Duke University studied emergency power aesthetics, noise, emissions, and maintenance costs. The result—a central generator plant.
The Durham, N.C., location of Duke University opened in 1892 as Trinity College and was renamed Duke University in 1924. Many of the original buildings are still used today. The 1,300-acre academic campus includes 175 buildings, many of which require a large enough emergency power demand to warrant a local generator. More than 30 stationary generator sets are distributed around the east, central, and west campuses, ranging in size from 30 to 1,500 kW.