The Williams Record
Summary
The steam tunnels of the College have been the subject of lore for generations of students. Beyond the campus myths about a secret network of passages under the campus, these tunnels have a much more practical function: heating the water to our showers, warming the radiators in our dorms, and even charging our devices.
Take a look over the bluff behind Prospect House and you’ll see the source of this steam — a large building with a tall chimney sticking out from it. It’s the College’s central heating plant, and within its walls are nearly a dozen boilers, an electric turbine, and a host of other equipment designed to heat and power the entire campus. It’s the only College office besides Campus Safety Services that is staffed 24/7.
The plant takes freshly-generated steam and warms it with excess heat from the boiler, which it them runs through a steam turbine to generate electricity before it flows across the campus. With the help of electrical cogeneration and heat recapturing, the plant is able to operate at an overall efficiency of 83 to 85 percent when it is in full swing — meaning only around 15 percent of the energy burned is lost and thus unable to be used for heating or electrical generation.
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