Facilities plans for central air
The new Utah State University chilled-water system will bring relief for hot summer semesters at USU.
Nov. 15 marked the completion of the approval process for the central, chilled-water and cogeneration project at USU, said Brian Andersen, director of Facilities Operations.
The Board of Trustees voted its approval for the work to proceed. Some USU buildings have air conditioning, though it is inadequate. The Central Energy Plant will add a more-efficient, central, chilled-water system to first-contract buildings. It will also create heat and electricity simultaneously (cogeneration), Andersen said.
“The most important objectives of the Utility Plant Expansion Project are first, to provide chilled water to selected campus buildings via the newly completed tunnel system and second, to concurrently generate power and steam on site at USU,” he said.
Andersen discussed four primary reasons why this project is important to USU. First, it will reduce energy consumption, thereby reducing the pollution impact of cooling the university. Second, it will reduce outages and increase the reliability of air conditioning for all the buildings attached to the system. Third, it will make air conditioning available in certain buildings for a longer period of time, in case there is a hot day in the fall. Fourth, it will bring a new ability to provide reserve power when there are outages on the local electrical-distribution system, he said.
“One of the best things about this project is what it provides for the future, creating a backbone for chilled-water distribution that will be available for other existing and future buildings. The system is designed in such a way that expansion of the chilled-water system at the central plant will be available to other campus buildings in the future as funding becomes available,” said Darrell Hart, assistant vice president for Facilities.
Two facilities under construction that will benefit from this relationship are the new Engineering Classroom Building and the Edith Bowen Laboratory School, he said.
Andersen said more than 1.2 million square feet, or 30 percent, of the campus will connect to the new system when the first phase is completed in 2004. Additional phases of the project plan for 2 million square feet of existing building space that will be added to the system over the next 10 years.
“Utah State University wins with this project because it creates improvements in comfort, reliability, safety and cost savings. Many people on the USU Facilities staff and consultants have invested hundreds of hours to help this project become a reality. Years from now, we will still be benefiting from the cogeneration of heat and power and the availability of central, chilled water at USU,” he said.
The project is funded through a lease agreement, so the fuel and power savings generated will fund repayment of the capital cost, Andersen said. The total cost is estimated at $14,708,460 and will be repaid, he said.
–alwhite@cc.usu.edu