Our six-part series on the Design Assist project methodology highlighted how the approach accelerates system optimization and other benefits. This happens in part by fostering collaboration and enabling earlier, more informed decisions among all project stakeholders. This ensures that the owner achieves the optimal balance of schedule acceleration, labor de-risk, and cost certainty.
How does the Design Assist approach reap real-world benefits? Here are four examples:
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Central Utility Plant: Epsilon was engaged early in the design process to provide input on the best strategy for modularization and prefabrication, and to design the Central Utility Plant (CUP) to accommodate the unique nature of the process chilled water loads. This early engineering effort included a detailed evaluation of trended process load data, which enabled the team to reduce the total plant capacity from over 1,500-tons to just under 1,000-tons, resulting in savings of over a million dollars in capital costs.
In addition, Epsilon’s engineering team reconfigured the system by relocating a 45,000-gallon thermal storage tank. This change was critical to providing reliable, stable, and consistent chilled water utilities by maintaining steady leaving water temperatures and helping to reduce the total required capacity.
Medical Center Central Utility Plant: Epsilon was selected and engaged early in the conceptual design process to collaborate with the owner, engineer, and construction manager, ensuring the best path to meet the CUP’s stringent demands for a 24/7 hospital.
System optimization included the innovative utilization of water-to-water heat-pump-style chillers in concert with dual-fuel boilers, providing hospital staff with the flexibility to generate hot water using three energy sources: oil, natural gas, or electricity.
Additionally, Epsilon’s full enclosure was structurally rated, enabling the cost-effective placement of cooling towers on the roof of the plant, which helped limit the amount of valuable site area required for the CUP. The modular CUP’s classification as an ETL-listed factory-fabricated unit meant it was considered a piece of equipment, rather than occupiable square footage, allowing the client to use that equivalent space for critical patient care services.
Resort/Casino Central Utility Plant: Epsilon was engaged by the owner and project team to design and build a modular CUP on a fast-track schedule to support the casino’s continuous 24/7 operation. The Epsilon CUP design featured built-in scalability for future needs, including specific capacities for chilled water, hot water, and data center cooling, with space and piping to accommodate significant future expansion in each area.
Operational optimization was achieved through an Epsilon Central Plant Control (ECPC) system, utilizing a robust Allen Bradley Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) platform. This system sequences all major equipment and incorporates sophisticated algorithms to optimize the sequencing and speed of fans and pumps in conjunction with real-time power monitoring. The selection of this industrial-grade PLC-based platform with redundant network architecture and power supplies ensured reliable performance for these critical systems.
Airport Hotel Central Utility Plant: Epsilon was engaged to overcome a myriad of design, site, and schedule-related challenges in converting an iconic airport terminal into a hotel complex, using the Off-Site Construction (OSC) approach. Significant technical optimization was realized as the Epsilon CUP was designed to deliver 1 MW of power generation, along with chilled water cooling and hot water heating, which enabled the entire hotel complex to operate “off the grid” due to limitations on the available electrical infrastructure.
The aesthetic optimization challenge was met by designing and building each module of the Epsilon plant as a trapezoid, instead of the traditional rectangular shape. When assembled on the roof, these trapezoidal modules created a unique curved CUP that matched the architecture of the adjacent Flight Center and the new hotel wing.
There’s a reason we tout the benefits of the Design Assist approach, particularly when paired with Off-Site Construction and Epsilon’s experienced engineering team. These are just a few examples of realized benefits. Contact Epsilon today to discuss your project and whether Design Assist and OSC are viable options.
