Consulting Engineering
Faced with insufficient generator capacity to operate safely during a complete utility outage, Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport enlisted CMTA to design a new centralized generator plant for their airport terminal building. The new generator plant enhances the airport’s resiliency by providing full backup power to the main terminal, garage, and administration buildings, ensuring operations can continue safely during utility outages.
CMTA sized the new generator plant to accommodate current and projected airport loads, based on the airport improvement program currently underway. The plant includes provisions for additional generation capacity as needed in the future. Designed with resiliency in mind, the plant is resistant to severe storms common to the region. Additionally, CMTA incorporated SDF’s sustainability goals, including photovoltaic (solar) generation, battery energy storage, and microgrid controls.
The scope of work includes:
This project also offers an extensive return on investment for the airport, the environment, and the community. Financially, the microgrid’s battery energy storage system stores and shifts energy from low-demand to high-demand periods, resulting in estimated annual savings of $93,564 in utility demand charges—equating to 20-year net savings of $1.5M and simple payback of less than 11 years. Environmentally, the photovoltaic system offsets approximately 30% of the administration building’s energy use, reducing the airport’s carbon emissions by 68 metric tons per year. Additionally, the microgrid also supports the future of the power grid by paving the way for campus electrification and a path to carbon neutrality.
