Cool and the gang

High efficiency combined cooling, heat and power units housed in the Olympic Energy Centres will help power the Games and fly the flag for community schemes of the future, says Leon van Vurren.

The Olympic Games will act as a showcase for alternative energy because they offer the perfect opportunity to present green technologies to the wider population – smarter, cleaner and more efficient energy systems that will shape our future. The organisers have placed particular emphasis on alternative energy resources, energy efficiency and the reusability of the infrastructure after the spectacle itself.

Integral to the Games’ overall energy strategy are combined heat and power (CHP) systems that will be used for energy conversion and distribution. An example can be found at the Olympic Energy Centre, the engine room of the Games. A 10MW project capable of powering up to 20,000 homes, the energy centre will be key to achieving London’s goal of putting on the greenest Olympics ever.

In fact, the Olympic Energy Centre is made up of two interconnected centres. The first, featuring two of GE Energy’s Jenbacher 3.3MW natural gas CHP units, is being built in the Stratford City development area and will support Olympic Park activities, as well as commercial redevelopment initiatives in East London.

The second plant, at Kings Yard on the western end of the Olympic Park, will be fitted with another of these units to help generate needed thermal power for the Aquatics Centre swimming pools and other venues via the park’s district heating network. The plant will also generate electrical and thermal power for sporting venues, homes and other buildings in the area.

The gas engines are capable of up to 90 per cent total efficiency, require about 40 per cent less primary energy compared with traditional high-voltage power supply and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 15 per cent (the model used for the Games is capable of up to a 30 per cent reduction).

In addition to generating electricity and heat for hot water, each 3.3MW engine produces chilled water via absorption chillers using the high temperature heat available from the exhaust of the unit. This turns the whole system into a CCHP – a combined heat, cooling and power system. The water is then either held in storage or piped directly, via an underground network, to the individual venues, arenas and buildings for domestic hot water usage, heating and air conditioning. This system therefore removes the need for each individual building to have its own boiler.

Once the closing ceremony has wrapped, these engines will continue to provide sustainable energy to the many thousands of homes that will be built in the wake of the Games. As demand grows with future development, the Stratford City and Kings Yard energy centres can be extended to provide 200MW of heat, 64MW of cooling, and 30MW of electricity.

A GE report found that only 12 per cent of the British public believe east London will have buildings that showcase green technologies after the Olympics. But as the largest community heating and cooling scheme to be built in the UK to date, the energy centres are not only part of a wider regeneration plan for east London, they will also be crucial in promoting efficient energy CHP technologies of the future.

Leon van Vurren, regional sales leader, Western Europe, GE Gas Engines business

Short-term solutions: temporary power systems at the Games

Temporary power systems will also help power the Olympics. Aggreko is providing more than 260MW of power using more than 500 generator sets, 1,500km of cable and 4,500 distribution panels. It is the biggest deployment of temporary power for a single sporting event ever in the UK, and will feature at each of the 54 venues during the Games to provide prime or back-up power.

The event will be the culmination of two years’ work by the company. Aggreko’s Olympics, run from two dedicated operation centres close to the Olympic Park, began in earnest in 2011 when it was named the exclusive supplier of temporary energy services. It supported the London Prepares series of events, the first phase of which was successfully completed in 2011, with Aggreko providing temporary power and engineering support at Horse Guards Parade for beach volleyball and at Eton Dorney, the venue for rowing and canoe sprints.

These test events enabled the Aggreko team to work with the London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) on design solutions to meet individual requirements and to work with venue teams to build good working relationships at an operational level.

More than 170 generators manufactured at Aggreko’s new £22 million manufacturing facility in Dumbarton and 11 transformers were transported to London by train to support Locog’s commitment to minimise environmental impact. The new temporary power equipment will be used immediately after the Games at a number of other locations.

Aggreko has experience gained from working on major international sports events such as the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the Fifa World Cup in South Africa and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. This experience helped it provide temporary energy services for London 2012 of unprecedented scale and complexity. For instance, the solution has had to allow for the growth of high definition television and increased use of internet technologies.

As well as powering the opening and closing ceremonies, Aggreko will provide vital back-up power to the various stadiums and Olympic sites across the UK. In addition, it will provide power for the “overlay” (additional infrastructure capacity) of the Games, which includes hospitality, security, ticketing, kitchen and the International Broadcast Centre, including powering computer equipment and TV feeds for journalists.

The core Aggreko team for London 2012 will be supported by up to 200 engineers, electricians and other staff, all of whom will enhance their skills working on the event.

Robert Wells, Aggreko head of Olympics business

This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 29 June 2012.

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