New Plant Projected to Save College $12 Million

BUFFALO GROVE, Ill. — Chaffey College, a community college in San Bernardino County, Calif., awarded Siemens Building Technologies an $18.5 million contract to design and build a new energy-efficient central heating and cooling plant to serve its 20-building campus.

The new plant is expected to provide the college with more than $12 million in energy and operational savings over the next 20 years.

The new central plant will provide a chilled and hot water utility system from a central location on campus. The plant will be housed in a concrete building of about 10,000 square feet, containing two large boilers and chillers, cooling towers, pumps, piping and energy management system controls. The company will dig some two miles of utility trenches to connect piping necessary for the distribution of hot and chilled water, as well as data and electricity, from the plant to campus buildings. Included in the trenching will be a reclaim water loop that will allow the campus to use reclaimed water for irrigation purposes.

In addition, Siemens will replace the Freon-based DX-carrying coils in existing air-conditioning units with environmentally friendly chilled-water coils.