Construction on a central chilled water plant will begin in April at NIU.

The plant will save NIU more than $400,000 a year in energy costs and retire air conditioning units that are 25 to 40 years old, according to an NIU press release.

The Illinois Capital Development Board has earmarked $7.7 million and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Equal Opportunity has set aside $7.8 million for the project, according to the release. NIU is left to contribute $3.9 million of the cost for the plant, a condition of receiving capital development funds.

The long-term benefits of the plants are important enough that the university can find the money within the Finance and Facilities budget, said Eddie Williams, executive vice president of Finance and Facilities, in the release. The project was unanimously approved by the Board of Trustees.

A chiller system, like the one NIU plans to install, operates by cooling water to about 40 to 50 degrees and then pumping it to buildings, where the water runs through coils to cool air, said Steve Doonan, vice president of DeKalb Mechanical, a local heating and air conditioning company.

“A lot of buildings have their own chiller,” Doonan said. “[NIU is] trying to get away from that and get to a central plant [system].”

Doonan said the creation of a central point for control and monitoring purposes will make better use of the diversity of buildings and will also be more economical.

The plant will initially cool 17 central campus buildings, including the Holmes Student Center, Founders Memorial Library and the Campus Life Building, according the release.

The plant also could potentially cool Anderson and Barsema Halls and the College of Engineering. Older buildings such as Still Gym and Davis and McMurray Halls can be converted to the system in the future, but they would require some modifications, according to the release.