Chiller Plants

Chiller plants are responsible for a major portion of the energy use in buildings and process facilities. The removal of heat using a refrigeration cycle is an energy intensive process. There are equipment options, system options and operational improvements that can greatly improve the efficiency of chiller plants. Bluestone's engineers are skilled at evaluating existing chiller plants and systems and identifying cost effective efficiency improvements.

Bluestone has designed and installed numerous efficiency upgrades in chiller plants including:

• Variable Frequency Drive (VFD) centrifugal chillers
• VFDs on chilled water pumps and cooling tower fans
• Efficient cooling towers
• Conversion of plants from steam absorption to electric centrifugal chillers
• Free Cooling plate and frame heat exchangers
• Improved Controls utilizing condenser water and chilled water temperature reset

Cabot

Bluestone's comprehensive analysis of Cabot's facility resulted in the design and installation of new efficient chiller plant including the use of a "free cooling" plate and frame heat exchanger. In addition, several other efficiency improvements were implemented including variable frequency drives on the primary and secondary chilled water pumps, condenser water pumps and root top units. The Building Automation System that Bluestone also retrofitted combined with more efficient heating resulted in additional gas savings as well.

Annual Electricity Savings: 1,200,000 kWh

Annual Gas Savings: 20,000 Therms

Utility Incentives: $300,000

Simple Payback: >4 Years

Please take a look at some of our other HVAC solutions on our case studies page.