Cogeneration Upgrade at the Regents

The Regents are being asked today for additional funding to upgrade the UCLA cogeneration plant:

...The Los Angeles campus is requesting a $20.5 million (33 percent) increase to the approved budget for the Cogeneration Plant Equipment Replacement project. Commissioned in early 1994, the plant generates electricity, steam, and chilled water for the main campus and the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center using two gas turbine generators, a steam turbine generator, and two supplementary fired Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSGs). The plant provides critical reliability and resilience. The gas turbine generators are at the end of their useful life and need to be replaced to comply with new South Coast Air Quality Management District emission limits that became effective on January 1, 2024. Operating the plant’s engines beyond these emission limits would expose the campus to daily citations and associated fines as high as $50,000 per day. The project will replace the existing gas turbine generators with two new units, modify the HRSGs to work with the new turbines, and include other associated improvements.

...The project was originally approved by the Chancellor in October 2022 with a total budget of $62 million, funded from campus funds. Since the project’s approval, the contractor’s Guaranteed Maximum Price has exceeded the target estimate. Several regulatory compliance challenges also emerged during consultations with the permitting agencies, including the need for significant modifications to previously procured equipment, resulting in higher costs.

Construction began in January 2024. The proposed revised budget is now $82.5 million. Since the budget exceeds $70 million, the Regents’ approval is required for this budget augmentation. The Regents are being asked to approve: (1) a $20.5 million augmentation, to be funded by external financing from Century Bonds proceeds, for a total budget of $82.5 million; and (2) $82.5 million in external financing from Century Bonds... 

Full Regents item at https://regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/nov24/f5.pdf.