Michael Phillis

Testing at the new central heating plant, which has been the source of loud noise around campus lately, is expected to continue for the next couple weeks as well as in March, according to project officials.

Currently four boilers and the combustion turbine generator are being tested. In addition to tuning the equipment, boiling and blowing the steam through the pipes also serves to clean them out, where rust or mill scale (a loose coating of ferric oxide that can form on certain metals when heated) could have formed.

“While we’re doing this we have to blow the steam into the atmosphere because if we sent it up to campus, then the load of steam force, which changes too frequently, would cause a system imbalance,” said John Mathews, assistant director for campus projects.

After the most recent series of testing is done, it will need to be repeated in March.

Right now the boilers are being tuned on natural gas, but once the plant receives its first delivery of fuel oil next month, the process will need to be repeated.

As for the frequency of testing, the steam load (and subsequent noise level) varies up and down throughout the day, but testing is halted around 7 p.m. each night.

In addition, the plant is working to coordinate their test times with spring sports such as baseball and tennis, so as not to disturb them during practice times. Mathews also noted that the plant is using a silencer to help soften the noise during steam releases.

The plant, which was originally slated to go online in March, now looks as if it will be fully operational around April.

“The actual construction is very close to being on schedule,” said Mathews, “So it depends on the environmental agencies, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and how long it takes them to issue our operating permits. It’s a lengthy permitting process.”

Upon its completion, the new central heating plant will replace the old plant which runs on coal. The new plant will be much more environmentally friendly, emitting five to seven times less greenhouse gases depending on the kind of greenhouse gas and the type of fuel burned. A unique feature of the plant is that it will treat and use effluent from the Amherst wastewater treatment facility in its steam production, thereby saving around 180,000 gallons of fresh water per day.

Efficiency in terms of energy production will also be vastly improved.

“It will have about twice the efficiency of a large, centralized power plant, because it uses advanced technologies for combustion, for pollution control, and for controls,” said Matthews. “And because it’s a combined heat and power plant, it produces electricity and steam at the same time, resulting in nearly twice as much energy per pound of fuel.”

The final cost of the project, which was budgeted at $118.7 million prior to the beginning of construction, is estimated to total $127 million.