Bethesda Campus Central Utility Plant (Bethesda, MD)

Department of Health and Human Services

Over the past 10 years, the National Institutes of Health has taken steps to reduce its energy use through gradual improvements to the Bethesda Campus Central Utility Plant. Projects have included replacing old, inefficient chillers with ultra-efficient, large capacity chillers; retrofitting oil-burning boilers to use natural gas as the primary fuel; replacing the utility distribution system with larger capacity lines to reduce heat-loss and chilled water operating pressures; and installing a 23 megawatt cogeneration unit that is 85 percent efficient. These measures have resulted in savings of nearly 10 million kilowatt-hours, 24 million gallons of water, and $1 million in annual energy costs.