Wes Miller, a Managing Consultant with Helbling & Assoicates, interviewed Floyd Williams, a Senior Project Manager with Duke University, regarding construction of the University's LEED-certified East Campus Steam Plant. Floyd elaborates on the complexities of completing the project.

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Interview with Floyd Williams, Senior Project Manager with Duke University,
regarding the university’s new East Campus Steam Plant
‐ by Wes Miller and Sami Barry
Climate action plans have been initiated on university and college Was it known from the beginning that you were trying to get
campuses throughout the country. Duke University, one of LEED cer1fica1on?
Helbling’s long‐term clients, was a forerunner in implementing this LEED certification is a Duke goal on every project. We still haven’t
type of program. A major strategy of their plan was renovating a obtained that yet but we feel we have a good shot at getting LEED
1929 decommissioned steam plant to become one of the first gold certified. And, we think that this may be the first steam plant
energy efficient, LEED certified steam plants on a campus setting in in the country to get LEED certified because it’s a bit unusual.
the United States.
What extra steps did you have to take to get LEED cer1fica1on?
One of our consultants, Wes Miller, recently interviewed Floyd We had to track the materials coming out of the building – those
Williams, a Senior Project Manager with Duke, who has been that can be recycled and those that cannot and which items were
instrumental in overseeing the steam plant renovation for the being reused. One of the interesting things we did to get several
university’s facilities management team. LEED points was save an old tank that was suspended from the
ceiling of the building. We lined the interior, sealed it, and now use
Why did Duke University ini1ate this project? it to collect all the rainwater from the roof. The tank flows down to
The University was running out of steam capacity in relation to our the single lavatory in the building. With all the city rules and
growth projections. We were actually at the point of bringing in a regulations, we had to treat the water, run it through filters, and
temporary boiler and connecting it to put dye in it. It became very expensive, but
the steam tunnel that is just below the we did it and it works!
o l d s t e a m p l a n t , w h i c h w a s
decommissioned in 1976. A couple Can you describe the project for me?
years ago, we had RMF Engineering I always tell people this project was really
conduct a study to determine our two in one. One piece was building a steam
options and what they felt was the best plant but the other part was just as
option for building a new steam plant. important ‐ saving the old steam plant
Due to the infrastructure already being building and going through the necessary
there, the old steam plant was the best steps to renovate it to pristine condition and
location so we decided to renovate the get LEED certification. We installed all new
old building. windows to match the old ones, used the
same materials, ground out all mortar joints
What was your first step in ge;ng the project started? of the brick, re‐pointed all the brick joints and completely
Once we came to the conclusion to renovate the old building, the refurbished the smoke stack. We actually “saved” the building
next step was to assemble a design team. Since it seemed like it because it “told a lot of stories” as we got more into it. Tree roots
was more mechanical than architectural, we chose RMF as the lead were growing into the bricks and we certainly would have lost that
designer. They have a very good background in steam plant design, building in a few years if we had not done the project the way we
had a history with the university and they had done the preliminary did. The original building construction started in 1926, and it was
studies. So we brought them on board and began the process of commissioned in 1929.
selecting an architect.
The mechanical portion was complex. It entailed the installation of
It was a drawn out path because the building was one of the new boilers into a building that was already there. We had to be
original buildings on the campus designed by the firm of Horace very creative in making the building work. With the project being
Trumbauer. So, we felt it was historically significant to save the so unique, we assumed it would have a lot of visibility over the
building, and to get it back into good shape structurally and years. We needed to make sure that everything was well organized
esthetically. We went through a series of presentations with as far as piping layout and that everything looked good when you
various design firms and chose Smith Group. came in the building. We couldn’t just run conduit the way we
wanted. We had to think it through and we had a huge amount of
coordination drawing time.

