| 379 Building, 207 Bouverie Street | 1,240 kWr | 13.8% | 29,679 | Verified |
| 168 Doug McDonell | 2,874 kWr | 5.3% | 26,333 | Verified |
| 880 MCM Performing Arts, Southbank | 1,370 kWr | 9.3% | 23,462 | Verified |
| 106 Law Building | 3,200 kWr | 6.2% | 12,545 | Verified |
| Nine buildings verified | 23,562 kWr | 11.1% average | 426,444 | Verified |
| 177 Baillieu Library* | 3,500 kWr | 10.0%* | 43,863* | M&V pending |
| 153 Chemistry, West Wing* | 2,500 kWr | 5.8%* | 26,245* | M&V pending |
| 105 Business & Economics* | 2,500 kWr | 17.2%* | 19,141* | M&V pending |
| 104 Alan Gilbert Building* | 1,880 kWr | 9.0%* | 17,960* | M&V pending |
| 133 Glyn Davis, Melbourne School of Design* | 1,650 kWr | 8.5%* | 16,943* | M&V pending |
*Forecast: modeled saving issued before implementation. These five buildings haven't completed measurement and verification, and they aren't included in the verified totals. Verified: measured over a 12-month reporting period against the building's own baseline and independently verified by Broadleaf.
The Exergenics approach
Optimization inside the university's own control system
Nothing was installed on the university network. Each strategy was delivered as setpoints and sequences for the incumbent controls contractor to code into the existing building management system.
Model each plant on its own data
Historical chiller, pump and cooling tower trends were drawn from each building individually. Plant that shares a campus doesn't share a load profile, and a model built on one building's data doesn't transfer to the next one along.
Generate a strategy the plant can actually run
Chiller staging thresholds and condenser water temperature control were generated for each plant and bounded by constraints the site team confirmed. Research and teaching buildings on this campus have hard limits on how far conditions may drift, and the strategy respects them rather than optimizing past them.
Implement through the incumbent contractor
The university's incumbent controls contractor coded the recommended strategies into the existing BMS. No hardware was added, no gateway was installed and no external connection to the control network was required.
Verify against the building's own baseline
Each verified building was regressed against measured cooling load over a 12-month reporting period and compared with its pre-implementation baseline on the same basis. The portfolio figures in this case study were compiled and independently verified by the university's energy consultants, Broadleaf.