Overview

The Heat Plant was constructed in 1922 and currently delivers steam to the core university buildings, approximately three million square feet. The MSU campus uses steam to accomplish building heating needs with a small amount of steam used for cooking and laboratory autoclaves. The plant operates continuously 24 hours per day 365 day per year.

The Heat Plant steam generation system includes three dual fuel fired high pressure boilers. Natural gas is the primary fuel source for the boilers with propane back-up for emergency or critical operations. Boiler No. 1 and Boiler No. 2 were installed in 1997 and are capable of generating 280 psig steam at 100,000 pounds per hour (pph) and 50,000 pph respectively. Boiler No. 3 was installed in 1968 and is capable of generating 100,000 pph of steam at a pressure of 175 psig. High pressure steam is reduced to 45 psig pressure at reducing stations for delivery to campus. The three boilers are equipped with low NOX burners, flue gas recirculation (FGR), inlet combustion air heating and feedwater economizers. Peak campus steam load during the winter months is approximately 90,000 pph. In the summer months the load is approximately 8,000 pph.

A steam-turbine–driven cogeneration system operated from 1996 until 2025, when it was decommissioned due to ongoing maintenance issues. The electricity it produced was routed into the campus primary electrical distribution system and used on campus. The system generated approximately 2,000,000 kWh of electricity annually—about 4% of MSU’s total electricity demand—with a maximum output of 1 MW.

History

Construction of the current Heat Plant began in June of 1922 and was completed in February of 1923. The plant initially used coal-fired boilers with coal delivered by train from a mine near Mt. Ellis. The boilers were converted to natural gas in 1950. The original smoke stack was dismantled in 2003 to prevent the risk of collapse in the event of an earthquake.

The current Heat Plant is the third constructed in the campus’s history. Earlier facilities included the Upper Plant, located near the present site of Renne Library, and the Lower Plant, which was housed in the basement of the Grain Lab, south and west of today’s Linfield Hall.

Steam Whistle

The Heat Plant steam whistle was originally sounded every morning at 6:30 am to wake up students and at 7:50 am to signal the start of classes. Today it can be heard on the first day of the Fall and Spring semesters at 8:00am and on the day of Fall and Spring Commencement at 8:00am, 12pm and 5:00pm.