Facilities and Operations Utilities Logo

Request Work Order | Facility Management System (AiM)

Central Power Plant

Home
/
/
Central Power Plant

The Central Power Plant (CPP) generates and processes four main services to the University of Michigan Central and Medical Campuses. The CPP team operates and maintains the facility to ensure we are compliant with the federal, state and local Environmental and Safety regulations. They are a proactive team who strive for continuous improvement by applying the Facilities and Operations principles of being Respectful, Collaborative, Solutions-Based and Proactive.

steam

Steam

Seven boilers with 1 million pounds of steaming capacity

Electricity

A capacity of 51 megawatts of electric power generation

Compressed Air

The production of compressed air for pneumatic controls systems and other operational needs on campus

Hot Water

The production of domestic hot water

The Central Power Plant has served the campus in various forms since its construction.  In its current form the CPP is a combined cycle cogeneration power plant which includes seven steam boilers that provide steam and electric generation. 

Central Power Plant Facts

  • Construction of the Central Power Plant was completed in 1914
  • Conversion from coal to natural gas was completed in 1967
  • The CPP generates 2 billion pounds of steam per year. This is the same as 240 million gallons per year or 1 Olympic swimming pool every day.
  • Maximum generation is 51 MW
A steam turbine is the one which extracts the thermal energy from a pressurized steam and converts it into rotational mechanical energy. The steam is produced in a boiler by utilizing the heat of coal or other fuel combustion, then this steam passed over the blades of the turbine to rotate it. After the rotation of the turbine, the steam gets condensed and exhausted from the turbine. The steam turbine is one of the mostly used type of turbine in a number of power generating stations to drive an electric generator. The turbines were also used in steam engines to produce driving power.

Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs) transfer energy from the exhaust of a gas turbine to an unfired or supplementary fired heat-recovery steam generator to produce steam. Exhaust gases leave the gas turbine at temperatures of 1,000°F (538°C) or higher and can represent more than 75% of the total fuel energy input. This energy can be recovered by passing the gases through a heat exchanger (steam generator) to produce hot water or steam for process needs.

Skip to content