Smith College Central Chilled Water Plant

Project Overview

Northampton, MA – The College’s central chilled water plant was originally constructed in the early 1960’s and has experienced several expansions and renovations with the most recent expansion in 2010. The plant now includes multiple centrifugal electric chillers and multiple steam absorption chillers capable of generating approximately 4,000 tons of cooling for the campus. The steam absorption chillers were added during the last upgrade and integrated with the College’s combined heat and power plant, which generates up to 3,200 kW of power through a natural gas turbine. The retro commissioning services include reviewing and identifying system operational issues, addressing current performance issues and implementing additional energy conservation measures. The measures included additional variable flow pumping, condenser water temperature control optimization and variable flow control for absorption chiller base loading. These measures resulted in $52,000 in annual energy savings for the plant.