University of Illinois, Oak St. Chilled Water Plant

Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

The National Center for Super Computing Applications (NCSA), located on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, constructed a large-scale super-computing facility, known as the Petascale Computer Facility project.  This facility generates a heat load in excess of 5,000 tons and  is cooled by the campus central chilled water system.

The location of the Petascale Computer Facility at the southwest edge of campus was beyond the reach of the current chilled water distribution system.  Thus, it was necessary to extend chilled water piping from existing mains to the project site.  Additional central campus cooling capacity was also required.  A large-scale Thermal Energy Storage (TES) system, with chilled water storage tank and associated pump house, was designed to meet the Petascale demand load while simultaneously increasing system redundancy and significantly decreasing energy cost.  Comprehensive system modeling was completed, allowing the design to maximize the capacity of existing systems and defer the need for future chillers.  

Henneman Engineering was responsible for leading the design of the chilled water system expansion. Henneman provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, and structural design services.