Wink, Incorporated was hired to provide overall project design and coordination for the construction of a 32,000-ton cooling plant – with thermal energy storage – known as District Energy for NOrMC. By comparison, the Louisiana Superdome has a cooling capacity of 4,500 tons.The new plant was the city’s first district energy facility, part of the $50 million expansion project undertaken to tie together the numerous medical, university, research and office buildings in the area. District Energy was built to provide NOrMC with reliable thermal energy and replace several individual systems that were over 25 years old. Not only would this project provide cleaner, more efficient energy production, it was also designed for future expansion as more institutional, medical and corporate office space came online.

By the time the project was completed, the plant was installed exactly as it had been modeled in the 3D environment.Wink designed the entire facility in the virtual AutoPLANT environment, putting in equipment and piping that would represent future growth.

"We proved our ability right out of the gate when we delivered an AutoPLANT-designed 3D model of the proposed plant ahead of schedule," said Larry Miller, senior lead designer, Wink, Incorporated.