Chilled water curtailment ends

All chilled water curtailment has ended. Chilled water storage tank levels and forecasted loads are back to normal. It will take about two hours to restore remaining buildings to normal conditions.

Please notify your building manager of any continuing space temperature issues in your location. Thank you for your patience and support during the curtailment.

Cooling curtailment returns to Stage 1

Due to improved chilled water tank storage levels, the Stage 3 chilled water curtailment was lifted at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday and Stage 2 is being lifted starting immediately.

The campus will remain at Stage 1 curtailment until conditions are reassessed later this morning. A Stage 1 curtailment means that, in order to preserve sufficient cooling capacity for medical, research, data processing and other facilities, comfort cooling is reduced in many offices and other parts of the campus.

Further updates will be provided on emergency.stanford.edu.

Stage 3 cooling curtailment

The Chilled Water Curtailment affecting the Stanford campus this afternoon has been raised to Stage 3. This means that temperatures in teaching, research or commercial spaces may exceed campus guidelines of 80-85 degrees for a more extended period of time, perhaps 24 hours or more.

Building managers responsible for equipment that may be sensitive to heat should take steps to prepare for heightened interior temperatures.

Campus facilities managers are working actively to address the situation, which appears to be predominantly caused by the extraordinary heat wave along with high humidity levels and high overnight temperatures that have added to the load on the campus cooling system.

The duration of the curtailment is still unknown. There will be an update on Wednesday morning, and earlier if needed, at emergency.stanford.edu. The university appreciates the community’s continuing patience with the higher-than-normal interior temperatures.

Managers should continue to encourage precautionary measures and have discussions with employees about alternate work arrangements if needed due to the temperature in their location.

Building cooling update

Due to worsening chilled water load and storage tank levels, a Stage 2 Chilled Water Curtailment is being implemented on the Stanford campus this afternoon.

This means that in addition to reducing comfort cooling in some buildings under Stage 1, the curtailment may result in temporary disruption of teaching, research and commercial operations. Temperatures in teaching, research or commercial spaces may exceed campus guidelines of 80-85 degrees for a limited period of time.

Managers should encourage precautionary measures and have discussions with employees about alternate work arrangements if needed due to the temperature in their location.

The university continues to appreciate the campus community’s patience with this curtailment and will provide further updates at emergency.stanford.edu.

Building cooling alert

A Stage 1 Chilled Water Curtailment, affecting building comfort cooling in many campus academic buildings and offices, is being implemented this afternoon.

Campus buildings are cooled by a chilled water system. Due to the record-high weekend temperatures, along with continued high humidity and high overnight temperatures, the Central Energy Facility (CEF) chilled water storage level is lower than normal. A chilled water curtailment is required to reduce load and restore chilled water storage to normal levels. CEF chilled water production capacity is still less than normal, awaiting the replacement of two chillers in October.

A Stage 1 curtailment means that, in order to preserve sufficient cooling capacity for medical, research, data processing and other facilities, comfort cooling is reduced in many offices and other parts of the campus.

The duration of the curtailment is unclear at this time. Updates will be posted on emergency.stanford.edu on Wednesday morning and whenever there is further information.

We greatly appreciate your patience. Today’s high temperatures are expected to be lower than those over the weekend, but please take care to stay hydrated and be alert to the needs of your colleagues if the cooling in your location is affected by this curtailment.