One of two central plants built simultaneously at UC Irvine Medical Center, this project fulfilled the desire for a central plant dedicated solely to acute care facilities supporting in-patient services on campus. The HCAI (formerly OSHPD) chiller plant expansion included the addition of a 3,000-ton chiller with space for an additional 1,500-ton chiller, a 1,500-kW generator and expansion of the existing normal and emergency power systems. The additional capacity was designed to serve the existing hospital tower, the Neuropsychiatric Center and the planned future expansion of a new 300,000 SF patient tower.

The building was designed to HCAI requirements for structural performance category SPC-5 and nonstructural performance category NPC-4 to obtain the building permit. In addition to the chiller plant, new 12kV normal and emergency power was provided to replace the existing 5kV system that was serving the acute care tower and the steam plant. The design included the expansion of the existing 6,000- kW electrical yard with a 1,500-kW generator. This provided increased efficiency and redundancy for the non- HCAI 12-kV system.