October 17, 2006 News Media Release

On-Site Plant of the Future Dedicated in Austin, Texas

The most efficient and comprehensive on-site generation plant available today was dedicated this morning in Austin, Texas.

The Austin Energy 4.3 megawatt (MW) "combined heat and power plant" will be capable of providing 100% of the electricity, heating and air conditioning necessary to operate the new Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas.

This capability will make the 475,000-square-foot hospital one of only a few in the nation capable of maintaining full operation should the electric grid fail. The hospital, which is currently under construction, plans to open in 2007.

"This plant represents leading-edge technology that addresses the triple goals of every city in America for energy reliability, homeland security and environmental stewardship," said Austin Mayor Will Wynn.

The generator in the plant, which runs on natural gas, also represents the first deployment of a highly efficient design produced from the Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Turbine Systems program. The result of the design is fuel use that is 20% lower than traditional methods of providing electricity, heating and cooling.

This level of efficiency is achieved in part because the hot exhaust from the generator is used to produce steam. The steam can be fed to the hospital for heating. But during summer it will be fed into an "absorption chiller" where, through a chemical process, the heat energy is used to chill water to 40-42 degrees. The chilled water is piped to the hospital and funneled through coils in air handlers. Air is blown across the coils to provide air conditioning to the building.

The efficiency of the $18 Million Mueller Energy Center is further maximized by an 880,000 gallon on-site storage tank. The tank allows water to be chilled over night (when electrical supplies are abundant) and stored. The chilled water in the tank is used to meet air conditioning needs during the afternoon, which frees up electrical capacity when demand for electricity is the greatest. The power plant, which has back-up electric chillers, will also provide chilled water to other customers within the former Mueller airport mixed use complex.

Meanwhile, the Mueller Energy Center has been sized so that at full operation, it can produce about twice as much power as the hospital will require.

"This will be the only hospital in Texas with an on-site power plant that feeds power back into the electric grid," said Chris Kirksey, Austin Energy Senior Vice President, Power Production. "The operation of this plant will provide invaluable experience to our company regarding the management of distributed generation within our generation mix and electric system."

Emissions from the Mueller Energy Center will also be far below those of conventional generation. CO2 emissions from the plant will be less than half those produced from traditional power plants and gas boilers. And the plant will produce almost no emissions of NOx and SO2. Regarding global warming, the lower emissions of the Mueller Energy Center is equivalent to removing 18-hundred automobiles from the road or planting 27-hundred acres of trees.

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For more information, contact Ed Clark, Public Information.
Phone: (512) 322-6514
Pager: (512) 802-2000