UCF Breaks Ground on New District Energy Plant

May 2, 2017

The ground-breaking ceremony was held on February 1, 2017 for the new university district energy plant. The $14 million, 9,830 square foot facility will ultimately provide 8,320 tons of chilled water capacity and 5.4 MMBTU of heating hot water. Half of the capacity will be installed immediately to meet the current campus needs, and the rest will be expanded as demand grows.

The chilled water will be interconnected with the main chilled water distribution system. High efficiency centrifugal chillers will be used to produce the majority of the chilled water, using a variable-primary pump configuration to minimize pumping energy and counter-flow cooling towers to reduce makeup water use.

Heating hot water will be generated through the use of heat recovery chillers, which will generate the remaining chilled water, and re-purpose the waste heat from the cooling process. The heating hot water will be served to the Research I building, which is currently under construction, as well as future high tech facilities in the area.

LED lighting will be used to efficiently meet recommended lighting levels.

The project is registered under the LEED® green building program. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED green building program is the preeminent program for the design, construction, maintenance and operations of high-performance green buildings. Learn more a tusgbc.org/LEED.

See more at UCF Today Construction to Begin on Main Campus New Energy Plant