Case Study: Pinellas County achieves lower energy costs and major equipment savings with Trane Commercial district cooling solution

Pinellas County - Customer Case Study

Pinellas County needed to replace inefficient HVAC equipment nearing the end of its useful life across seven government buildings in downtown Clearwater, while avoiding costly disruptions to occupied facilities. Trane Commercial responded with a district cooling approach centered on a new Central Energy Plant, using chilled-water infrastructure and building automation to modernize service for the county’s 700,000 sq ft of office space.

Trane Commercial implemented a central plant solution with pre-insulated piping, three centrifugal chillers, ice storage tanks, cooling towers, and a Tracer SC building automation system. The project is expected to save the county about $1 million in operating costs, cut annual electricity use by 30% to 40%, reduce carbon emissions by about 25%, and avoid roughly $4 million in equipment replacement costs, while also creating potential new revenue from chilled-water sales.

Pinellas County