Michael Baker provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing (MEP) and structural design for the new ERCOT headquarters located in Austin, Texas. The Michael Baker team worked closely with the owner’s representation at CRBE and the design team at Urban Foundry Architecture to provide a facility that could provide an ideal workplace for the institution, which manages the flow of electric power to over 27 million Texas customers (representing 90% of the state’s electric load), as well as serving as the grid operator for the majority of the Texas interconnections.
The new ERCOT headquarters included large multi-purpose meeting rooms that could be repurposed into a large conference center. MEP designs by Michael Baker included energy-efficient design with the necessary redundancies to support ERCOT during weather and energy crisis conditions. Such redundancies included emergency generators, central uninterruptible power supply (UPS) whose controls allow the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) to reduce energy usage while on back-up power.
At-A-Glance
- 37,500-square-foot design services for a new office building
- MEP and structural design
- Controls to implement cost-effective strategies when using back-up power
