West Campus CHP Plant

The West Campus is interconnected to the East Campus through two 69 kilovolts (kV) tie lines down Roosevelt Road that allows a high degree of flexibility and reliability between the two campuses. Power is distributed at 12  kV and stepped down to 480 V at building level.

The West Co-Generation Power Plant supplies steam and electrical power to the west campus including UIC Hospital, academic, research, medical, and athletic facilities. The west plant houses three 5.1 MW Wartsila engine-generators and three 7.2 MW Solar Taurus turbines.

Steam is provided to the West Campus buildings via a looped underground distribution piping system and returned as condensate eliminating water waste and maintaining its high heat content. The plant currently has four (4) operable boilers and three (3) operable waste heat-recovery steam generators. Steam at the plant is maintained at 145 pounds per square inch gauge (psig).

The chilled water plant currently provides chilled water-cooling to a variety of buildings on the west campus via the west looped underground distribution piping system. The chilled water plant has an installed rated capacity of 15,000 tons of electrically based chilled water generation. The plant includes a total of five (5) three-cell, packaged, cross-flow cooling towers.

West Campus CHP Plant Equipment Heading link