Houston Medical Center
New Central Energy Plant

• Location:
  Warner Robins, GA
• Size:
  11,400 sq. ft. remote CEP to feed the entire hospital with central utilities.
• Construction Cost:
  $13,600,000
• Status:
  Completed 2008

PerryCrabb Key Personnel:

• Mechanical: Jim Crabb, PE
• Electrical: Peter Andersen, PE

Owner Reference:

Challenge

Houston Medical Center is located in one of the fastest-growing counties in Georgia. The hospital needed to expand to serve this rapidly-developing community, but its previous chilled water, steam, and emergency power systems were located deep within the existing building. The hospital needed more power, heating, and cooling, but there was no room to expand the plant. Worse, the planned building expansions would strand the plant where major equipment could not be replaced. The proposed location for the plant was close to a residential area, raising concerns about community impact of the planned growth.

Solution

PerryCrabb developed a master plan for the campus MEP systems that called for a new, remote Central Energy Plant. The state-of-the-art plant consolidated the best of the existing prime movers with new equipment in building that was out of the path of future development. The innovative chilled water system uses a variable primary flow scheme to improve operation and maximize efficiency. Controls on the existing chiller were upgraded to take advantage of variable flow. Advanced high-efficiency chillers are base-loaded. Header systems and N+1 design improve plant flexibility and reliability. The emergency power system includes three 1 MW generators in an N+1 configuration. The system is designed to power a chiller during an outage to ensure patient safety. An extensive system of acoustical treatment for the generators and cooling towers eliminates acoustical impact to the neighbors.

Results

This new plant serves the existing hospital and the new additions, reducing energy consumption and maintenance costs. It is also ready to expand for future growth. Environmental comfort is maintained even when power is down. And, thanks to acoustical design and attention to detail, the neighbors cannot even hear the generators running.