Renewable energy under control
To control state-of-the-art geothermal and solar technology in the latest development in the PaddingtonCentral development in London, Integrated Control Systems has designed and installed the building-management system. It will monitor and control and also provide information on the efficiency that the entire system is achieving. One Kingdom Street has a conventional controls installation with a Tridium infrastructure with 14 motor-control panels and 22 interface panels. Form 2 motor-control panels are incorporated into air-handling units. Form 4 panels were built to serve the life-safety systems. Others are linked to boilers, chillers, fans etc. There are two JACE (Java Application Control Engine) communications controllers/routers on each floor to communicate with 642 fan-coil units that are configured to enable the building to be split into two demises. The geothermal system comprises primary and secondary circuits and provides heating and cooling to ceiling-mounted fan-coil units in two zones. One is the reception area and atrium with underfloor heating. The other zone comprises toilets and lift lobbies with ceiling-mounted fan-coil units. The primary circuit has a series of underground pipes, a set of constant-speed duty/standby pumps and a connection to geothermal heat pumps. The secondary circuit has connections to the geothermal heat pumps and includes a set of inverter-driven duty/standby pumps to serve two temperature-control zones. A comprehensive set of alarms for the geothermal system has been built into the BMS, which constantly monitors 27 temperature sensors and controls the operation of the system to achieve a room temperature of 21°C at each location. Alarms at the BMS outstation will be sent to the central supervisor if some sensors call for heating and some call for cooling. The geothermal heat pumps are enabled as required by the geothermal control strategy. The BMS will sequence four stages to maintain flow-temperature setpoint as sensed via the primary flow temperature from the secondary-circuit heat meter and monitor each pump for fault signals. Controlled by the BMS, there are two single-speed pumps for the primary geothermal circuit and a set of inverter-driven duty/standby secondary pumps serving geothermal circuits in the atrium, reception, south core toilet and lift lobby. A solar heating system that is believed to be one of the larger ones of its type in London complements the geothermal system. 62 solar panels on the roof heat two 3000 l vessels in the basement, which in turn preheat incoming potable water from the mains in a 1000 l buffer vessel before it passes to two hot-water storage calorifiers. The BMS will monitor the energy consumption of the heat pumps and calculate fuel savings and carbon emissions. The contract was awarded by Skanska. M&E consulting engineers were Faber Maunsell.
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