The new Microgrid Technology Center for OATI is a five-story office and data center facility. This award-winning project is a showcase of technology that controls an Advanced Microgrid and utilizes waste heat from power production. The main goal of the project was to generate on-site electricity for the office space, and to ensure consistent, reliable power to the mission-critical data center.  Our design allows the building to be powered via local utility, on-site renewables, diesel-powered generator, natural gas microturbine, or any combination thereof.  

The microturbine exhaust gasses are used for trigeneration, or combined cooling, heating, and power (CCHP).  The implementation of these technologies provides resilient power without relying on the local utility. It also provides highly efficient systems by utilizing as much of the waste heat from the microturbine as possible.  Through the use of natural gas microturbines and its connected engineered systems, this building has a reduced overall energy consumption thus reducing the greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere.

Project Highlights

  • New Five-Story, Class ‘A’ Office Building
  • Concurrently Maintainable 500 kW Data Center
  • 600 kW of Natural Gas Microturbines
  • 280-ton Absorption Chiller and 3,200 MBH Heat Recovery Heat Exchanger (HRHX)
  • 24kW of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
  • 150kW of Rooftop Photovoltaic Array
  • Energy Storage System (EES)
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Sustainability
Wind and Solar Renewables, and Natural Gas Microturbine
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Award Winning
ACEC/MN Grand Award
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Power
500 kW