Innovative T&D Project

Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC

A central utility plant services the convention center and provides heating, cooling, peak-shaving and emergency backup power. The project includes 10,500 tons of chilled water capacity, 50 million BTUs per hour of hot water and four internal combustion generators, which will supply a portion of the electric power directly to the facility during peak electricity demands. 

We conceived this innovative T&D resources and cost reduction facility, enabling the convention center to avoid millions of dollars in electric demand charges. We coupled the emergency power generation with the electric grid to shave peak facility demand. This was the first of its kind and scale, providing both innovation with lower investment costs and far lower peak costs for a highly cycled facility avoiding the highly weighted and which cost demand charges.
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The strategy allows the convention center to lower event costs and attract more conventions, and the local utility is able to save millions of dollars in smaller-sized, lower-cost electricity distribution.