Photo by Amy Beth Bennett

Ribbon ceremony marks plant opening

Yesterday marked the opening of The Central Plant with a ribbon cutting ceremony and open house. The event brought out more than 100 university administrators, staff, and representatives from the engineering, design, and construction companies involved in the project, despite the drizzle and cold weather.

The Central Plant, located at the base of Hardfact Hill, will provide a large portion of the campus with chilled and heated water.

In an interview after the ribbon cutting, Scott Charmack, associate vice president of physical planning and facilities management, said four buildings have benefitted the most from this plant.

The LA1, FO2, MH3 and the Technical Education Buildings now have air conditioning.

Although not all campus buildings are hooked up to the system, Charmack said evantually all buildings will.

"We have some small buildings on the south end of campus that we don't have a way to connect right now but the capability to do it later is there," Charmack said.

CSULB President Robert Maxson praised everyone involved in the project. Maxson, who arrived at CSULB at about the same time construction began, was impressed with the results.

"It's a strikingly gorgeous building that enhances the campus," Maxson said. He added that not only will students benefit from the comfortable temperatures created in the classrooms by the plant but also from cleaner air.

The power plant is expected to reduce pollution by 400 percent from previous years. Charmack pointed out that 77 percent of boilers previously used by CSULB for heating were beyond their useful lives.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District had previously warned the university of possible fines if the pollution problems were not solved.

Construction on The Central plant took more than two years to complete. The total cost exceeded $28 million.

The plant, which Charmack called the most modern of its kind in the nation, will operate in three modes.

The Regeneration mode activated at night will produce ice in storage tanks. The Chiller mode begins after the regeneration mode ends.

In this mode the electric chillers are used to meet demand for chilled water from 6 a.m. to noon. The Depletion mode will be activated during peak electrical demand from noon to 6 p.m.

Under this mode, the electric chillers will be off and the ice created overnight will then be used to chill the water. Charmack said these modes were designed to counter Southern California Edison's energy rates.

"We pay a real premium to use energy during their peak use hours and pay tremendously low rates during the off-peak hours," he said.

During the most costly electrical periods, the plant will use the ice generated during the low rate period to chill the water to defer costs. Charmack said he expects savings of about $200,000 per year although no official figure was available.

The water is distributed throughout campus by a 10 mile underground pipe system. A conventional water heating system comprised of new technological equipment is also in place at the plant.

Fine tuning of the ice generators is still needed. Charmack said he expects the system to be up and running 100 percent within the next two months. The Central Plant will be fully automated for unattended operation.