UC San Diego Main Campus Central Utility Plant Expansion

As part of its 30-year-long-range development plan, the University of California, San Diego expanded its central plant capacity to support the campus’s rapid growth. Salas O’Brien designed a new standalone 6,000-ton industrial-style central plant that integrates into the existing main
campus plant at Revelle College Area.

Our design included two 3,000-ton chillers and two 3,000-ton cooling towers, intended to accommodate a total future capacity of 12,000 tons, along with provisions for a 3.2-million-gallon thermal energy storage (TES) system. The additional capacity and acoustic treatment enable the plant to meet the campus’s growing energy needs for years to come. We utilized industrial-grade Allen-Bradley PLC controls to seamlessly integrate with the existing PLC system, allowing the plant to operate either in parallel with the main campus plant or independently.