Power Plant

Power Plant Products

Twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year, the 85 MW Power Plant provides the UT campus with all the requirements for:

• Electricity: Electrical power is generated at 12,000 volts and at 4,160 volts for distribution throughout the campus.
  
• Steam: Steam at 425 psi and 710 F is generated for use in the plant, and also for distribution throughout the campus at 170 psi to provide building heat, heat for hot water, and auxiliary services. Distribution steam is also used in steam turbines at Chilling Station #2 for the production of chilled water.
  
• Compressed Air: 100 psi air is provided for campus building and laboratory use.
  
• Purified Water: About 8 million gallons of purified water is provided to the campus for laboratory use.

Power Plant Organization

Power Plant personnel are organized in two major sections:

Operations Section

Operations personnel work 12 hour rotating shifts around the clock in the Power Plant. They monitor and control critical on-line equipment and place generating units into and out of service as needed.

Maintenance Section

The Maintenance Section is divided into three shops.

• In the Maintenance Shop, personnel provide virtually all the equipment maintenance in the Power Plant.
  This includes many of the major overhauls on the units, as well as preventive and corrective maintenance.
  Maintenance personnel fabricate and weld new equipment and process piping.
  
  
• In the Lab & Electrical Shop, personnel provide important quality control and technical support functions in the Power Plant.
  They install, calibrate and repair process instruments.
  They troubleshoot and repair electrical components on existing equipment.
  In addition, they install new equipment for control system upgrades.