PROJECT SPOTLIGHT:

Big Changes at the
Central Power Plant

Many people see it every day, but few people know its true value to the University. Even fewer people probably know how sophisticated and high tech the equipment and its operators are becoming. We're speaking of the Central Power Plant, which provides electricity to central campus and all the steam used to heat and cool its facilities. U-M's power plant is a cogeneration plant, or co-gen for short. Co-gen plants generate both electricity and steam for distribution. In a regular power plant, large boilers generate steam that's used to power turbines that generate electricity. In a co-gen plant like ours, the steam used in the electrical generation process is captured and distributed, rather than consumed through a cooling tower. This makes our plant one of the most efficient and environmentally friendly plants in the region.

In the past year or so, our power plant has been receiving a serious makeover, taking an already great plant, and making it a state of the art plant. Among the changes: New underground fuel oil storage tanks were installed to replace the old ones, a new control system was completed enabling the Plant to go digital, and a new Boiler #6 was installed

UNDERGROUND FUEL TANKS

The fuel tank replacement was the first major job completed. In front of the Plant Services building behind the power plant, 12 fuel oil tanks are buried. They hold the fuel back-ups the plant needs in case there is a disruption of natural gas service to the campus. This is a critical feature of the plant that was in need of replacement in order to stay in compliance with newer underground storage tank regulations. Twenty old tanks were removed and replaced with 12 new 38,000 gallon tanks. This was a $2.5 million project that took about six months to complete. The entire parking lot was at one point dug up to complete the job. It was completed in Fall 1998 and the new lot looks great. The tanks will be serving U-M for at least the next 40 years.

NEW DCS INSTALLED

The completion of the new DCS, or digital control system, is a very significant change at the plant. A more sophisticated digital system was implemented to replace the old pneumatic and electro-pneumatic control systems that were in place. The new system installation started in 1996 and finished in 1999. The key feature of this new $6 million system is the new control room. Pictured here, the new control room will enable the Plant engineers to better monitor and control the plant's systems remotely. This new system will better track system statuses and analyze equipment performance more accurately. This will increase the plant's reliability and reduce down time. Greg Metz, Chief Engineer of the power plant, says "One of the things the new system can do is report the sequence of events when a piece of equipment or a system experiences problems. This is very helpful because it really reduces our time used for troubleshooting and diagnosing what happens in the plant. When we need to take corrective action, we can do it more quickly and efficiently thanks to the new control system."

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"When we need to take corrective action, we can do it more quickly and efficiently thanks to the new control system."
-Greg Metz, Chief Engineer.

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Here's the state-of-the-art control room.

It has required the plant employees to become more computer literate and learn an entirely new way of operating. "The new system really changes how we do our jobs," says Mike Pepper, Shift Engineer in the power plant. "We'll be able to do great things with the new controls and we're learning more every day." New technology has required all of to us learn in order to keep up, and the power plant engineers and mechanics are no exception. They have done a great job adapting to the new system.

BOILER #6 REPLACED

Perhaps the biggest project was the installation of Boiler #6.

Boilers are the workhorse of any plant by generating steam and powering the turbine generators. They are the reason we have a plant on our campus. Boilers generally have a useful life of at least 40 years and all eventually must be replaced. Last fall, a new boiler #6 was installed to replace the old one at a cost of approximately $10 million. The new boiler was manufactured by Foster Wheeler and will be capable of producing 265,000 pounds of steam per hour for the University. It will be the largest boiler the University owns, and the most air emissions efficient. It was important to have this boiler in place because it will carry a great deal of the plant's load during another project, which is the overhaul, or re-tubing of Boiler #4. This is being done to extend Boiler #4's useful life and maximize its reliability.

A lot of changes have been taking place at the building with the tall brick smokestacks. Next time you walk or drive by, maybe you can appreciate what it and its staff provide to all of us a little bit more.

- Steve Brabbs, U&MS