Central Chilled Water Plant Expansion

Colorado College was expanding campus facilities and cooling loads were increasing. At the present time they had a central chilled water plant and several satellite chilled water plants dedicated to specific buildings. While these satellite plants were interconnected with the central plant system, several of the chillers were nearing the end of their useful life and utilized CFC type refrigerants. Therefore a master planned approach was needed 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 was located in the central part of campus with extremely limited expansion capabilities. Additionally, the current cooling tower location was a source of frequent complaints from faculty members as it blocked the view of the front range mountains. From a master planning approach, 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 extensive discussion, investigation and analysis, SEC proposed a bold new concrete cooling tower structure designed to blend in with existing campus facilities. The cooling tower structure was designed to house the condenser water sump, condenser water pumps, and centrifugal separator, thereby eliminating the space previously required for these items in the central plant. The architectural design also improved the campus aesthetics by eliminating complaints surrounding the old cooling tower location.

The project provided 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.