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Politics & Government

$6M OCC Power Plant May Be Running by December

Energy facility expected to cut utility costs

By December, officials hope to be generating more of their own electricity, heat and air conditioning, using a $6 million combined energy plant that will be built on the hill behind the original instructional building.

“We’ve got one of the lowest utility bills’’ among New Jersey’s colleges, said Kenneth Olsen, OCC’s Director of Facilities, Engineering and Operations.

With the decision to build the new plant, he expected that cost to drop.

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The college trustees awarded a $5.55 million contract for the facility to Santorini Construction Company of Neptune, the lowest of six bidders for the project. The Santorini bid was nearly $800,000 lower than the second lowest bid.

Completion of the plant is scheduled by Dec. 1.

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Olsen said when discussions focused on the $30 million Gateway Building at the college two and a half years ago he recognized the need for more electric power for the growing campus in Toms River.

Jersey Central Power and Light Company officials said they would have to build a substation to supply more electricity. They wanted to put it by the lake off College Drive at Hooper Avenue, Olsen said. OCC President Dr. Jon Larson turned down that idea.

Olsen said the search for more power led to consideration of a combined heat and power plant.

 “They’re very efficient and effective,’’ he said.

Natural gas is used to run an oversized internal combustion engine to produce heat and hot water. Using the right refrigerant, the same unit can produce air conditioning, he explained.

Alternative energy sources are not new to the campus, he said, pointing to the fuel cell that has been in operation there for nine years.

Two grants totaling $857,000 have been received for the new facility, and applications for two others are being considered, he said.

New Jersey Natural Gas is offering to supply the fuel at a fixed rate for 10 years, he said.

That power plant is expected to be completed 13 months before the Gateway Building, a five-story academic building that will be shared by OCC and Kean University.

“The foundation is being laid,’’ for that building, Dr. Richard Parrish, vice president of planning and administration, told the trustees.

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