UAF Facilities Services planned preventative maintenance work at Combined Heat and Power Plant
In June 2023, UAF Facilities Services will perform planned preventative maintenance work at the Combined Heat and Power Plant. The work includes an annual inspection and cleaning of the boiler, steam turbine generator, and associated equipment to ensure reliable operations for the life of the power plant. Given the size of the plant, the work usually takes approximately three weeks to complete. During this period, FS Utilities will utilize alternate, backup power and heat sources to keep the Troth Yeddha' Campus operational.
During this year's planned activities, Facilities Services will be accomplishing additional critical utility repairs and addressing several deferred maintenance projects. These projects will affect several utility systems across campus.
- June 1-4 (four days): Deionized Water supply to campus will be curtailed. A water
treatment system that supplies the DI water to the power plant boilers and to campus
for research use, requires replacement. Since the boilers will be offline during the
planned maintenance work, this will be the one window to move ahead with the system
replacement.
- June 1-3 (three days): The power plant will not produce low-pressure steam for heating
or hot water production on the Troth Yeddha' campus. Major maintenance on the two
steam lines that leave the power plant and feed all the campus buildings, requires
a complete shutdown for repairs. The outage is required to install two temporary boilers
that will provide steam sufficient for hot water production only in critical housing,
the Wood Center dining area, Bunnell House, Whittaker (Fire/EMS), Patty Center, and
the SRC. With the temporary boilers in place, the main power plant can remain off-line,
for steam production, from June 1-15 (approximately) as the critical steam line repair
work is completed.
- June 1-15 (approximately): There will be no chilled water for comfort cooling. Due to the steam outage, the three steam-absorption chillers will have to be offline. The affected buildings include Murie, Irving 1, BiRD, Virology, and the UA Museum on West Ridge and Rasmuson, Duckering, Brooks, Engineering, Signers, Wood Center, and Gruening on the east side of campus. During the outage, FS will do everything possible to maintain comfortable temperatures in the buildings. Some buildings in this list have backup chillers that will be able to supply the building for space cooling.