Coal Plant Heats School
  
by Alyson Dame

There are a lot of rumors about why smoke comes out of the Service building. It is not a secret sweatshop, or a Barnes and Noble-owned textbook factory, as some have hypothesized. Inside the service building is Oberlin’s Central Heating Plant. Steam is produced there and travels through miles of underground piping to heat campus buildings. 
Although not boasted about in the admissions brochure, the CHP has played an important role on the campus since 1950. 
A central heating plant is not unique to Oberlin. Associate Director of Facilities Eric McMillion said, “The CHP approach is pretty common among campuses this size and larger. It produces steam and that’s what we heat the buildings with. Some domestic hot water is produced from the plant for cooking needs, showers and things of that nature.” 
Steam is produced by coal and natural gas burners in the plant. Piping delivers the steam in insulated, pressurized pipes as far north as Phillips Gym, and as far south as Old Barrows Hall, extending to East Hall, and even supplying heat to the Oberlin Inn. The steam travels back to the plant as water in a separate system of pipes and is recycled.
Vice President of Finance Andy Evans believes that the CHP saves money and is comparatively better for the environment. “Energy efficiency is certainly something we’ve paid attention to for a long time. We would be buying energy from a plant that does not have the kind of technology we do and would be a greater polluter,” Evans said, but added, “Because it’s one of the largest heating plants in the country, it’s still a source of emissions.”
In 1971, a third burner was added that used natural gas or diesel as a fuel, which reduced the amount of coal consumed. “On the shoulder seasons, you can use natural gas,” Evans said. In 1980, scrubbers were added. “This air pollution control device was then and is still considered the best available control technology for fossil fuel boilers,” Evans said. He cites these features as one of the reasons why Oberlin’s CHP is “not your traditional power plant.”
An article from Heating, Piping and Air Conditioning, profiled the CHP in 1950, when it was built, and sheds some light on the history of heating at the College. “Undoubtedly, it would show a progression from wood-burning stoves, through the soft coal stove stage, with several stoves in each building. In some buildings one can definitely conclude, from the arrangement of basement walls and partitions, that furnaces were installed to serve one or more adjacent buildings. This was the beginning of central heating at Oberlin.” 
The article goes on to praise the inconspicuousness of the plant, reading, “Situated on one of the main thoroughfares of the village and on a state highway, and located in the immediate vicinity of Oberlin College hospital, Hales gymnasium for women and Crane swimming pool, there is nothing about the heating plant structure to detract in any way from the surroundings.”
The CHP burns approximately 6,000 tons of coal and 30,000 mcf (thousand cubic feet) of natural gas annually. The coal is bought from two companies, North Coast Coal and Kearns Coal Company, and originates in Ohio and Pennsylvania. This December, some coal was turned away because it did not meet the specifications of the purchase order. “The boilers perform better if the size is more consistent, and that is why it was rejected,” McMillion said. 
Plant manager Ron Phlaum said that hourly readings are taken to monitor the amount of coal consumed “We read all the gauges of pressure and temperature and things like that, and record that also,” Phlaum said.
Despite this attention to detail, the CHP is Oberlin’s largest source of emissions. Paige Wiegman is the coordinator of the 2020 project which is developing several scenarios that would allow campus to become climate neutral, and have net zero emissions. She cites the CHP as one of the project’s biggest challenges. “Heating and power are big ones, but I think that’s pretty typical,” Wiegman said. “I think that part of the solution is to make [CHP] more efficient and the way we heat our buildings more efficient.”