JEA Downtown Plant II

Stellar Energy designed and constructed JEA's second central cooling plant to distribute and circulate chilled water to office buildings in downtown Jacksonville. The additional chilled water plant was designed to eliminate individual cooling maintenance and overhead fees for each business owner.

Project Challenge

With a major push in city investment in downtown infrastructure and public facilities underway in the city of Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Electric Authority (JEA) needed to provide efficient, unobtrusive comfort cooling to several downtown buildings. JEA planned a district cooling plant to pipe chilled water underground to downtown buildings and offices, including the city’s main library and 800,000-squarefoot courthouse.

Project Solution

Stellar Energy provided turnkey delivery of the JEA Downtown District Cooling Plant, including engineering, equipment procurement, construction, and mechanical services consisting of refrigeration, fabrication and installation. The project included three chillers for a total capacity of 7,200 tons of refrigerated water. The field-erected tower has a capacity of 20,160 GPM. Special objectives of this project included:

• A scalable plant designed for future expansion;
• Minimal impact on traffic patterns and business operations during construction and installation;
• Excellent access to components for easy ongoing maintenance; and
• Adherence to architectural standards so the plant assimilates with the downtown aesthetic environment.