University Central Utility Building Cooling System Upgrade
The campus was already producing the steam. The cooling system just couldn't use it. A steam turbine chiller closed the loop — turning a wasted CHP byproduct into the campus's primary cooling resource.
The campus's combined heat and power plant produced steam continuously — that's how CHP plants work. But the campus's cooling system, like most cooling systems, ran on electric-motor chillers drawing power off the grid. Two parallel energy systems, one ignoring the other. The CHP steam went unused. The grid bill kept growing.
This case examines a deliberately small but consequential intervention: installing a steam turbine centrifugal chiller in the central plant to convert existing CHP steam directly into chilled water. The architectural change is simple. The cost-structure change is not. The campus shifted a portion of its cooling load off the electric grid entirely — and onto a resource it was already paying to produce.
The challenge
The mismatch was not technical — it was architectural.
CHP plant generated steam continuously — a function of how cogeneration works
Existing cooling infrastructure had no path to consume it
Cooling load was met by grid-electricity-driven motor chillers
Two parallel energy flows operating without integration — recoverable resource untapped, electric demand unnecessarily high
Our solution
Replace one of the existing electric-motor chillers with a steam turbine centrifugal chiller — a chiller architecture that uses steam directly as its mechanical drive, rather than electricity. The CHP steam flows into the turbine, the turbine drives the compressor, chilled water comes out the other side.
Steam turbine centrifugal chiller installed in the central plant
Driven by CHP-generated steam — bypassing electric motor compression entirely
Integrated into existing chilled-water distribution loop with no campus-side disruption
Conventional electric chillers retained for redundancy and demand-matching
Key results & impact
A resource the campus was paying to produce — and previously letting go to waste — now powers a meaningful portion of the cooling load directly. Grid electricity demand for cooling shifted downward. Central plant economics improved without the addition of new generation, new grid contracts, or new infrastructure footprint. The intervention was a single chiller. The shift was systemic.
24/7
Real-Time Monitoring & Smart Dispatch
2,460–9,850 kW
Cooling Capacity Range
