Proctors Theatre beats the heat with on-site thermal plant

SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- Proctors Theatre, which has seen thousands of people walk through its door this week with popular shows like "Beetlejuice" on the main stage, is well equipped to handle the heat. It's all thanks to their ability to generate their own thermal power, and soon, they'll be on their own microgrid.

Before the lights, camera, and action, you need the power to put on a Broadway production.

"Think about cooling," Philip Morris, Proctors CEO, explained. "Twenty-six hundred people coming into the building. It's more heat than old fashioned 100-watt incandescent bulbs. "So we have to have the capacity to stay cool for that."

Morris lifted the curtain for NEWS10 and took us beyond the backstage and into their on-site thermal plant.

"What it does is send hot and cold water through two separate sets of pipes," he said.

Helping, not only keep the audience in the theatre cool on 90 degree days, but it also provides central air or heat depending on the season to nearby businesses like the ones located in Center City.

"In those buildings, they take heat or cooling as BTU. They don't take the water. They just take the temp," he explained.

But Morris wants to make the system even more efficient by using the excess energy and turning it into electricity with an on-site microgrid. To help with the $7 million price tag, the state is funding the project.

"We really are an example for the country of what a microgrid can mean for a city," Morris added. "Our neighbors save money, our community has an improved environment, and they pay us a little bit. It's a win, win, win."

The electricity generated would be enough to sustain the lighting and sound equipment that major Broadway-style productions use and power more than a dozen businesses in the community. The microgrid is a project that's been years in the making with many starts and stops.

Morris tells NEWS10 things should be in place next summer. They are waiting on the arrival of some electric equipment to start installation. National Grid would still be used as a backup.