HEADLINES
Central energy centre and CHP for a new 150-hectare community
8 x 1MW boilers and 1MW CHP
80% of the site’s pipework/steelwork fabricated off-site
Half the time taken compared to traditional methods
| Project Title | University of Cambridge |
| Value | £470,000 |
| Location | Cambridge |
| Duration | 22 weeks |
OVERVIEW
The University of Cambridge’s new district and extension to the city – the North West Cambridge Development – provides a mixed academic and urban community.
The scheme has 1,500 homes for university and college staff; 1,500 private houses for sale, accommodation for 2,000 postgraduates; a primary school; health centre; hotel; care home and local shops.
CHALLENGE
In order to power this 150-hectare community, we manufactured the associated pipework for a central energy centre with a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) system.
SOLUTION
Eight 1MW boilers and a 1MW CHP system was prefabricated off-site and in total, 80% of the site’s pipework and steelwork was made using this method.
A 12” DN300 low temperature hot water mains to serve the district scheme and three, nine metre high thermal stores were among the large-scale pieces made and transported to site.
Our experienced CHP team consisted of engineers, welders, site supervisors and project managers to carry out off-site fabrication, off-site checking, delivery (in co-ordination with the development’s progress on-site), installation, connection and re-testing.
RESULTS
The benefits of prefabricating the pipework off-site were enormous for the North West Cambridge Development’s construction team.
This included reduced labour, build and parts costs, greater build control, preinstallation testing and crucially, it halved the overall time taken compared to traditional on-site methods being used and resulted in a defect-free project.
