The South Steam Plant (SSP) provides critical steam service for the UChicago campus and University of Chicago Medical Center process and comfort heating needs. Safety, reliability, and efficiency are the governing priorities that drive every decision made by the University of Chicago Central Utility Plant (CUP) management team. In order to address all three priorities, the CUP recently completed a replacement of 341 aging fluorescent and metal halide lights with new LED vapor tight fixtures designed to operate in the harsh conditions of a utility plant. Brandon Stone, CUP Foreman, worked with lighting designers and installers to develop solutions that improved light levels in critical operations and maintenance spaces with input from CUP staff. 

LED retrofits address safety and reliability by improving light levels to meet or exceed Illuminating Engineering Society lighting standards in utility plant spaces. As a result, operators and staff can complete complex operations and maintenance tasks with optimal visibility in the workspace. LED fixtures also replaced failing fluorescent bulbs and ballasts and metal halide fixtures near their end of life with long-lasting fixtures designed to operate in harsh environments, resulting in significantly less maintenance effort and cost on lighting systems over the next decade-plus. 

Finally, LED lights reduced lighting energy use by over half. As a result of this project, electricity consumption was reduced by over 200,000 kilowatt-hours resulting in a reduction of 110 metric tons of equivalent carbon dioxide. This effort supports our commitment as an ENERGY STAR® Partner to improve institutional energy performance and will move the university closer to its goal to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.

More than 300 energy efficiency measures have been completed in University of Chicago campus buildings since 2009.  In addition, the University of Chicago is a proud ENERGY STAR Partner, working with the United States Environmental Protection Agency and our peer institutions to find ways to reduce higher education campus energy usage.  The goal of this program is threefold: (1) reducing our impact on the environment as our energy usage is about 75% of our total carbon footprint; (2) reducing our operating cost to free up funding for other campus maintenance needs; and (3) enabling our talented technicians to perform more critical tasks on a large and complex campus portfolio.