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The University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, has a 1,900-acre campus with approximately 119 buildings and 14.5 million square feet of building space. The University serves over 30,000 students, faculty, and staff. In addition to the dormitories and academic and administrative buildings, the University has a sizeable medical center and a large recreational complex, where the Iowa Hawkeyes compete in the Big 10 Athletic Conference. Central plant operations began in 1926, when the current central power plant was built with three coal boilers and two hydroelectric generators. In 1947, the power plant introduced cogeneration with the addition of a controlled extraction steam turbine. Today, the central plant supplies 100 percent of campus heating, 50 percent of campus cooling, and 30 percent of campus electricity demand. The primary source of fuel is coal. The plant purchases 110,000 tons annually on three contracts: one for stoker coal, one for washed bituminous coal used in the fluidized bed boiler, and one for a 10,000-ton emergency pile. Natural gas is used for peaking and backup stam production needs. On average, 15 percent of annual steam production is done with natural gas.