Technical Tours

Tour A – Colorado School of Mines & MillerCoors Brewery - limit 53 participants

9:05 am depart Sheraton Denver Downtown and return to Sheraton at about 1:00 pm. This tour bus DOES NOT go to the airport.

The Colorado School of Mines Heating Plant is responsible for round the clock steam production and distribution throughout campus. They operate and maintain two 50,000 lbs./hour water tube boilers, one 70,000 lbs./hour water tube boiler and two 200 BHP steam generators. The system has over 2 miles of piping in campus utility tunnels.

Colorado Energy Nation Company, LLC (CENC) provides a long-term reliable energy source for the MillerCoors brewery in Golden Colorado.  Since the 1995 acquisition of the Cogeneration Facility, CENC has provided electrical energy, and thermal energy in the form of 400-psi and 50-psi steam for the brewery.   The project consists of four (4) Combustion Engineering Boilers having a combined output capacity of 1.1 million lbs./hr. of steam at 800 psi / 825°F.  Two (2) GE 10-MW duel extraction turbine generators and one (1) GE 20-Mw condensing turbine provide the electrical energy.  The extraction turbines provide both 400-psi steam for auxiliary equipment and 50-psi steam for the brewery processes.   The majority of 400-psi steam driven auxiliary equipment such as boiler combustion fans and feed water pumps, exhausts 50 psi steam back into the process steam distribution system thereby increasing the efficiency of the cogeneration process.

 

Tour B – National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) - limit 40 participants

9:05 am depart Sheraton Denver Downtown and return to Sheraton at about 1:00 pm. This tour bus DOES NOT go to the airport.

The tour will visit two sites at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s campus in Golden, Colorado.

The tour will showcase:

• The Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF), which is the nation’s premier facility dedicated to the research, design, development, and demonstration of the components and systems needed to seamlessly integrate advanced energy technologies into our evolving grid infrastructure and
• the Research Support Facility (RSF), which is an award-winning model for LEED Platinum, zero energy, and high-performance building design that incorporates the best energy efficiency and environmental performance technologies and practices in a large-scale commercial office building.

The tour will emphasize site features and research related to district- and campus-scale thermal systems, energy generation, energy storage, and microgrids.

Tour C – Denver International Airport – limit 48 participants

9:05 am depart Sheraton Denver Downtown and go to the central plant at the Denver International Airport for the tour. The tour will end at the airport at approximately 12:30 pm. At the end of the tour you will be able to collect your luggage and then check in for your flight home.

Denver International Airport’s Central Utility Plant (CUP) is a chilled water and heating hot water production facility in a state of transition.  The chilled water plant is under construction; converting from R-22 and installing a new fleet of chillers totaling 20,000 tons.  The first phase of hot water boiler upgrades have also been completed with the build-out slated for 2020, totaling 160 MMBtu.  The CUP supports essential airport operations including pre-conditioned air systems for gated aircraft, food service, freeze protection, and comfort HVAC for thousands of passengers, staff, and airline crew members. 

 

Miller Coors Plant

Colorado School of Mines