P2S Magazine Issue 3 | Page 9

San Diego State University, Main Chiller Plant Upgrade Project Overview This $12 million project included the installation of two new 1,200-ton centrifugal chillers, cooling towers, pumps and a complete controls upgrade. The scope also included replacement of the existing main 12kV switching station that serves the west side of the campus, and the existing central plant, new electrical distribution within the plant and two 940,000-gallon TES tanks capable of delivering up to 22,000 ton-hours of cooling designed to serve as “Thermal Batteries” to help baseload the campus’ cogeneration plant. The plant was originally designed without optimum spatial considerations for maintenance of equipment. Our new design called for maximizing the plant’s potential capacity using the existing building space efficiently, while integrating with the existing piping layout. Our team realized that there were different sets of as-built drawings for renovations spanning several decades by different contractors. Instead of basing our model from these sources, having to make multiple field visits to verify accuracy, we used 3D laser scanning to get real-time data to create a highly accurate BIM model in Revit MEP. The construction drawings were then prepared based on the MEP model providing a coordinated model that helped limit the construction costs and meet the aggressive project schedule to restore chilled water services in a timely fashion. 9