Montreign Casino Central Utility Plant

Challenge

Montreign Casino was building a new resort and entertainment campus in Monticello, New York. The campus would include a 90,000 sq. ft. casino, an 18-story luxury hotel, 27,000 sq. ft. of entertainment space, seven restaurants, and four bars. Given the need to support a continuous 24/7 operation, the project team knew that reliable cooling and heating utilities were central to the owner’s business model – to keep guests comfortable and critical data flowing.

Solution

Epsilon was engaged by the owner and project team to design and build a modular, prefabricated central utility plant (CUP) to serve this new campus.  Designed, built, and installed on a fast-track schedule, the CUP includes

• Chilled water:  3,300 tons CHW, including 1,000 tons of free-cooling chiller (with space and piping to accommodate another 1,150 tons)
• Hot water:  35,000 Mbtu/h HW boilers (with space and piping to accommodate another 10,000 Mbtu/h)
• Data center cooling: 260-ton closed-circuit fluid cooler to serve the casino’s networking infrastructure (with system capacity to add another 260 tons)
• All ancillary equipment (hydronic pumps, cooling towers, filtration systems, electrical distribution, etc.) along with all piping, conduit, and conductors to provide a fully functional system

Orchestrating the operation of all the equipment in the CUP is an Epsilon central plant control (ECPC) system, utilizing a robust Allen Bradley Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) platform.  The ECPC sequences all major equipment (chillers, cooling towers, boilers, pumps, etc.) as a system to meet the needs of the main facility.  It also incorporates sophisticated algorithms to optimize the sequencing and speed of fans and pumps in conjunction with the real-time monitoring of power (kW) at an equipment level.

The project team selected this robust industrial-grade PLC-based platform to control the CUP over more traditional commercial-grade controls to ensure the reliable performance of these critical central heating/cooling systems.  These PLC-based systems are distinguished by

• Central PLC processors that provide significantly higher availability – and lower mean time between failures – than traditional commercial-grade controllers
• Redundant network architecture
• Redundant power supplies

Epsilon’s ECPC interfaces with a JCI building automation system in the main facility via a BACnet pathway.  This interface enables operators to monitor the status of the CUP as part of their continual efforts to optimize the overall system.  Additionally, the ECPC in the CUP is also capable of operating autonomously as a stand-alone system, providing operating continuity in the event of a network outage.