Higher Education

University of Utah Campus-Wide Electrical Distribution Infrastructure Upgrade

University of Utah / Salt Lake City, Utah

The University of Utah is the largest institution in the State of Utah Higher Education System. The University’s electrical distribution system serves a large medical center, major research facilities, student housing, academic, athletic, and administration facilities.

Most of the electrical power system was old and failing, and the campus was in desperate need to upgrade the system to provide more reliability, safety, flexibility, and capacity for years to come. The University of Utah selected our team to manage and complete a major $86 million campus-wide electrical distribution infrastructure upgrade. This five-year project (2012–2017) was designed to modernize the university's failing and outdated systems. 

The electrical distribution system serves over 320 buildings through an underground network of duct banks and manholes that originate from three 46kV substations, plus a 5-megawatt cogeneration plant. Distribution from these substations is owned by the University and is supplied at 4,160 volts, 7,200 volts, and 12,470 volts. A vast majority of this distribution system is supplied underground from the substations to the buildings.

The upgrades included:

• Replacement of High-Voltage Equipment: Over 160 high-voltage switches were replaced. Old oil-filled switches located in underground manholes were replaced with modern solid dielectric switches moved above ground into gated enclosures for safety and easier maintenance.

• Infrastructure Expansion: Crews installed over 17 miles of new duct bank and 47 miles of cable across the campus.

• System Integration: New substations were integrated with the campus Cogen Unit (which generates heat and electricity simultaneously) and the University's high-temperature plant.

• Hospital Reliability: Specialized designs ensured increased reliability for the University Hospital and medical school, maintaining operations without service outages during the upgrade.

• Safety and Capacity: The project eliminated dangerous "confined entry" workspaces and increased the system's overall capacity and flexibility for future growth. 

Our team successfully met the significant challenge to not only create a better, more reliable electrical infrastructure, but also to do so with little or no shutdown on a thriving college campus. Key to the project's success was close coordination with Rocky Mountain Power to obtain clearances, rights-of-way, and approvals, and continual communication with university staff, users, and team members.

Spectrum Engineers and Envision Engineering completed this project before the merger.