Trigen / Inner Harbor East Central Heating and Cooling Plant

SVA provided the mechanical/electrical/plumbing (M/E/P) system design for the heating, cooling, and power generation plant serving high temperature hot water and chilled water for the entire 3 million square feet of multi-use space in several buildings at the Harbor East mixed-use development project. The plant will ultimately have capacity of providing 9,100 tons of cooling and 120 MBTUH heating capacity. The plant uses high efficiency centrifugal chillers and natural gas-fired boilers.

The plant was designed to be constructed in phases, to be built and expanded as various new buildings are constructed in the Harbor East development area. The plant layout was carefully designed so that new equipment is easily installed into the 10th story penthouse, as well as easily removable for replacement in case of equipment failure or upgrade. To accomplish this, space was carefully allotted for each piece of equipment including aisle ways, turn radiuses, and elimination of obstructions to allow movement of large equipment within the space; however, there was constraint to keep the space to a minimum.

To operate the equipment, 5 KV electrical distribution was designed. In addition, the project included a 2,000 KW natural gas turbine generator for peak shaving and a 1,000 KW diesel powered generator for life safety power for the facility and sale of emergency power to the office building and retail tenants. The natural gas turbine generator is used for peak shavings and is operated in parallel with the utility. Heat from the generator exhaust and generator cooling system is utilized to pre-heat heating water utilized for space heating, reheat and domestic hot water heating in the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront and Courtyard Baltimore Downtown / Inner Harbor hotel buildings. Part of the project involved providing the incoming service at 13,200 volts with redundant distribution throughout the building, including dedicated feeders to the 11,000 KVA heating and cooling plant.