2. How did you assemble a team for the project? In hindsight, would you have done anything differently?
A lot of effort went into selecting the design teams. There’s not There were a few people who I wish could have come on board
only mechanical interest in the building, but architectural interest earlier in the process. Mechanical systems have so many variables
as well. We chose the mechanical designer first and let them sit in in selecting pumps and other equipment and certain people have
on the different presentations with the architectural firms. We different preferences. I would have liked to have gotten the people
wanted them to be a part of the selection process and the two who will be doing the plant operations involved from the
firms worked well together. beginning, but they had not yet been hired by Duke when we
started design. After all, they’re going to inherit it when we’re
Another thing we did upfront was contacted the mechanical done.
contractor and essentially “married” them to Balfour Beatty, the
construction manager. We had a clause in the contract that What do you think from your career and experience provided you
allowed them to work directly with the mechanical design firm to the ability to make this project successful?
assist them with the design of the boiler system. I have many smart people around me. Certainly Paul Manning
[Duke’s Director of Project Management] is a key individual for
We hired another firm to facilitate the LEED process. If you put the guiding people in the right direction. I’ve got 30 years of
LEED requirement into the design contract, most of the time the experience in engineering and construction and a big part of my
company has difficulty doing it because they’re so concentrated on background is heavy construction. The first project I ever worked
the design. For LEED certification, there is a tremendous amount on was a nuclear power plant. I spent 5 years on it and didn’t see
of documentation so you really need a separate consultant for it. the beginning or the end of it because it was a 10 year project.
There’s so many different ways you can build teams and I think we Is the plant fully commissioned?
did a good job upfront of building the team that was right for this Not yet, but soon. Everything has been running since December
project. and we’re going through commissioning.
Can you describe the old boiler system versus the new? One thing didn’t work out the way we wanted it. The temperature
For a steam plant of this size, you would traditionally have 2 large in the building was very hot. The boilers emit more external heat
boilers and maybe a smaller one generating steam. They would than was estimated. They had figured on a 95‐degree day, it would
typically run on low fire all of the time to keep the water hot. be 100 degrees inside when it was actually about 120 degrees. We
had to add 2 exhaust fans in the roof and add louvers to the
We were in the design stage and had drawings showing larger bottom portion of 3 of the windows.
boilers. We were trying to determine how to orient them within
the building when a local mechanical contractor who was a sales I expect that you will have a lot people coming through to see it.
rep for a new type of boiler approached us. They demonstrated Yes, we have groups coming all the time wanting tours so we
the boilers and sold us on them. We wanted gas boilers, and we actually did something interesting to the front of the building. The
liked the technology and the idea of having smaller boilers, which front had 3 levels that used to be the engineering office and
would have far less emissions and that don’t have to be running all storage room. We took all the floors out and created a lobby that’s
of the time. These boilers can be completely turned off, and when 3 stories high with big arched windows on 3 sides.
turned on, they can generate steam in 10 minutes. We have 15 of
them that provide 144,000 lb/hour base load and you can turn on 1 We saved one of the 3 boilers that we removed from the building,
or all 15, depending on load demand. cleaned it up, sealed it and mounted it on one of the walls. We
have some of the old hatches displayed and tried to create a small
Our steam plant is currently the largest installation of this type of museum. Visitors can see what the boilers used to look like, and
boiler in North America. Since it was a new product, we were able some of the old components like valves and stokers. We have also
to get a 25‐year warranty on the boiler vessel, and that gave us a displayed some of the old photos of the plant while it was under
lot of confidence. They’re designed and manufactured in Japan. A construction. And, of course, we’ll have photos of the recent
few years ago, the company built a manufacturing plant in Canada construction.
which is where our boilers were manufactured. They recently built
a manufacturing plant in Georgia. And hopefully a place to hang your LEED cer1fica1on plaque?
Oh yeah, we already have a place picked out for that.
With the way you designed it with the smaller boilers, was it
more expensive? *Duke’s steam plant is managed by Russell Thompson, Director of
Actually, the 15 boilers were the same price or less expensive but I Duke Utility and Engineering Services. John Fidgeon is Steam
think piping 15 units versus 2 units may have added some extra System Manager who is directly responsible for plant operations.
costs. Be sure to read our Autumn e‐newsletter featuring an article on
carbon footprint reduction where Thompson elaborates on Duke’s
overall plan.
‐ Wes Miller has been a Managing Consultant with Helbling & Associates since 2005 and Sami Barry joined the firm in 1994, shortly after its inception. ‐