County’s New Cooling System Will Chill Power Costs

The Ventura County Government Center is getting a new cooling system, one that will lower the county’s power costs and reduce demand at Southern California Edison plants.

The technology is reminiscent of the icebox.

Just as icemen used to store blocks of ice during the winter for distribution all summer long, the county’s new system will store cold during the night for release on hot summer afternoons.

“It’s kind of like putting Blue Ice in your lunch pail,” said Gordon Broberg, an Edison official involved in the project.

Like Blue Ice, the commercial product used to chill food coolers and picnic baskets, the county’s new system relies on a substance known as eutectic salt. Eutectic salt solutions freeze at 47 degrees Fahrenheit instead of the 32 degrees needed to freeze water.

At night, when Edison’s commercial rates are lowest, the county will use its existing air conditioners to create chilled water. The water will flow into underground tanks to be constructed at the Government Center. In the tanks, the cold water will flow around panels containing a eutectic salt solution, freezing the panels like ice cubes.

In the afternoon, when temperatures--and Edison’s rates--are highest, the power-gobbling water coolers will shut down. Water will be run through the frozen panels to produce the cold water needed to run air conditioners.

The county expects the system to save $206,000 a year in power charges. If that prediction comes true, the county’s share of the cost of the system--$367,000--will be recouped in less than two years.

“It’s an outstanding deal,” said Pete Pedroff, director of the county’s General Services Agency.

But the project may pay even greater dividends for Southern California Edison, which is paying 70% of the cost, or nearly $900,000.

“It’s less expensive for a utility to pay us . . . than for the company to go out and build a new power plant,” said Doug Ames, president of Transphase Systems, which is installing the new system. “It’s cost-efficient for Southern California Edison to do this. This isn’t a subsidy.”

Broberg agreed: “We want to offset as much peak demand as possible to reduce future need” for more power plants.

Ames said the Government Center project will shift about 1 1/2 megawatts of demand from peak afternoon periods to the low-demand overnight period. That is equivalent to taking 300 homes off the system during peak periods, he said.

Pedroff said the county has been considering something similar to the Transphase system for several years, but backed off because it would have taken seven years to recoup the cost in energy savings.

“Southern California Edison really sweetened the pot,” he said. In addition, the deal requires Transphase to maintain the system for seven years.

Although Transphase, based in Huntington Beach, has built about 65 similar systems in the past eight years, Ames said, “This will be one of the largest systems that we have ever installed--certainly the largest for any county or government center.”

The system will cool the Hall of Justice, the Administration Building and County Jail.

“It’s sized so that on a peak day in the summer, a 95-degree day, it will handle 100% of the cooling needs between noon and 6 p.m.,” Ames said. “That’s when Edison’s rates are highest.”

Construction will start in about two months, and the new system is expected to be operating by next March.