Dallas College was in the process of adding four buildings to its Mountain View Campus, including a Nursing and Allied Health Building designed by DFWCGI, and was unsure if the existing central utility plant had the capacity to support this growth.

DFWCGI performed an initial capacity assessment for the entire campus, including load forecasts for the four new facilities and 10 other future master-planned facilities. We determined the existing central plant would be short of both heating and cooling capacity to support the new buildings, let alone the future master-planned buildings. From this, DFWCGI developed a new satellite energy plant concept that provided additional capacity for the campus and will allow for construction of the four new facilities, including the Nursing and Allied Health Building.

The satellite plant itself was designed to support up to 2,500 tons of additional campus cooling capacity and 6 MMBtu of heating. Day-one deployment included 500 tons of cooling capacity and 2 MMBtu of heating. Equipment pads, conduit pathways, and spare breakers were installed for quick future equipment additions during the next bond funding cycle when more buildings will be constructed. Similarly, the cooling tower yard steel was designed to accommodate two more cooling tower cells. Strategic valving was furnished on day one so that equipment can be added without the need to the system offline. BMS controllers were specified to allow for MEP equipment additions without the need for controller replacements.