Extreme heat: Further cooling curtailment on main campus

A Stage 3 Chilled Water Curtailment, affecting building cooling in more campus academic buildings and offices, is being implemented on the main Stanford campus this morning, Thursday, Aug. 15, and is expected to be in place at least through Friday morning.

Campus buildings are cooled by a chilled water system. Due to the unusually high current temperatures, along with expected high overnight temperatures, the Central Energy Facility (CEF) chilled water must be curtailed. A chilled water curtailment is required to reduce load and restore chilled water storage to normal levels.

Under Stage 3, temperatures in sensitive-conditioned teaching, research, or commercial operations spaces are allowed to exceed campus guidelines. A complete description of the impact and a list of affected buildings can be found in Land, Buildings & Real Estate’s chilled water curtailment guide.

Note that the stages for curtailment are cumulative, so the buildings affected under Stage 1 and 2, which were implemented on Wednesday, remain in place. See the chilled water curtailment guide for details.

The reduced load will help us make it through this heat wave. The duration of the curtailment is unclear at this time. Updates will be posted here this evening and whenever there is further information.

During this cooling curtailment, managers should encourage precautionary measures and have discussions with employees about alternate work arrangements if needed due to the temperature in their location. If your manager is not available, please contact Human Resources for assistance.