Chiller delivered to Camp Shelby amid pandemic

In his statewide coronavirus update last Monday, Gov. Tate Reeves said Mississippi was “close to peak resource use.” Reeves was also worried coronavirus patients could soon fill up the state’s reserve hospital beds.

He added that Camp Shelby was being outfitted to care for patients. The facility has two sites – an 89-bed unit and a 160-bed unit – that are prepared to take in patients.

Mississippi Power is helping with preparations at Camp Shelby by providing a rental 400-ton air-cooled chiller while obtaining a new, permanent replacement 400-ton chiller for the facility. The company is acting as a contractor for the base in implementing these changes.

“The facility currently has two 400-ton chillers, which operate redundantly,” Business Services Senior Engineer Pete Umbdenstock said. “One of them is not working at full capacity, so it will not be able to completely cool the buildings as patients arrive and temperatures continue to rise.”

Industrial Marketing Specialist Joe Bosco, who manages the company’s relationships with military bases across South Mississippi, has been closely monitoring how the branches are responding to the crisis.

“It’s going to take about three months for the new chiller to arrive, so we were able to work with Trane and Camp Shelby to find a solution with this temporary chiller,” Bosco said. “It was a pretty tight timeline, but all parties synergized to deliver results.”  “It is great partnerships like the one we have with Mississippi Power that help make Camp Shelby the premier training installation that it is,” Col. Bobby M. Ginn, Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center post commander said.

Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company (NYSE: SO), produces safe, reliable and environmentally responsible energy for more than 188,000 customers in 23 southeast Mississippi counties. With nearly 160 megawatts of approved solar energy capacity, Mississippi Power is the largest partner in providing renewable energy in the state of Mississippi. Visit our website at mississippipower.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

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