Client: Chicago Department of Aviation

Location: Chicago, IL

This project required the construction of two new buildings, one to house the new emergency and standby generators and one to house the associated paralleling switchgear, increasing the capacity of O’Hare Airport’s standby power system to 18MW. It also required the replacement of transfer switches, upgrades to controls and providing standby power to loads not currently tied onto the system.
In addition to the six new generators, the following quantities of materials and equipment were installed: four miles of 6″ rigid conduit, 500,000 LF of feeder conduit & medium voltage cable, approximately 150 new transfer switches, and 500+ new pieces of distribution equipment. This material spanned the entire terminal core to support the new systems and required coordination with all users within the airport including airlines and TSA.
The two separate facilities were constructed for this project to house the back-up generator equipment, and another separate facility for the distribution. The facilities were designed to match the esthetics of the existing H&R plant and operate in a similar fashion to the previous system. Some additional controls were added, allowing the operators of the terminals and gates to prioritize the life safety and minimal operations required in an emergency, followed by other less vital circuits in a hierarchy system depending on available capacity. This would potentially allow the airlines to continue to operate some of their gates in the event that a plane was loaded and needed to push off, or if a plane needed to disembark passengers. The additional back-up power enables the CDA to be safer and more flexible than ever before.