UM Utility Plant #3 Upgrades

Owner: University of Miami

Size: 1,960 tons of cooling capacity

Construction Cost: $2,300,000

This utility plant upgrade included the upsizing of a chiller, four cooling towers, chilled water pumps, and condenser water pumps. To provide major energy savings and increase controllability, the piping configuration was modified from primary secondary to variable primary. The Owner required the plant to stay in operation for the duration of the project, so a phased plan was developed to strategically replace equipment and piping.  Sequences of operation were written to stage chillers of varying sizes on and off in conjunction with the cooling towers during part load conditions, with new measurement and metering systems and updated automated graphics.