Cooling curtailment easing on main campus

Cooling curtailment began easing on the main campus this morning, Friday, August 16, with cooling being restored incrementally in buildings covered under Stage 4 through 11 a.m. During that period conditions of the chilled water system will be monitored, as will actual versus predicted temperatures.

Stage 3 remains in place while cooling is restored in Stage 4 buildings. If all goes well with Stage 4 release, Stage 3 facilities will be evaluated.

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.

Additional capacity for the chilled water system that cools the campus is being planned in both the short and longer terms. To aid with short-term mitigation, temporary cooling towers are now being added to provide supplemental capacity. These temporary towers are expected to be in place by the end of the month. Even with these enhancements, the capacity of the system will be challenged by weather events that include temperatures in the upper 90s/100s over multiple days.

The university will be examining further ways of decreasing the load on the system in the earlier stages of a heat wave to prevent research disruption. Land, Buildings & Real Estate is forming an advisory committee of faculty members and facilities directors to assist with this effort.

Updates will be posted here after 11 a.m. and whenever there is further information.