| Utilities Overview |
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Texas A&M University Utilities (TAMU Utilities) is a division of the Physical Plant Department with utility plants and offices located on the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. TAMU Utilities manages a $1 billion utility infrastructure with production and distribution of electricity, chilled water, heating hot water, steam, domestic hot water, sanitary sewer service, storm water service, solid waste service, recycling and energy management services serving over 21 million gross square feet of facilities. The operation consists of a centrally located power and thermal production facility and three satellite utility plants. A combined heat and power (CHP) plant is operated at the Central Utility Plant (CUP) with the capacity to self-generate 32 megawatts (MW) of electrical power. Campus peak electrical load is over 70 MW with approximately two thirds of campus electrical power purchased on the open market. The ability to both self-generate and purchase on the open market provides greater flexibility to ensure competitively priced electricity and the unique ability to meet essential power requirements in the event of a regional power outage. TAMU Utilities utilizes district cooling and heating to supply chilled water and heating hot water to over 18 million square feet of facilities on campus. TAMU utility plant production capacity can provide over 40,000 tons of cooling. Capacity upgrades currently underway will increase this utility plant cooling capacity to over 50,000 tons by 2010. In 2007, the four TAMU utility plants produced and delivered 150 million ton-hours of cooling to the campus. Electrical power and thermals are distributed through an underground network serving the entire campus. TAMU owns and operates an extensive water production, transmission and distribution system that provides domestic water to campus. The production wells are located remotely and water is transmitted to the campus via redundant supply lines. Storage is provided in several above ground storage tanks and the centrally located elevated tank on campus. Current storage capacity is sufficient to supply the campus for 24 hours in the unlikely event of an emergency interruption of the water supply. The water supplied by TAMU Utilities must pass the same rigorous testing required of all major cities and is rated as a Superior system, which is the highest rating awarded by the State of Texas. In 2007, the operation supplied 1.7 billion gallons of water to the campus for domestic purposes and over 170 million gallons for irrigation. TAMU also owns and operates extensive sanitary sewer systems for both the Main and Riverside Campus. The Utilities Team manages all of the infrastructure as well as two waste water treatment plants that processed 750 million gallons of wastewater in 2007. Solid waste and recycling services are also provided by TAMU Utilities for the campus in College Station. The team managed over eleven thousand tons of solid waste and 750 tons of recyclable materials in 2007. In addition, TAMU Utilities provides energy management services for the campus including management of the automated building control systems for 18 million gross square feet of facilities, building commissioning services, utility metering/billing, and management of the overall energy use for the University. The Utilities Team has the ability to remotely monitor and schedule building HVAC systems to achieve high efficiency operation as well as promptly repair technical problems that arise. The energy management initiatives managed by the Utilities Team have reduced the overall campus energy consumption by over 20% since 1998. This reduction of total energy consumed occurred over the same nine year period that the campus gross square footage served increased by 22%. These improvements have resulted in $67 million of cost avoidance over the last nine years. |
