Page 53 - spaces4learning, Fall 2024

increased demands offshore.
The NSMVs are different in size, con-
struction, appearance, as well as utility
needs from the ships they are replacing.
They are designed to operate entirely
from electric power, which accounts for
many of the changes needed on campus.
Compounding the traditional facilities
management considerations for a new
academic or student union building,
each institution was looking at substan-
tial pier improvements to support these
changes—a requirement of the MOA
with MARAD and a requirement for
federal support for all the academies se-
lected for the program—and the nuances
of establishing a resilient utility system
for a “building” at sea.
SUNY
At SUNY Maritime—the first academy
to receive upgrades for the new NSMV,
the Empire State—RMF Engineering
designed the academy’s new shoreside
infrastructure needed to accommodate
the ship delivered last year (9/22/2023).
A comprehensive load analysis was con-
ducted on the new vessel’s shore power
demand for a variety of MARAD stipu-
lated conditions.
A powerful national asset, the NSMV
was designed to provide world-class
training for the U.S.’s future mariners
and to support humanitarian assistance
and disaster relief missions in times of
need—bringing on-board state-of-the-
art hospital facilities, a helicopter landing
pad, and the ability to berth up to 1,000
people. This capacity represents a sizable
increase from the 791 that could be ac-
commodated on the previous vessel. The
NSMV also has a roll-on/roll-off ramp
and container storage allowing it to pro-
vide aid to damaged ports—translating
to a shore power electrical demand be-
tween 2000kVA to 4000kVA, depending
upon weather and operating conditions.
For comparison, the NSMV’s on-land
equivalent in terms of that electrical load
profile would be roughly a 70,500- to
150,000-square-foot high-performance
educational lab facility.
For SUNY, the incoming NSMV in-
creased by six times the electrical demand
of its former training vessel on a yearly
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