165kVA Generator Upgrade Project
Project Brief
The Generator Company was required to provide a generator upgrade at this North London neoclassical Town Hall, built in 1934. Their specification was to design, supply and install 1 x 170KVA Standby Generator and ancillary equipment to back up the council’s vital IT support systems in a very short period of time with a very tight delivery schedule.
This generator upgrade project included the dismantling and removal of an existing redundant 150kVA generator located in the councils underground car park and removal of the cleaner’s accommodation in the basement of the building for positioning the new generator. Restricted access to the building meant that all equipment had to be transported through a light-well in the centre of the building. Due to the importance of the IT suite the disconnection of the existing generator and the installation of the new generator needed to be carried out in a tight time frame of 2 hours to ensure the council did not lose their emergency back up support for an extended period of time.
In line with the requirements of the site,The Generator Company supplied 1 x 170kva Cummins generator, together with a 75dba@1m enclosure and a 1000ltr bulk tank and double skin pipe in pipe to fill point cabinet.
Prior to works commencing the project a permit was requested for the road closure, to allow the crane to deliver the generator and enable it to be close enough to crane the generator over the building down through the light-well to the generator room in the basement of the building. Minor alterations to the overhanging trees on the street adjacent to the building had to be made by a local tree surgeon as they hindered the crane lift into the building.
The cleaner’s accommodation building located in the basement of the Town Hall needed to be removed prior to the start of the insulation and a specialist abseiling contractor was used to carefully remove the bird netting from the light-well roof entrance. The fire escape stairwell had to be completely removed allowing the extra few inches needed to manoeuvre the equipment safely down through the light-well shaft and along the internal corridor to the chosen position.
On delivery of the 165kVA generator, enclosure, silencer and new fill point cabinet, our site project manager was on hand to supervise the off-load and positioning of all the equipment.
It was decided that new output and control cables were to be run from the existing ATS panel to the new generator installation to reduce the level of down time needed when the final connections took place. This was due to the existing generator functioning to back up the council’s vital IT suite and therefore any interruption in power would prove costly and down time needed to be kept to a minimum.
Once the new generator upgrade was in position and all associated cables were terminated into the generator circuit breaker, they were then run along the wall on cable tray and into the LV switch room ready for the site power shutdown.
Our Commissioning Engineer was given a 2 hour window in the middle of the night to remove the existing generator output cables from the changeover panel and then attached the newly installed cables from the new generator installation. The process ran smoothly without any problems and the mains power was reinstated inside of the 2 hour window allowing our engineer to complete the commissioning process.
The existing 150kVA generator and all redundant equipment were removed from site all within the time limit of the project.
The end user and consultant were very pleased with the work that The Generator Company carried out and guaranteed a good working relationship for the future.
