Specifications include, but are not limited to: The system's overarching goal for campus comprehensive facilities planning is to provide the campus with a framework to align its financial, physical, and academic resources to deliver the best higher education to its students. The colleges and universities of Minnesota State use their current Comprehensive Facilities Plans when: • Developing projects for a capital budget or revenue bond request • Evaluating and improving space utilization • Acquiring or selling real estate • Prioritizing repair and replacement needs, and • Identifying or removing obsolete space. The utility master planning process develops a road map to ensure that utility systems can reliably and efficiently serve the campus's current and future service needs. The process includes evaluating existing utility system conditions, understanding future service needs, evaluating options for meeting these future needs, and articulating an implementation plan that can guide capital investment projects. This process can help campuses: • Determine the capability of existing utility systems to serve future needs. • Determine efficient and cost-effective ways to meet expected campus needs. • Determine the magnitude, cost, and timing of needed campus utility projects. • Develop institutional support for needed projects. • Create a capital investment plan for needed improvements to the campus utility infrastructure and build resilience to future events. The scope of utility master planning efforts at Minnesota State colleges and universities will vary based on campus needs. Each Utility Master Plan will provide a broad overview of each service provided to the campus – including electrical power, heating, cooling, gas, domestic water, fire water, irrigation, sanitary sewer, storm sewer, compressed air, and standby/emergency generation systems. Additionally, each campus will identify systems that would benefit from an in-depth analysis. Expected outcomes include documentation of the basic information needed to effectively manage existing utility systems and a proposed implementation plan for future utility projects. In addition to major projects that require capital investment, the implementation plan is expected to include immediately actionable, low-cost strategies that result in operational cost savings. Taking a comprehensive and intentional approach to utility planning enables system efficiencies that can minimize operational costs and play a key role in sustainability efforts.
