water supply in the event of a leak. It is
notable that no chemicals are added to
the condenser-side water used from the
Chicago River.
Customer Benefits
Thermal Chicago operates on an
economic dispatch model that ensures
customers are getting the most economical cooling available. The company
uses variable-frequency drives and a
mix of electricity sources and contracts.
All plants have multiple feeders coming in from different substations, and
the whole system is interconnected; if
a substation goes down and takes out
part of a plant, the rest of the plant is
still operational, together with all the
other plants that are feeding into the
system.
Connecting to the Thermal Chicago
network eliminates the electricity
demands of on-site chillers and cool-
ing towers, of course, but it can also
help customers lower their other elec-
tric costs as well. As Bump explains,
“Roughly 50 percent of a building’s
peak electricity usage is for air condi-
tioning. By using district cooling, they
do not need major electricity-using
chillers, cooling towers and associated
pumps. They instead have a very flat
electric load profile, which is very
attractive in a deregulated market to
our retail energy suppliers. We believe
those customers can get more favorable
electric rates because of those predict-
able, flat load profiles.”
Because several of its customer
buildings have multiple tenants with
diverse energy needs, Thermal Chicago
can provide separate process feeds and
individual metering as required. For
data centers and other mission-critical
customers, the system offers the highest
possible level of reliability. In addition,
Thermal Chicago has a fiber optic sys-
tem that enables its personnel to moni-
tor every customer building from any of
the five plants or even via their smart-
phones. “Customers appreciate the fact
that we have someone in our control
room monitoring their building 24/7,
and there have been many times when
we’ve alerted them to issues that they
had not even noticed yet,” says Bump.
In addition to providing reliable
and efficient cooling service, Thermal
Chicago offers important opportuni-
ties for customers with respect to
their sustainability goals and their
desire to earn points toward their
LEED® (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) certification.
As Kattner explains, “We work with
these customers in four key areas.
The first is refrigerant management
and commissioning, which are key
aspects of our full-time business.
Second, we use a reasonable amount
of nighttime electricity, which is largely
nuclear-based, so there’s a carbon
footprint reduction (during peak peri-
ods, some of the customers’ electric-
ity would be coming from coal- or
gas-fired peaking plants). Third, we
use river water as a heat sink. If all of
our customers were using individual
cooling towers, they would evaporate
water at a much greater rate than we
do. Fourth, it’s possible for customers
to earn additional points by providing
bike racks, fitness centers and other
amenities such as green roofs and
solar collectors that can occupy space
that would have been utilized for
their on-site chillers.”
Besides the reliability, environ-
mental benefits, electricity and water
savings, use of the Thermal Chicago
system saves customers on up-front
and ongoing capital and maintenance
costs. It allows preservation of valu-
able space in the buildings by elimi-
nating all the traditional water chilling
and cooling tower equipment and thus
allows greater architectural freedom
in new buildings.
With a solid track record earned
over its 17 years of operation, Thermal
Chicago now serves about 45 million
sq ft of building space, or about 20
percent of the downtown market. That
leaves plenty of room for growth,
and the company sees strong potential in building renovations and new
construction now that the economy
is starting to pick up. Regardless of
the challenges posed by any of those
future projects, Thermal Chicago can
draw on its legacy of Chicago-style
ingenuity to get the job done.
An insider’s
knowledge.
An outsider’s
perspective.
Kattner
Associates
gives you
both.
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612.338.5956 • jfk@kattnerassociates.com
www.kattnerassociates.com
