CenTrio operates the largest carbon-free ice storage chilled-water system in the United States, providing sustainable district cooling service to nearly 53 million square feet of building space in 115 buildings across downtown Chicago, Illinois. CenTrio’s first central cooling plant was established in 1995. Over the past 28 years, CenTrio’s Chicago grew from a single central plant serving a handful of downtown customers to a district of five distribution plants interconnected by 8.5 trench-miles of piping and several satellite chiller plants. The district cooling system continues to improve and grow. In the last 3 years the system has grown by 13% and the major modernization and expansion effort included the installation of the Chicago River Ultra Filtration System, Plant 2 Modernization, and Construction of the Old Post Office Cooling Plant & Distribution. CenTrio Chicago has taken a holistic approach to reach a carbon-free cooling solution for downtown Chicago citizens and businesses by coupling climate and natural resource solutions within the district thermal cooling storage sector and electric sector as well as the water sector. As a result, the system is experiencing savings of approximately 35,000 Metric Tons of Carbon each year with about 250,000,000 million gallons of water savings each year. Additionally, the Chicago operations team has successfully converted about 45% of its refrigerant inventory to an option that results in a decrease of about 400 GWP.
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