Heritage Snapshot: Part 207

By Richard Schaefer In 1986, the Loma Linda University Medical Center Board of Trustees voted to build a “Cogeneration Project,” with the “understanding that all entities using the power plant would agree to continue paying the present Southern California Edison rates until the debt for the purchase was paid in full.” The Board based their vote on a report that projected energy savings to be $4 million per year. Cogeneration simply means a process in which an industrial facility uses its waste energy for heating or other purposes. It has since become an endowment resource for Loma Linda University’s future. Back in 1912, the College of Medical Evangelists constituents voted to install Loma Linda’s first cogeneration plant: “That a central heating plant be installed according to the plans submitted; with two one-hundred-horse-power boilers and direct connected dynamo [electricity generator] and engine with a probable cost of $15,000. Seventy-six years later (1989), Loma Linda’s progress called for a new, $15 million cogeneration power plant. It provided 100% of the electricity, steam, and hot and chilled water needed to operate Loma Linda University and the Medical Center’s 1.5 million square feet in 20 buildings. In ten years, it paid for itself in savings from projected Southern California Edison charges. The square, two-story, windowless building, operated by a staff of 15, provides the University and Medical Center with an efficient and environmentally sound source of electricity. University administration first explored the possibility of generating electricity in the 1970’s. The University purchased two steam-turbine generators in 1979. Since they were capable of producing almost 20% of the institution’s needs, these machines alleviated some of its electricity demands during peak periods of operation. In the fall of 1980 the Southern California Gas Company awarded Loma Linda University it's Commercial Concern Award for good energy management. Even then the facility saved the institution $11,800 annually. By the mid-1980s, rising costs and sharp increases in the demand posed a double threat to the institution’s operational costs. The proposed Schuman Pavilion, Children’s Hospital, and Proton Accelerator were projected to increase the demand from a maximum of 7,000 kilowatts of power to 10,800. Concerned, University officials met with Southern California Edison and learned that the costs for purchasing this increase or paying Edison to establish additional power sources would be enormous. In order to address this dilemma, Physical Plant Director John Kriley prodded Loma Linda officials to study alternative solutions. After three years they concluded that Loma Linda should construct and operate its own power plant. Construction on the Loma Linda cogeneration power plant concluded in late 1989. Because Loma Linda engineers and construction teams had built the facility, anyone touring the immaculately clean and high-technology complex notices an unmistakable air of pride among those who operate it. The facility is called a cogeneration power plant because, in addition to generating electricity, it also produces up to 120,000 pounds of steam per hour for heating, air-conditioning, sterilization, and making hot water. Two 8,000 horsepower, Allison 501 gas turbines, turboprop engines similar to those powering the Lockheed C-130 Hercules aircraft, produce 10.4 megawatts of electricity, at the time, enough to meet the institution’s energy needs. They are modified to turn a reducing gear that drives a generator, instead of turning a propeller. Engineers further modified the turbines by superheating and re-injecting the steam produced by the engines’ exhaust. This modification increased their power output by 50% and their generating efficiency by 37%. The project has become a financial windfall. Excess electricity is sold to Southern California Edison. The cogeneration plant not only has curbed expenses from purchasing electricity at today’s market prices, but it will also avert the rising costs of electricity in the future. The cogeneration plant is an often unnoticed and almost-taken-for-granted component of Loma Linda’s infrastructure. It has, however, generated significant attention in engineering and power industry circles. National Engineer, the journal of the National Association of Power Engineers, lauded the facility’s advanced technology. The Allison Corporation, which manufactured the turbines, touted the Loma Linda complex as its model for cogeneration. More importantly, those responsible for planning and implementing the facility see God’s hand in its construction and development. Stanley Berger, at the time manager of the plant, referred to the tremendous cost and technical complexity required to implement the project, and observed: “One would not think a comparatively small institution like Loma Linda could do this. But so many people were committed to the project, from General Conference leaders to construction workers here at Loma Linda. Only at an institution committed to the Lord’s work could such a project have been pulled off so quickly and so successfully.” University engineers connected the cogeneration plant with a complex, 4,408-foot, system of walk-through utility tunnels (built in 1976 and 1977). They provide facilities for well-insulated steam, and hot and chilled water pipes. In 1981, these underground facilities were estimated to save the institution $500,000 annually in energy costs. Loma Linda University construction crews later added another 966 feet of tunnels to support utilities in the Children’s Hospital and Proton Treatment Center. Today, the cogeneration plant and more than one mile of underground tunnels are believed to save the institution an estimated $2.5 million annually.