University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at DallasUT..
Year Submitted: 2005
Process: Electrical Generation
Industry: Educational Institution
Wastes Reduced: NOx, KwH, Oil
Location: Dallas TX
No. of employees: 5893
Contact: Valerie Shoup
Phone: 214/648-3866
Description:
The South Campus is located in a congested area in Dallas where there is a history of electrical outages due to the aging electrical infrastructure in Dallas. In 1998 the University purchased a power plant from a private entity that had serious environmental and mechanical equipment issues. This plant and its equipment provided the power, steam and chilled water to operate the facility. In addition it was becoming evident that the incoming Electrical Infrastructure was not sufficient to keep up with the campus expansion and load growth and could not maintain reliable power for the many research scientists. It was essential that the 4.5 MW Cooper engine continue running to ensure reliable chilling capacity was available to the South Campus research facilities. This aged engine was not environmentally clean and was starting to have some reliability problems of its own.
P2 Application:
There were several ways to meet the utility infrastructure needs of the university. The needs could have been met at a lower first cost by adding electrical feeders. The chosen path actually reduced energy consumption, increased electrical reliability, reduced NOx output, and had a good return on investment. Activities included conversion of two boilers to low NOx burners, conversion of inefficient to high efficiency lighting, installation of HV substation and electrical distribution, installaiton of generation switchgear, installation of two high efficiency chillers, installation of data management software system, utilization of new infrastructure to negotiate reduced price electrical contract for the UT system consortium.
Environmental Benefits:
The boilers are operating at 25 ppm NOx versus the allowable 30., the engines are operating at .85 lbs/hr versus 1.49 limited by law. The SCRs have expansion capabilities to add catalysts to further reduce NOx.
Total Cost Savings: $4,873,952.00
Details of Reductions
2,009,400.0 - KwH of
Electricity
Comments: Total cost of the project was $30,750,000. $1,313,000 in rebate money was received by the university for reducing KW and peak KWH. $4,535,055/year energy savings was realized based on KWH saved.
