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Central-Utility-Plant

NIH Central Utility Plant (CUP)

Boiler & Cogeneration Plant

The NIH Central Utility Plant houses five traditional gas- and oil-fired boilers and one gas turbine combined cycle that produce steam. Steam is needed for a myriad of NIH campus operations. These include space conditioning, hot water heating, medical equipment sterilization, autoclaves, animal cage and rack washing, dishwashing, and other process uses. The CUP generates and distributes ~ 2.3 billion pounds of steam per year to the NIH Bethesda campus buildings. The CUP's combined cycle gas turbine also generates 23 MW of electricity at an incredibly economic $0.04/kwh, which saves the NIH up to $14 million dollars in electrical costs each year compared to purchasing outside power.

Chiller Plant

The Central Utility Plant also houses twelve industrial refrigerant chillers that can produce up to 62,400 Tons of cooling (the equivalent of 30,000+ homes). Through the economy of scale, engineering ingenuity, and continued improvements due to the hard work of CUP personnel, that cooling is generated and transported at an average overall rate of 0.65 kW/ton, compared to the typical chiller plant rate of 0.8-1.0 kW/ton and the average household rate of 1.2 kW/ton. This feat of efficiency means that the CUP Chiller Plant alone saves the NIH approximately 90,000 MWh of electrical energy each year, or $12 million dollars in electrical costs per year compared to independent building package cooling systems.

The plant distributes utilities to NIH’s buildings underground via

2 miles of walkable tunnels
2 miles of concrete trench
Natural gas lines totaling ~ 3.6 miles in length
Domestic water lines totaling ~ 12 miles in length
Steam and chilled water pipe lines totaling over 7 miles
2 miles of underground compressed air lines
450 domestic water valves
300 manholes serving steam, chilled water, storm sewer, and sanitary sewer

This page was last updated on Jul 31, 2025

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