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Time & Life Replacement Chiller Plant
In the initial design, the dual drive machines were to be rated at 2100 tons, however, the gas engine was a much larger industrial engine and we had reservations concerning noise. Since the configuration included a 1500 ton steam turbine unit and the peak measured demand had never exceeded 5400 tons, it was felt that there would be adequate capacity available with the smaller dual drive 1850 ton machines. The total installed capacity of the new plant is 7300 tons, i.e., theoretically, the 1500-ton steam machine is spare.
 Plant Block Diagram Recently, some tenants have asked for additional chiller capacity, which reduces the spare. As a result, the upper existing plant may not be decommissioned immediately since it could be upgraded at some future date to provide additional chilled water capacity for potential future users by adding new process risers.
The new configuration with three energy sources provides the operating engineer with maximum flexibility. Modern equipment is also more efficient than existing equipment and by base loading the plant with the gas engine units operating during peak demand periods and using the electric drives during off-peak periods, our calculations indicate a potential annual energy savings in the order of $650,000 over the existing plant. We are now looking at refining the operation of the plant to utilize the new rates and believe that the annual savings will increase.
The use of electric drive and steam turbine drive for chillers is common practice. The use of gas engine driven chillers, particularly in a high-rise city building is unique.
It should be noted that we utilized the experience and technological expertise of several firms to work with us. These were RWDI, based in Toronto, Canada for engine exhaust sizing and the effect of engine exhaust gases on surrounding structures; Shen Milsom Wilke, Inc., a New York firm for acoustic/vibration; and Ambient Labs, who filed the environmental documents with New York City and State.
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