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    University of Florida Central Utilities CHP project moving forward without Local Utility

    Jan. 3, 2022
    UF Facilities Services says the proposed gas-fired plant would save more than $13 million a year in combined heat and power costs and reduce carbon emissions by 80,000 metric tons a year
    Rendering credit University of Florida Facilities Services
    U Florida Energy Facility Facade 61d32f51598ee

    By Rod Walton, EnergyTech Senior Editor

    The University of Florida is banking on a new gas-fired central utility power plant for its Gainesville campus which would save more than $13 million a year in combined heat and power costs and reduce carbon emissions by 80,000 metric tons a year.

    But the campus utility leadership’s real heavy lift may be its own student body and other environmental advocates protesting the project. And at least one or two local utilities apparently are out of the running to build it.

    A news report by the Gainesville Sun indicated that Gainesville Regional Utilities and Duke Energy did not make the shortlist of candidates to build the planned CHP & district heating power system.

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    The University of Florida Facilities Services unit utilizes cogeneration power to supply heat and power to more than 130 campus buildings. The new on-site facility would use natural gas to power generation and excess heat for campus needs.

    The university plans to end its long-term contact with the current steam provider. Local utility Gainesville Regional Utilities hoped to join Duke in developing a new power system for electricity and heat, but was informed by UF officials month that its submission was not a finalist.

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    “The combined heat and power approach will provide several benefits to the university. By rightsizing cogeneration capacity, peak demand will be able to be met while allowing for an aggressive payback timeline on the initial project investment,” UF’s Facilities Services website page on the project reads. “In addition to the benefits regarding steam and chilled water production, electricity produced as a byproduct of the plant’s operations will allow UF to offset electric demand providing cost savings and the ability to provide backup utilities for prime research needs.”

    Dallas-based Jacobs Engineering is the university’s technical consultant on the project.

    The on-campus CHP plant, once operational, would deliver a 25-percent cut in annual greenhouse gas emissions (compared to the current state) and provide 50 years of energy resiliency and security for the university, according to the project web page.

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    (Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can reached at [email protected]).

    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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