Industry
News
University of Utah Cuts
Ribbon on New Cogen Plant
The University of Utah launched two
major environmental initiatives on Earth
Day, April 17. At a dual ceremony, President
Michael K. Young cut the ribbon on the
campus’s new $18 million cogeneration
plant and, minutes later, signed the
American College & University Presidents
Climate Commitment.
The new cogeneration steam system
will supply 5 percent to 10 percent of the
university’s electricity needs and produce
heat for most of the lower campus. The
state-of-the-art system, designed and built
by Chevron Energy Systems and its subcontractor, Solar, will reduce carbon dioxide
emissions by 63,000 tons annually.
More than 500 colleges and universities
in the United States have signed the Presidents Climate Commitment. This document
commits the University of Utah to benchmark goals that will reduce its carbon footprint and integrate sustainability initiatives
into its curriculum.
KEP Upgrades
Operator Interfaces
KEP has announced that its MMI8000
series operator interfaces have been upgraded with touchscreen display. The display
features a 32-bit RISC kernel for impressive
performance at low power. The series also
includes a hardware graphics acceleration
engine that delivers 65K color graphics. Free
software and programming cable are supplied with each unit. For further details, go
to www.kep.com/whats_new/mmi8000-
operator-interface.html.
U.S. Capitol’s Refrigeration
Plant Expansion Wins Award
The Office of the Architect of the
Capitol’s (AOC) West Refrigeration Plant
Expansion project at the Capitol Power
Plant in April was named the winner of the
2007 Project Achievement Award by the
Construction Management Association of
America, National Capital Chapter.
The annual Construction Management
Project Achievement Awards program rec-
ognizes outstanding achievement in the
practice of construction management. The
awards program is designed to recognize
and promote professionalism and excellence in the management of the construction process. Awards are given to those
projects that reflect this mission.
The West Refrigeration Plant Expansion
Project was recognized along with the
Virginia State Capitol Building Renovation
Project in the category of “projects with a
construction value of less than $100 million.”
The AOC expanded the West Refrigeration Plant to reliably meet the future cooling
requirements of the Capitol complex. This
was necessary due to the advanced age of
the East Refrigeration Plant – some of the
equipment there dates back 50 years or
more – and to meet the increased load of
the Capitol Visitor Center and other building additions, renovations and modernizations. The expansion will also increase overall
plant efficiency.
The U.S. Capitol Power Plant was originally built in 1909 to supply steam heating
and electricity for the Russell Senate Office
Building and the Cannon House Office
Building. In the ensuing years, additional
facilities were added to the power plant
load increasing the demands for steam and
chilled water to cool the buildings. In the
early 1950s, the power plant eliminated
electrical energy production. Currently, the
Capitol Power Plant serves 18 facilities in
the Capitol complex including the House
and Senate Office buildings, the Supreme
Court and the Library of Congress.
Incuity Software Wins Green
Engineering Award
Incuity Software Inc., developer of
real-time business intelligence software for
manufacturing, was honored as the recipient of the inaugural Harvey Mudd College
Green Engineering Award at the 15th
annual American Electronics Association
High-Tech Innovation Awards celebration,
held April 29 in Irvine, Calif.
Incuity Software was recognized for its
IncuityCEM Campus Energy Management
solution, which enables campus facilities
managers to adopt a predictive approach
to managing campus energy consumption
and the provision of heating, cooling and
energy services to meet those needs far
more efficiently – at sustainable, continuing
reductions in energy costs of more than 20
percent annually.
IncuityCEM helps facilities managers
create a data model of an entire campus
to monitor all supply and consumption of
electricity, fuels, chilled water and steam for
campus buildings. It allows users to factor
in data on external conditions – such as
localized weather forecasts, activity calendars
and current energy market pricing – to build
a predictive model for hourly energy needs
for the succeeding 24 hours. IncuityCEM’s
analysis tools can create trends, plots and
reports on key performance indicators, which
are published on dashboard pages in the
Incuity portal. Authorized users can access
critical data on the campus Web site or
over the Internet.
For additional information, visit
www.incuity.com.
New Swiss District
Heating Project
As reported by www.GstaadLife.com,
a new 28 MWh district heating plant is
under construction in Gstaad, Switzerland.
The Web site called the new Fernwärme
Saanen-Gstaad plant “Saanenland’s answer
to the global renewables revolution." The
plant, which will burn timber, is being built
at a cost of 25 million Swiss francs ($24.4
million). Slated for completion by the end
of 2008, it will provide heating to local
homeowners as well as commercial customers, including the luxurious Gstaad
Palace hotel.
Turbine Cooling in 2008
ASHRAE Handbook
A new chapter related to combustion
turbine inlet cooling is featured in
ASHRAE’s new 2008 Handbook. HVAC
Systems and Equipment discusses systems
and the equipment, including features and
differences, to help system designers and
building operators select and use equipment.
