The source of close to 90% of the university's electricity, heating and cooling, powering everything from a medical center caring for thousands of patients to scientific environments, including research facilities and vivariums that house live animals and plants on campus, has been reenergized. UCLA's cogeneration plant, more formally known as the Energy Systems Facility, completed the critical Repower Project this fall.
Two turbines, machines producing electricity by burning natural gas and using what would be wasted heat energy to generate megawatts of electricity, thousands of tons of chilled water for cooling and thousands of pounds of steam per hour for heating, needed to be replaced due to age and a requirement from the Air Quality Management District.
These turbines are the beating hearts of the entire 86,000 square foot plant operation — functioning like engines in a jet, according to Sean Wilder, director of energy systems with Facilities Management. In UCLA’s case, serving as the central utility provider for our small city-like campus.
UCLA's turbines are so powerful that they held fast during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, when even the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power experienced a blackout.
As the primary utility supplier for the campus, the turbines cannot just shut down. A daily team of 150 to 200 Facilities Management staff worked 7 days a week on the project, beginning in January 2024. One turbine was shut down, demolished and replaced with new parts, concluding in December 2024. Then, early this year, work on the second turbine began quickly, and by October 2025, both new machines were running.
Over the 200,000 hours that went into the project, boilermakers, pipe fitters, welders, electricians, instrumentation and controls engineers, heavy equipment operators and other craftspeople from across Facilities Management worked to control a “live ball of fire” according to Wilder, in a space that heated 110 to 120 degrees, requiring arc flash personal protective equipment for some, and other serious safety measures.
Worker well-being on the project was so paramount that Facilities Management was honored with a Liberty Mutual 2025 Gold Safety Award, singled out among all capital projects across the University of California system for special recognition.
Now running steadily and speedily, the up-to-code turbines are more reliable than ever — UCLA’s plant was already twice as efficient as most power plants — and the possibility of harnessing hydrogen power, a clean energy carrier, in the future could further improve operational efficiency and sustainability on campus.
