Energy System Group

Scope Of Work

Housed on the U.S. Army’s Fort Detrick base, the National Interagency Biodefense Campus (NIBC) is the largest secured campus of biosafety level 3 and 4 laboratories in the world. ESG designed and constructed a microgrid system to ensure that critical utilities on the campus remain operational in the event of utility grid failures. ESG is responsible for on-site operations and maintenance of the microgrid, with follow-on work including the extending of direct-buried steam, condensate, and chilled water distribution systems. High-pressure steam and chilled water generation is provided to individual campus load centers via utility interconnections for a fully redundant distribution loop. Providing turnkey design, engineering, installation, commissioning, and procurement for steam and chilled water lateral pipelines, ESG also extended the existing duct banks to the Navy Medical Bio-Defense Research Lab transformers to connect it to the microgrid. Further, ESG provided steam supply and condensate return connections, chilled water supply and return connections, and electrical connection to the new USAMRIID facility. Completed in 2015, it is the largest, most complex biocontainment facility ever built.