In 2016, Georgia Institute of Technology received permission from the state of Georgia to enter into a guaranteed $7.7 million energy savings performance contract (GESPC) to tackle any energy and water conservation project it wanted — as long as the project could pay for itself within seven years.

Donald P. Alexander, P.E., Georgia Tech’s facilities design and construction institute engineer, and his project team, Greg Spiro, P.E., senior mechanical design engineer, and Ben Mason, associate director of energy, determined that the funding would make the greatest impact if it was spent on improving the efficiency of the university’s two chiller plants. He put out a call for vendors to explore every possible efficiency measure.