Chilled Water Systems
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The University has one of the most sophisticated chilled water generating systems in the world. Chilled Water, which is used to cool buildings and equipment, is provided by either the District Cooling Systems comprised of a network of chiller plants and underground piping or by stand alone chillers dedicated to individual buildings. The District Cooling System for the main campus consists of five chiller plants with a combined capacity of 50,000 tons. The plants are interconnected by underground piping and operated as one production system using a networked Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. From a single console, operators can manage and balance loads among the chiller plants, use capacity anywhere in the system and continue operating in critical areas despite cooling equipment failure or utility outages. Two of the chiller plants house both steam absorption and electric centrifugal chillers; the other three house only electric centrifugal chillers, allowing us to quickly respond to outages of either energy source, as well as manage costs by monitoring the local electric utility’s hourly pricing program. |
