Energy Services Programs

Project Profile: 
Brooklyn Supreme Court

Built in 1959, the Brooklyn Supreme Court Building in downtown Brooklyn houses critical court operations and handles one of the city’s busiest trial calendars.

The chiller plant serving the 500,000 square-foot building, including 11 floors of offices, courtrooms and judges chambers, had become too costly to maintain, and the small boiler and electrical service and distribution systems were inadequate to carry the facility into the new century.

NYPA’s Energy Services project team designed a plan to replace the chiller plant and add a new small boiler to the existing boiler plant for efficient low-load operation. A major problem was that the units were located in the subbasement and barely accessible, and a major priority was not disrupting operations or delaying the court calendar.

The team first demolished old equipment in the boiler room to create a path for the new chillers to pass through. New electrical service work was performed concurrently with the new chiller room construction, new cooling towers were rigged to the roof and necessary condenser water piping was replaced. All connections were made two weeks ahead of schedule.

The new high-efficiency electric chillers utilize non-ozone-depleting refrigerant and demand less fuel and maintenance. (The new systems run on natural gas and clean No. 2 fuel oil.) Automated digital controls monitor operation of various systems and equipment from a centralized personal computer.

In addition to directing the renovations, the Power Authority provided financing for the $7.9 million project through its long-term partnership agreement with the City of New York.

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