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.
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