HHB Engineers is Prime AE for the design of a major upgrade to the central chiller plant at Maxwell Air Force Base outside Montgomery, AL. The project includes replacement of all of the water cooled chillers, currently 6 at 800 tons each, with 6 new chillers approximately 970 tons each. Existing cooling towers will be upgraded to increase the capacity to match the new chiller capacities. 
Chiller pumps to be replaced and reconfigured for better maintenance access and redundancy. The plant was a heating and cooling plant at one time, with chillers on a mezzanine and boilers at ground level. This project will locate all the chillers at the ground level.
All existing chillers are 4160V. The project will upgrade electrical to the building to support all new chillers at 460V.
Challenges include project phasing to maintain chilled water supply to the base at all times, keeping some chillers online during construction and phasing in new chiller installation. Other challenges include structural constraints of the existing building and physical sizes of the new chillers.
Project cost estimate: $5M +
Read more about the project and other upgrades to the plant designed by HHB Engineers here.