OUCooling in Orlando, Florida - American Standard

1 OUCooling orlando , Florida orlando District Cooling Utility Quickly Becomes Florida 's Largest W e identified district cooling as an opportunity to expand our services. With utility deregulation we needed to diversify. According to Keith Rice, this was the motivation for the City of orlando Utilities Commission to become involved in district cooling in 1997. Rice is director of chilled water services for the district cooling corporation. Today the commission operates the largest district cooling operation in Florida , using electric centrifugal chillers to serve eleven chilled water customers in downtown orlando with over 4,500. tons of chiller capacity. The system is expected to grow to 10,000 tons within five years. The orlando electric system is the second largest locally-owned electric utility in Florida and the 16th largest in the nation.

2 It serves the entire city of orlando and parts of unincorporated Orange County. The utility operates an 850-megawatt (MW) thermal electric generation facility and provides retail service to 180,000 retail accounts. CNL Building Current Trane centrifugal chillers are particularly we operation because of their multi-stage design and use Summary of EarthWise According to Rice, the motivation to 6,600 tons of centrifugal chiller Design Features move into district cooling was to capacity. The chillers selected for this High chiller efficiency provide enhanced utility services to facility were five Trane Model CVHF. Low temperature chilled water long-term commercial and industrial CenTraVac chillers. Three of the Reduced chilled water flow accounts.

3 We wanted to retain these machines are rated at 1,500 tons and customers to provide services so two at 1,200 tons each. Rice describes Result: valuable that they'd never leave us. In the OUCooling 's role: We provided 1. Reduced plant piping and pump Florida , chilled water service seemed financing for all of the facility and investment logical. The district cooling entity is took over the operating responsibility 2. Dramatic reduction in lifetime named OUCooling and is governed by when the facility became operational system operating costs a management committee. in 1998.. 3. Improved comfort Immediately after formation of the 4. Enhanced control and At the same time, OUCooling was entity, OUCooling began developing investigating the market for district performance documentation markets.

4 Cooling in the downtown area. There were several buildings then under Lockheed Martin First Customer construction and others with chiller An early opportunity was the plants of varying ages that were Lockheed Martin Corporation, which believed to be potential customers. has extensive operations in 11. The first downtown customer to sign buildings on its suburban orlando with OUCooling was the headquarters campus. A central chiller plant was building for CNL Corporate Properties, cooling the buildings, using Inc. This new 12-story building was equipment up to 40 years old. under construction and had a firm OUCooling contracted with Lockheed requirement for chilled water in Martin to build a new $ million February 1999. chiller plant building equipped with At the time the contract with CNL was signed, OUCooling did not yet have a chilled water plant although one OUCooling is located in the orlando Utilities was planned for a location adjacent Headquarters Building.

5 To the orlando Utilities Commission headquarters building, about a block from CNL. Construction of the chilled water plant was put on a fast track orlando City Hall, served by OUCooling . 2003 American Standard Inc. All rights reserved. OUCooling relies on Trane CenTraVac centrifugal chillers designed to deliver chilled water at 37 F (3 C). ll adapted to low temperature of precise electronic controls. with design-build contractor SI costs within the building. Current the customer site. The orlando Goldman from Longwood, Florida . Trane centrifugal chillers are commercial sales office of Trane Because of their successful particularly well adapted to low provides temporary chiller capacity experience with the chillers on the temperature operation because of through its ChillerSource.

6 Lockheed Martin project, OUCooling their multi-stage design and use of temporary cooling service. placed a rush order for three 1,200- precise electronic controls. ChillerSource has a temporary ton CenTraVac chillers from Trane. By the time the chiller plant building cooling equipment depot in nearby Rice indicates, We were impressed was complete, the chillers had been Taft, Florida , and is able to deliver air- with the Trane machines because of shipped and were scheduled for cooled or water-cooled equipment on their efficiency and their ability to installation. Another critical project short notice. deliver very low temperature chilled was installation of 16-inch (41 cm). Roster of Customers Expanding water. Reliability was also important, welded steel pipeline in a looped The new chiller plant was up and as well as Trane's proven ability to configuration to serve CNL and the running and the initial pipeline was service equipment here in the growing list of other downtown complete by January 1999.

7 As the orlando area. chilled water customers. The looped system developed, additional pipeline design is intended to Benefits of Low Temperature customers were signed. These now improve security and system Chilled Water include the orlando Utilities reliability. Our customers hold us to The chilled water system was buildings, the orlando City Hall, a a high Standard , which they should. designed to deliver water at 37 38 F large church, and the Orange County We designed a system from which (3 C), much lower than the 44 45 F Convention Center. According to Rice, they can depend on continuous (7 C) with traditional systems. These the roster of customers now numbers access to chilled water.. low temperatures are attractive to the thirteen accounts and will be larger In the trench with the chilled water by the end of the year 2002.

8 Utility because they reduce required pipe, the utility also ran investment in pipeline and pumps. Since the initial start-up capability of communication cable and optical Low temperatures also reduce chilled 3600 tons, the downtown chiller plant fiber to allow full communication water pumping costs. added 3300 tons of chiller capacity with the customer sites. Each From the building owner's perspective, including a large 2,400-ton Trane customer is equipped with a the lower temperatures allow more Duplex CenTraVac chiller. At some monitoring station to measure chilled effective dehumidification and reduce time in the future it is planned to add water temperature and flow. investment in piping and ductwork. an additional Trane CenTraVac Model Measurement is important because For building owners, there is a CVHF chiller, which will complete customers sign a 20-year agreement reduction in chilled water pumping development of the south downtown which charges based on chilled water plant at approximately 7,000 tons.

9 Usage and peak demand. Currently the charges are eight cents per ton- In addition to the Lockheed Martin hour plus $21 per ton-month for and downtown chiller plants, capacity. The customer is billed OUCooling also operates an 880-ton additionally for exceeding the centrifugal plant serving a timeshare contracted chilled water usage. The condominium project named Vistana contract allows customers to buy out in a suburban orlando area. Here the of the central service if future needs chilled water is piped to individual warrant it. fan-coil units in the private residences. This approach improves In the case of the CNL building, and reliability and comfort and frees up later projects, OUCooling provides a living space. bridge agreement whereby they will provide chilled water from temporary chillers until the pipeline can arrive at Chillers serving the downtown area are consolidated in a 7,000-ton central plant.

10 That's why we entered Making Owners' Lives Easier OUCooling 's growth in four years has According to Rice, the OUCooling been dramatic. Revenues of $500,000. service is attractive to building in 1997 are expected to grow to into this business in the owners for a number of reasons. $7 million in 2002, with significant Capital costs in new construction can additional increases in future years. beginning. And it is clearly be reduced without the need for a Just as important to the utility chiller plant. Fewer building operation commission is that its large electric paying off. and maintenance personnel are customers are receiving a service that needed. There is more room in the will help assure they stay in orlando building for its intended use.