Energy consumption in Q4 2022
Since the start of the winter semester 2022/2023, all of us at the University of Cologne have been saving energy on an unprecedented scale. The figures for electricity consumption at the university and the consumption of district heating for the months of October, November and December 2022 are now available.
Positive developments in Q4
Our university is largely supplied by district heating. In this area, the university was able to save a total of around 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022. The relatively mild winter also played a role in this. The figures presented here are from 2019, the year prior to the pandemic. We were able to reduce our electricity consumption by 3.8 percent.
Q4 electricity savings
| Q4 savings vs. reference year 2019 (23 rLM meters, without regional data centre) | Absolute savings in megawatt hours and percent |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 500 (4,8%) |
| 2021 | -97 (-0,9%) |
| 2022 | 396 (3,8%) |
RLM stands for Registering Power Measurement. This involves recording the average power value for a specific measurement period. For electricity, this is a period of 15 minutes; district heating is measured every hour. With rLM meters, the actual power and the resulting consumption are calculated every month. The electricity consumption of these 23 rLM meters corresponds to around 80% of the total electricity consumption of the University of Cologne.
Q4 heating Savings
| Q4 savings vs. reference year 2019 (33 rLM meters) | Absolute savings in megawatt hours and percent | Weather-adjusted savings in megawatt hours and percent |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | -86 (-0,6%) | -1.023 (-7,4%) |
| 2021 | -731 (-4,9%) | -477 (-3,2%) |
| 2022 | 3.018 (20,4%) | 1.345 (10,3%) |
The consumption figures for the buildings have been normalized. Normalized means that only the consumption of the buildings are being compared that were also in operation in the reference period (November 2017-December 2019) (the modular building 911, the guest houses, the new physics building were excluded). This monthly measurable heating consumption corresponds to about 78% of the total heating consumption of the University of Cologne.