Central Plant
Berea’s Central Plant, which replaced its old coal-fired heat plant in 2006, eliminated the annual use of about 4,000 pounds of coal. The Central Plant burns natural gas, with fuel oil as a back-up, and uses special insulated pipe that has helped reduce the energy loss in transfer from about 30% to less than 5%. The new system also reduced Berea’s gas use by 39% in the first year alone.
The new Central Plant has significantly reduced the amount of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions compared to the coal-fired heat plant. For example, production of sulfur oxides (SOx) decreased from 1.85 lb./mmBTU to 0.00057 lb./mmBTU, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) decreased from .070 lb./mmBTU to ~0. The Central Plant was also built to accommodate the possibility of future retrofitting it for cogeneration of electricity by capturing the surplus heat.
