Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC)

Chilled-Water System Optimization
New York, N.Y.

Project cost 
$1.4 million
Time frame 

Project award for New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) study – August 2007
Feasibility study completed – February 2008
Design initiated – March 2008
Design completed – July 2008
Contract awarded – November 2008
Construction completed – July 2009

Practice areas involved 
District cooling systems
Key services provided 
Planning
System optimization
Design
Construction administration
Commissioning
Operations advice and training
The challenge 

World-renowned MSKCC, located in mid-Manhattan, has been aggressively expanding its facility and, as a result, experienced substantial cost increases for infrastructure costs, specifically cooling and power. Add to the challenge that mid-Manhattan’s electric power grid is overloaded, which drove NYSERDA to enforce an electrical peak-power-reduction program to ease the grid’s load. At MSKCC, four separate chilled-water systems across the campus proved to be a major draw on electrical power. The client urgently needed a review of the chilled-water system to discover how to simplify the system and reduce peak electric power use.

The smart solution 

As part of a feasibility study, WM Group conducted a detailed survey of site chilled-water generation, distribution and utilization systems, which revealed that all chilled-water plants were primary/secondary pumping systems with booster pumps. A hydraulic analysis by WM Group determined the system could be converted to a virtual central variable volume system by removing more than 30 pumps and reducing power peak demand by 1.1 MW. The project received a $580,000 grant from NYSERDA to convert the system to a variable-volume primary system.