Meeting enormous energy challenges comes with the territory for Recycled Energy Development (RED) Rochester, the utility that owns and operates the trigeneration heating, cooling, and power utility infrastructure for Eastman Business Park. Located in Rochester, New York, three miles from Lake Ontario, Eastman Business Park is a massive innovation hub that evolved from Eastman Kodak’s 1,200-acre photographic film manufacturing campus. Today, the campus houses more than 100 enterprises in 16 million square feet, an area equivalent to 277 football fields. Tenants consume massive amounts of electricity and multiple utility services, including chilled water for comfort and process cooling.
For process and comfort cooling at Eastman Business Park’s south campus, RED Rochester employed several steam turbine-driven centrifugal chillers — two for primary duty and one for backup — to provide 43°F chilled water. But, RED Rochester is always interested in reducing energy costs and its carbon footprint. When it came time to replace the backup steam-turbine chiller, RED Rochester was intrigued by a proposal about using an electric chiller made by Smardt. Estimates showed the efficiency of a Smardt centrifugal chiller with Danfoss Turbocor® magnetic-bearing compressors could cut $650,000 annually off the gas bill and reduce CO2 emissions by more than 23,300 metric tons, a huge economic and environmental benefit.