Showcase Projects
Marine Corp. Air Station Miramar

Although Marine Corps Air Station Miramar's primary mission is to support aircraft operations, pilots and aviation Marines are only part of what keeps the West Coast's premier air station up and running. Miramar is quite literally a city within a city. The 23,000-acre air station features a shopping center, restaurants, fire and public works departments, and many other facilities used in day-to-day life.

With an annual energy expenditure approaching $6 million, a long history of environmental responsibility, and a strong commitment to conserving resources, Miramar is taking a key step to reduce its energy costs. A thermal energy storage system that will result in a projected yearly savings of $250,000-plus is under construction at the air station and will be operational in about three months.

Building this high-efficiency chilled water plant has University crews hard at work. The project began with the removal of seven existing air-cooled chillers, pumps, and piping. We are replacing these with two 200-ton water-cooled screw chillers, two induced-draft cooling towers, glycol and chilled-water pumps, interconnected chilled-water and glycol piping which we fabricated, and 15 ice-storage tanks.

Once online, this plant will run the two new chillers during nighttime hours only, when energy rates are lowest, pumping 25-degree glycol to the ice-storage tanks to freeze them. During daytime hours, when energy rates are higher, the new chillers will be turned off, and the glycol in the ice-storage tanks will be pumped back through the heat exchanger to cool the chilled-water loop. This will provide cooling for four large buildings at the air station.

Miramar's commitment to energy-efficient technology continues the Marines' tradition of upholding the highest standard of operations, just as University's participation in this project continues our tradition of constructing cutting-edge facilities.

The MCAS Miramar Team:
Construction manager: NORESCO
Mechanical engineer: G.E.M. Engineering
Prime mechanical contractor: University Mechanical & Engineering Contractors
University project manager: Dan Hirst
Piping foreman: Jim Davis

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