One of the main objectives of the Cornell Energy Club (CEC) is to provide energy-focused educational opportunities to members of the club. In fulfilling this objective, the CEC organized a visit to the Cornell Combined Heat and Power Plant (CCHPP) on April 30th 2015. The 25+ students in attendance, mostly Johnson students, were treated to the technological marvel of the CCHPP.
The system, as described on CCHPP’s website, includes two Solar Titan combustion turbines (15 MW each) coupled with Rentech heat recovery steam generators. Each turbine combusts natural gas to provide the power needed to turn an electric generator. Excess heat leaving the gas turbine is recycled through the heat recovery steam generator to produce steam for campus needs. The CCHPP generates approximately 180 GWh yearly meeting majority of the campus electrical power needs.
The event, which lasted approximately one hour, gave students an opportunity to learn about how Cornell meets its total electricity demands, its winter heating demands, and strategies being taken to mitigate the effects of outages should they occur.
Feel free to reach out to Aditi Srivastava or any of the board members should you have more questions.