CSU Pueblo Energy Performance Engineering

SEC provided energy performance engineering for Colorado State University-Pueblo through an Investment Grade energy audit-driven Energy Performance Contract. The project spans three phases covering 10+ campus facilities with a total construction cost of $12,000,000. Johnson Controls Inc. served as the service provider with Robert Phillips as Project Manager.

The project replaced 18 boilers across campus with units achieving up to 96% thermal efficiency. Chiller upgrades include a 200-ton replacement at the Arts/Music Building using magnetic oil-less bearing technology achieving 0.28 kW/ton part-load efficiency, a 165-ton replacement at the Administrative Building, and modular chillers with magnetic bearing compressors at the Library Arts and Resource Center achieving as low as 0.1 kW/ton efficiency. All chiller selections were based on life-cycle-cost and NPV optimization.

The energy performance contract includes a 1 MW battery storage installation and integration of a 7 MW solar collector power plant with a 23-acre solar array. This made CSU-Pueblo the first university in Colorado to reach net-zero energy efficiency, demonstrating that comprehensive campus-wide energy performance contracting can achieve dramatic sustainability goals.