Central plant under way

A central plant which will provide air conditioning and heating for Cal State Long Beach buildings, is currently under construction on Hardfact Hill.

The construction of the co-generation plant was necessitated by a change in regulations by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and the Environmental Protection Agency.

"Air quality, ozone depletion and other environmental concerns dictated we replace, or heavily modify, our existing boilers and chillers," said Scott Charmack, associated vice president of physical planning and facilities management.

"Failure to meet the SCAQMD requirements could cost $25,000 a day."

A commissioned study, performed by Brown and Coldwell Engineers three years ago, stated that the co-generation plant would be the most cost-effective means of conforming to the regulations.

"By putting the units in one location, we are able to use cooling strategies that are more practical than the dispersed [strategy] we have been using," Charmack said.

"Through thermal energy storage, we can make ice at night, which will be used to cool the buildings during the day," he added.

It takes less energy to produce ice at night that it does during the day. This process is less expensive and it will cut down on electrical energy.

"The plant has another benefit," Charmack said. Presently, if a boiler in the Student Services and Administration building goes down, there is no way to heat it up. Under this new scenario, the university would have the capacity to heat the building because the central plant has multiple units, Charmack said.

"The centralization [process] would also mean a cleaner plant that is easier to monitor and to run," he added.

Another way the plant's construction cuts cost is that it would not require the more costly modification of the approximately 80 boilers and 30 chillers currently being used, some of which are well beyond their usefulness.

Despite the plant's economic benefits, there was still opposition to its construction because the much-used walkway, Hardfact Hill, was displaced.

In view of this opposition, several measures have been incorporated into the plan. The plant has been constructed tucked in the hill to use as little space as possible.

"It's built not to look like a utility plant," Charmack said. "It's made to look like the University Student Union, complete with beams. No one would even know it's a generation plant."

Two walkways on the north and south side of the plant will connect East Campus Drive to Friendship Walk. These walkways have ramps and the outside of the building has an elevator, making it also accessible to physically-challenged students.

One interesting feature of the plant is its roof. Once completed, it will provide 13,000 sq. ft. of space that could be used as a venue for special events.

The plant, however, will not be able to serve the Carpenter Performing Arts Center, The Pyramid and the University Music Center because they are located too far from the plant.

"The north loop of piping (located near Engineering Building 3) has a corner that makes it possible to tie them [CPAC, EC and UMC] in sometime in the future," he said.

Though construction is a little behind in schedule, Charmack is optimistic that the plant itself will be finished by early spring of 1995 and the whole project will be successfully completed in June 1996.