August in Houston can be hot, and in 2010, it was
the hottest on record. On
Aug. 23, demand on the
Texas electrical grid hit
an all-time high of nearly
66,000 MW. But at the
201-acre main campus of
the Texas Medical Center,
the leaders of Thermal
Energy Corp. (TECO)
weren’t sweating over
how soaring electricity
prices or the threat of
blackouts might affect
their district energy
system, which serves
75 percent of campus
building space. Even as
the temperature outside
soared, TECO didn’t need
to pull a single watt of
electricity from the grid.
Courtesy Burns & McDonnell.
Houston-based Jackson & Ryan Architects incorporated architectural features into TECO’s Master Plan
Implementation Project that reflect the surrounding Texas Medical Center.
The CHP system is a major part of TECO’s
$377 million district energy system expansion,
Master Plan Implementation Project – Phase One,
which also included adding 32,000 tons of new
chiller capacity, an 8. 8 million-gal stratified ther-
mal energy storage (TES) tank, distribution pip-
ing and an expanded operations facility featuring
a state-of-the-art control room. The project was
completed in May 2011, transforming TECO’s
energy center into a model for energy efficiency,
operating flexibility, environmental sensitivity
and system reliability – and the largest district
cooling system in the U.S.
phased approach to the project to closely match
campus growth projections.
One of the company’s most significant
design challenges was the site’s space constraints.
Land on the Texas Medical Center campus is a
precious commodity, and while TECO would
eventually need to double its capacity, it did not
have the luxury of doubling the size of its 4.5-acre
Central Plant site where the new equipment was
to be located.
Instead, the not-for-profit
corporation relied on its newly
commissioned, 48 MW combined
heat and power system to
generate the power needed to
supply chilled water and steam
to The University of Texas MD
Anderson Cancer Center, Texas
Children’s Hospital and 16 other
institutions at the Texas Medical
Center. TECO not only reduced
the load on the state’s electric
grid that day, it demonstrated
one of the major reasons why
it added on-site electricity
generation to its Central Plant in
the first place: to ensure that the
world’s largest medical center’s
thermal energy needs could be
met, no matter what.
Developing a Master Plan for Growth
Master Plan Implementation Project –
Phase One
TES Tank
TECO chose to install the 8. 8 million-gal
TES tank as a cost-effective way to increase peak
chilled-water capacity. TES allows chilled water to
be produced and stored when it is the most cost-
effective (generally at night) and then used when
chilled-water production rates are highest. TES
