The new center will house a control room, operations offices, support spaces, computer rooms, communications areas and a disaster-recovery coordination center. Once it is operational, the center’s staff will be able to work around the clock to provide customers and maintenance crews with technical support, conference and media support, as well as mechanical and electrical support.
“We designed the control center to be functional, efficient, reliable, secure and adaptable,” said Ellerbe Becket project manager Faye LeDoux. “In crisis situations, staff members using this building may be required to remain on duty for 24 or more consecutive hours, so it was also important that we create a space that will be comfortable and provide employees with the facilities and amenities they need to fulfill their job.”
Because the staff working in the building will often have non-traditional work schedules, features such as ergonomic seating, well-designed control consoles with individual HVAC controls and efficient workstations are critical to the center’s operations. Amenities such as an exercise room and indoor/outdoor break areas support employees in both crisis situations and everyday operations.
“Building reliability can generally be compromised in three major ways: interruption or failure of mechanical and electrical systems, structural failure in an extreme natural event, or a security breach,” said LeDoux. “We designed the control center to minimize risk in all of these areas.” The center’s electrical systems are engineered for 99.99 percent uptime and mechanical systems are designed for concurrent maintenance. The building shell is hardened with structural, wall, roofing and glazing systems resistant to winds of F3 tornado magnitude, and concentric circles of protection increase the levels of security with proximity to the facility.
The new control center is the newest in a long line of innovative steps CPS has taken to protect natural resources. In 1966, CPS opened a power plant that bolstered conservation efforts by cooling its boilers with treated wastewater, and in 1972, CPS was one of the first utility companies in the nation to open a centralized operations center. CPS’ dedication to environmentally friendly practices expanded during the 1990s, when it opened a gas-fired power plant built with more than $100 million worth of environmental regulation systems. CPS added Continuous Emissions Monitoring systems to its operating plants, and in 2000, CPS offered Windricity, a renewable energy option creating electricity through wind-powered turbines. That same year, CPS opened a facility that produces more electricity with significantly less fuel, while maintaining emissions levels up to eight times lower than the national average.
Maintaining CPS’ legacy of harnessing alternative energy resources, Ellerbe Becket designed a unique photovoltaic system for the new control center. The system will use solar power to light the adjacent training center. The center also features a system that collects rainwater and cooling tower “blow down” in cisterns and uses the collected water for irrigation needs. An educational wall in the adjacent training center will track the system’s performance, showing how much solar power is generated by the photovoltaic systems and the amount of rainwater/blow down water collected and utilized. The wall will also feature descriptions of other sustainable aspects in the building, such as environmentally friendly, “green” finishes and individual temperature controls.
In addition to the new CPS primary control center, Ellerbe Becket has also designed control centers for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) located in Austin and Taylor that help ERCOT monitor the flow of power and ensure continuous service for ERCOT customers.
Contact: news@ellerbebecket.com
Sarah Voigt, +1 612 455 1784
