Colorado College Central Chilled Water Plant Expansion

Colorado College is currently in the process of expanding their campus facilities to provide additional programs. As a result of this expansion, the campus cooling load is also increasing. At the present time they have a central chilled water plant and several satellite chilled water plants dedicated to specific buildings. While these satellite plants are interconnected with the central plant system, several of the chillers in these plants are nearing the end of their useful life and utilize CFC type refrigerants. Therefore a master planned approach was needed in order to determine the best long term method of meeting future cooling loads while phasing out CFC refrigerants.

SEC provided a cooling load analysis of the existing facilities, a hydraulic analysis of the campus chilled water distribution system and master planning for its central chilled water plant. The plant is located in the central part of campus with extremely limited expansion capabilities. In addition the current cooling tower location is a source of frequent complaints from faculty members as it blocks the view of the front range mountains.

From a master planning approach however, the most significant factor was the current layout and limited space within the central plant and the difficulty of installing the necessary equipment for future expansion.

After much discussion, investigation and analysis, we proposed a bold new concrete cooling tower structure to blend in with the existing facilities on campus. The proposed cooling tower structure was designed to house the condenser water sump, condenser water pumps, and centrifugal separator thereby eliminating the space currently used for them in the central plant.

The project provide master planning to increase the central plant capacity to 2,400 tons. The current construction project increased the central plant capacity to 1,400 tons and included installation of one new 900 ton chiller, a three cell 2,400 ton concrete cooling tower, three new condenser water pumps, three new chilled water pumps, a flat plate heat exchanger, a centrifugal separator and a combination air/dirt separator. The chilled water distribution system was converted from a primary pumped system to a primary/secondary pumped system. The design also required relocation of the existing electrical room to properly coordinate new and future equipment space requirements.

The capacity of the new cooling tower structure eliminated the need for the existing cooling tower therefore eliminating complaints surrounding its location.