Campus Watch logo. Graphic by Andy Mooney, Salisbury Post.

By Hugh Fisher

Kannapolis Citizen

In times past, the smokestacks that rose over Kannapolis were more than just a symbol of the industrial power of the city's textile mills.

They also marked the source of much of the downtown area's electric power. The factory's boiler plant generated the juice that ran many homes and businesses around Cannon Mills.

The North Carolina Research Campus won't generate all of its own power, but the building known as the Central Energy Plant will be located on the same ground once occupied by the old boilers and the Fieldcrest-Cannon smokestacks.

Turner Construction is building the 20,000-square-foot facility, which will house the research campus' chillers and boilers.

Planners with electric supplier Duke Energy have been meeting with North Carolina Research Campus planners at Castle & Cooke to determine the facility's power needs.

Tom Williams, Duke Energy's public affairs spokesman for generation activities, said there was no way to guess how much power the research campus might consume.

"We don't identify a particular number of kilowatts to serve any particular need," he said.

But on the conservation front, he said that the company would work with architects and planners at any new project to identify ways to conserve electricity.

"Sometimes we work with (companies) to help them to develop their energy options ... and help them develop their energy plant needs," Williams said.

He also said that work is in progress to update Duke Energy's fleet of generators. "We're looking to add new generation that is cleaner," Williams said.

Unlike the former Cannon Mills facility — which at one time hooked directly into Duke Energy's supply grid — the research campus will be fed from an off-site power substation, according to Randy Welch, regional manager for Duke Energy.

"We are preparing to serve them with standard distributed delivery," Welch said. "We're working very closely with them on the design to offer underground facilities throughout the campus."

Duke Energy is also working with site developer Castle & Cooke and demolition contractor D.H. Griffin to remove the mill's old power supply gear from the north side of the site.

One difficulty with site preparation, according to Welch, is that the decades-old private substation tapped directly into the power company's main transfer lines.

Welch said the old equipment is being taken out in stages. "We're working on that currently and on a schedule that Castle & Cooke has indicated that they would like to see," he said.

The North Carolina Research Campus won't have an on-site substation. Instead, power will come from a substation on Ballpark Drive.

The campus, like many urban areas, will be supplied with underground power lines to help prevent problems during thunderstorms or in icy weather.

"The type of system that the Research Campus is utilizing is something we do all the time in major developments for individual and community customers," Welch said. "We expect the reliability to be excellent there."

A reliable power source is going to be vital to the many research projects that will take place on the campus.

Conservation is another issue the Research Campus is sure to address. With energy costs soaring worldwide, it stands to reason that the facility will implement some environmentally-friendly measures.

Welch said that there were some options available from Duke Energy for conservation-minded customers.

"That comes into the design of the facilities," Welch said. "Certainly, when you look at the opportunities to design facilities, I'm sure there are some state-of-the-art things they may be considering," Welch said.

And Welch said that architects and building designers would be able to implement those measures during construction, but could not speak to the specific products the Research Campus might contain.

Representatives of Castle & Cooke did not return a Citizen reporter's call before press time.

Projects with the size and scope of the North Carolina Research Campus have also led planners at Duke Energy to think about the future of their operations.

"When you look at a facility the size of the Research Campus, it really magnifies the need for having available generation capacity for the future," Welch said. "We're planning for the future of the region and this project happens to be a part of that."

Updated generating technology, the use of fewer fossil fuels and larger reserves of available power will be goals the company looks to meet in the decades ahead.

"We will be adding significant generating capacity in the years ahead," Welch said.

A planned nuclear power plant in South Carolina and additional capacity at the Cliffside Steam Plant, on the border of Rutherford and Cleveland Counties, will help meet increased demand across the state.

Both of these projects are planned for within the next decade, Welch said.

"Those are things we have to do now to meet the demand of the future," Welch said.

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Contact Hugh Fisher at 704-933-3450 or hfisher@kannapoliscitizen.com.