Request for Proposal - RCCC - Buildings 555 & 570 - Replace HVAC Units with Chilled Water-Hot Water System, CC-080079-00

The County of Sacramento (County) is soliciting Requests for Proposals (RFP) for the Sacramento County Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center (RCCC) Building 555 and 570 Replace HVAC Units with Chilled Water-Hot Water System (Project). This project scope will provide full design services to replace twenty (20) packaged gas-electric rooftop HVAC units with individual rooftop chilled water and hot water air handler as replacement units. The air handlers will be paired with a new grade level chilled water and heating hot water heat pump plant. The design shall comply with Chapter 11 of the 2025 California Mechanical Code, that limits I-3 occupancies from receiving air conditioning from high-probability direct expansion systems. This will be an all-electric system.

Existing mechanical infrastructure at the RCCC campus is aging and the existing rooftop HVAC units that serve incarcerated persons at buildings 555 and 570 are beyond their useful life. Since 2016, the California Mechanical Code no longer allows high-probability, direct expansion refrigeration systems to replace existing direct expansion HVAC units (also known as packaged units) in kind at I-3 occupancies. The common approach to addressing this is to create centralized hydronic chilled water plant(s) to deliver cooling capacity to newly provided custom chilled water air handlers in place of their direct expansion existing counterparts.

Concurrently, as of November 2024, Sacramento County now has an approved Climate Action Plan (CAP) which requires approximately 85% carbon reduction from 2021 emissions levels by 2045. One way to help achieve this goal is to replace natural gas sourced HVAC units with air source heat pump alternatives. In pairing the CAP needs with the 2016 refrigerant requirements, this prompts an approach to delivering chilled and heating hot water from a central air source chiller/heater unit to replace the existing HVAC units at RCCC.

The electrical connection for this larger service at the central plant will come from the existing South electrical yard as a new feeder for this plant.