With more than 50,000 students, The University of Texas (UT) is larger than many cities. But as its population grows, the energy plant that serves the campus has kept a lid on consumption.

Over the past decade, the University's Austin campus has increased its overall square footage by 13 percent, and electrical demands have grown by almost twice that rate. Amazingly, the UT power plant has met this rising need with a minimal change in fuel consumption. Engineers accomplished this through a variety of measures, including a boiler retrofit that cuts emissions and optimizes electric motor use. The plant also uses an innovative "real time" dispatch model that precisely manages the use of stand-by equipment. Between 1996 and 2006, overall plant efficiency has increased by 16 percent. Reducing the need to generate power has allowed the University of Texas to avoid substantial emissions of nitrogen oxides and other pollutants.

The gains over the past decade contributed to needing less natural gas to fuel generators, with cumulative natural gas cost savings of more than $33 million dollars. When less energy is used, fewer emissions are produced. Yet, the power plant meets the demands for heating and cooling a small city from its corner of the campus in a way that never disrupts the campus business at hand and always serves. Power plant officials point out and justifiably boast of reliably keeping the power going for students and staff because education, research, and campus life never stop.

The success of this decade-long effort has positioned the plant to serve not only the university, but also the surrounding community that it calls home-because the benefits of clean air have no boundaries.