Department of Veterans Affairs
A/E Services IDIQ for CFM Central Region - VA St. Cloud Health Care System Geothermal Study
St. Cloud, MN
The Veterans Administration Health Care Campus in St. Cloud selected the team to provide engineering consulting services for a study of the existing campus geothermal system. Faith Group investigated the performance of the existing geothermal system including 1,356 geothermal wells and multiple central plants around the campus. Since the inception of the first well field on the south side of campus, there were multiple projects completed to expand the well field and upgrades performed to the building mechanical systems, which created operating challenges and issues. The study provided an assessment of the existing systems, recommendations to improve system performance, and a long-term roadmap to resolve ongoing operational issues and improve performance for the geothermal system.
Faith Group’s task included ensuring all geothermal systems were fully integrated with all buildings on the system. One of the key recommendations resulting from the study was to standardize the interface requirements for all new buildings and retrofit existing buildings to the new standard. The study also uncovered that despite being in a very cold Minnesota climate, the overall campus is cooling driven, meaning the campus needs more cooling year-round than heating. The geothermal system was putting more heat into the ground than it was taking out, which will eventually lead to an increase in ground temperatures and a reduction in energy efficiency. The report provided multiple recommendations to mitigate this issue.
“We’re recognizing that medicine is growing and is bigger, and now there’s a true sense of modernization in what we do. Not only have we embraced it, but we’re leading the country now.” – Stephen Black, St. Cloud VA Health Care System Director, SCTimes.com, August 18, 2017