State Utility Plant Achieves Highest Possible ‘Green’ Rating

New steam heating plant improves overall heating system operating efficiency. Photo by DGS.

The Department of General Services (DGS) announced today that California's central utility plant has become the third state facility to receive LEED Platinum, the highest level of “green” building design certification awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. The central utility plant provides chilled water and steam to cool and heat 23 state-owned buildings in downtown Sacramento.

The facility, which replaced the original plant built in 1968, was designed and built to provide safer and more reliable heating and cooling to state buildings, expand capacity, improve energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. The plant features highly efficient gas-fired steam boilers along with cooling equipment outfitted with variable-speed electric chillers and cooling towers.

DGS estimates that this year alone, the state’s new plant has saved more than 4.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity and approximately $679,000, when compared to a plant of similar size, not built to the same ‘green’ standards.

The new plant also uses on-site renewable energy, including solar photovoltaic panels mounted in the parking area that generate power for the facility’s office and support areas, as well as domestic hot water.

In addition to the central plant, two other state facilities have achieved the Green Building Council’s highest certification level: the CalEPA building and the Department of Education building; both located in Sacramento. To date, approximately 50 state facilities are LEED certified.

The plant was constructed using the design-build method of project delivery in which one entity - the design-build team of Skanska USA Building Inc. - works under a single contract with the project owner - DGS - to provide design and construction services with the goal of reducing risks and overall costs.

Other construction partners included Sacramento’s Nacht and Lewis Architects, San Francisco's Flack and Kurtz, plus Lawson Mechanical and Redwood City Electric and a host of other designers and subcontractors working with the state and its major consultants, Capitol Engineering Consultants, Inc. and Lionakis Beaumont Design Group, and Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc.