Capitol Heat and Power Plant

​624 East Main Street

Madison, Wisconsin 53703-2913

Facilities Management Group 4

The Capitol Heat & Power Plant was constructed between 1908 and 1911 to be a relatively small (48,116 GSF) power plant that served the Wisconsin State Capitol building. Today, the chilled water and steam is routed to serve the downtown State of Wisconsin, Dane County, and City of Madison buildings only. 

The Plant was converted from using coal to natural gas in 2011. The Plant's 4 boilers generate high pressure steam that is converted to low pressure steam by the use of back pressure steam turbine generators (BPSTG) or steam turbine driven chillers. The low pressure steam is routed to absorption chillers and to the steam distribution system. The power plant’s BPSTGs also generate electricity for the Capitol building with emergency power provided by a diesel powered generator. Steam turbine generators provide parallel operation with the electric utility and a secondary source of electric generation for the Capitol and CHPP.