The Oregon State Board of Higher Education approved $34 million for the University to begin construction on upgrades to the campus physical plant, which provides the school with cooling, heating and electricity.
The project begins this month, and the budget is expected to reach nearly $80 million, according to the University proposal presented to the board. That would make the physical plant updates the third-most expensive project in University history.
The board allocated the money at its Sept. 5 meeting, per the request of the University. The approved $34 million will fund Phase I of the project, which will be completed in fall or winter of next year, said Jeff Madsen, utilities and energy project manager for the University.
Madsen said that during Phase I, the chiller system and electrical power system will be updated and replaced. The chiller system is the system of water tanks, coolers and pipes that deliver cooled water to campus buildings to provide air conditioning.
The new chiller set-up will be more environmentally friendly, explained engineer Jim Jenkins, who works for Wood Harbinger, Inc., the Bellevue, Wash., firm that is designing the updates to the power plant. The new chiller tanks will be smaller and more energy efficient, and by cooling with air, the tanks will eliminate heat pollution in the Millrace, Jenkins said.
Jenkins said while the Wood Harbinger team designed the new system, it had to keep in mind the projected expansion of the University campus during the next 40 years, the length of time the University said the new system would need to last.
The current chiller system contains four chillers that are connected to the campus by a system of pipes. Green pipes pump cold water from the Millrace to the plant to cool the water in the tanks, and white and blue pipes carry the cooled water to campus buildings, co-generation engineer Paul Langley explained.
The water system is closed, Madsen said, meaning the same water circulates forever, taking heat from buildings and returning to the chiller facility to be cooled back down. When extra water is needed, it is provided through the Eugene Water & Electric Board, he said.
Madsen said the new chiller system will be located in a separate building and contain six new, smaller chillers. It won’t be cooled with Millrace water, but instead will be cooled with outside air.
The most immediate consideration for Jenkins and his colleagues was the upcoming addition of the new education building and basketball arena on campus. According to information provided to Jenkins by University sources, the two buildings will total an extra 525,000 square feet that will need to be air conditioned with chilled water.
While only six new chillers will be installed by next fall, Jenkins said the building was designed to hold eight, so the University would be able to expand the system in tandem with the expanding campus.
The other aspect of Phase I is the creation of a University electrical substation, Madsen said. The new substation “will allow us to accept more electricity from EWEB,” he said. It will also make the electrical system more reliable because more back-up power will be available. In addition, the new power plant would be able to produce 33 megawatts of power on its own, in comparison to the 10 megawatts the current generators can produce, Madsen explained.
Langley, who runs all the equipment in the power plant, including chillers and generators, said he is excited about the new infrastructure.
Of the current system he said, “It’s kind of like right now driving an old 1970s car.” The boilers and generators date back as far as 1955, and the chiller system was installed in the mid-1980s. Langley said the old equipment is prone to problems and inefficiencies, and finding replacement parts is expensive and difficult.
While the project is decidedly expensive, Langley and Madsen both said it is worth the investment. University Senate President Paul van Donkelaar agreed. He said he hasn’t heard a lot of discussion about the project, since the idea was actually approved two years ago.
However, van Donkelaar thinks the silence on the issue is indicative of positive feelings on the part of the Senate. He said infrastructure and maintenance are both issues that need to be addressed, both on campus and around the United States. He added that a more efficient power and cooling system is important since the University prides itself on sustainability.
“This is a vital project,” van Donkelaar said. “This is a good thing that needs to be done.”
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