For the third time in four years, Madison-based Affiliated Engineers, Inc., has taken one of the industry’s top awards for building systems engineering. A unique project involves helping UTMB at Galveston replace and improve its destroyed underground utility systems after Hurricane Ike in 2008 left the entire campus — over one million square feet — under five feet of water. Frei, who’s leading the UTMB project, said the work of rebuilding those utilities is now about three-quarters of the way finished. The project included key design features such as the elevation of boilers and chillers to better protect against future storms; replacement of much of the original steam system with a more resilient and efficient hot water system; and creation of an on-site, 15-megawatt micro-power grid to supplement off-site energy sources and ensure the campus is never again isolated with all systems down, as it was for three months after the hurricane, pending repair of outside electric utilities. “In the case of UTMB, we lost water, we lost gas, we lost electricity,” Frei said. “We lost all those utilities. As we go forward, we’re able to generate our own electricity, our own gas, our own (hot) water — we’re in a position now that (the campus) can be sufficient as an island.”