Chillers Upgrade / High Tension Replacement
Project Overview
The New Ice Storage System, located on Lincoln Avenue, provides air conditioning for all of the academic buildings on the Plaza, The Dorms, Facilities Management, and teh Physical Education building. The Main Dining Hall and Starbucks do not receive their air conditioning from the central Chiller Plant.
The Ice Chiller makes ice during off-peak hours (10 PM – 8 AM, daily), to benefit from off-peak electricity pricing (at a considerable lower cost). At night, in what is termed as “Ice Build Mode,” a glycol (alcohol) solution circulates through each ice storage tank, and freezes the surrounding water.
After 8 AM, during “Ice Melt Mode,” the Ice chiller is “off” and the glycol solution is circulated between the ice storage tanks and plate & frame heat exchangers. The heat exchangers function to remove heat from the main chilled water loop that is being circulated through the buildings for air-conditioning. As glycol circulates through the ice storage tanks it is cooled so it can remove heat from the chilled water loop as is circulates through the plate & frame heat exchanger.
The Switch Gear (the locus of distributing electricity to the entire campus, not just the buildings along the Plaza), which is being custom-made to centrally manage the electricity distributed to the campus, adds electric savings and subsequent maintenance savings (at $101,000) by the Facilities Management Group, to the overall Chiller upgrade.
ConEdison delivers electricity to the campus via two electrical lines (the technical term is “feeders”), each electrical line / feeder bringing in 13,200 volts. The Switch Gear splits these two feeders into twelve feeders. Each building group on campus is supplied by two feeders (think of the Annual Shutdown schedule, which closes down groups of buildings). The Switch Gear is automatically programmed to open the electrical circuits networked to each feeder, so that the electricity flow is interrupted in the case of a problem (a fault). If the electricity flow isn’t interrupted when a fault occurs (if it isn’t “tripped”) the constant barrage of electricity will damage the Switchgear and various equipment. The new Switchgear will automatically switch feeders during an outage, so the campus electricity is restored more rapidly than our existing manual system.
Buy upgrading these systems we will reduce our annual energy savings by as much as $400,000.00, according to New York Power Authority (NYPA) estimates.
The savings are attributed to improved equipment efficiency and in large part to the savings obtained from the installation of an electric chiller capable of producing 7000 ton/hours of ice which will be stored in the 12 new ice storage tanks.
Feeder 1 / 1A
Campus Center South
Administration
Capital Facilities
Human Resources
Business Office Annex
Gate House
Children’s Center / Butler Building
Mechanical Services
Field Transformer
The Outback (Modular Dorm)
Fort Awesome Dorm
Feeder 2 / 2A
Heating Plant
Service Group
Campus Center North
Apartment Complex I (The Olde)
Apartment Complex II (The Commons)
Alumni Village
Feeder 3 / 3A
Residence Halls (Big Haus, Crossroads, Farside)
Physical Education
Cooling Tower
Student Services Building
Feeder 4 / 4A
Humanities
Neuberger Museum
Library South (Bookstore, Mailroom)
Visual Arts
Theater “D”
PAC – Sub 1
Print Shop
Feeder 5 / 5A
Social Science
Natural Science
Dance
Music
Library North
PAC – Sub II & III (Office)
Project Scope
Work began in April 2009 for our first major upgrade to the campus chillers and main electrical distribution system located in central plant. This is an entire renovation for the campus air (cooling) conditioning system.
Buy upgrading these systems we will reduce our annual energy savings by as much as $400,000.00 according to New York Power Authority (NYPA) estimates.
The savings are attributed to improved equipment efficiency and in large part to the savings derived from the installation of an electric chiller capable of producing 1000 tons of ice which will be stored in 40 new ice storage tanks located in Mechanical Services.
The chillers are operated during the evening which will take advantage of “off-peak” energy pricing. The ice will then be melted during the day to provide the necessary chilled water to produce air conditioning throughout the campus during the spring and summer months.
Lead Agency / New York Power Authority (NYPA)
Design / DMJM Harris
Contractor / AECOM
Budget / $11.6 million
Project Manager / Charles Wellcome