CASE STUDY
Making the right connections for renewable energy
Veolia Water’s Infrastructure Services team provided the
electrical connections enabling an anaerobic digestion (AD)
facility to export renewable energy to the Grid.
When Cumbria’s Dryholme Farm was
setting up an AD facility and needed an
electrical connections expert, Farmgen
appointed the Infrastructure Services
team as Principal Contractor under CDM
(construction, design and management)
for all the offsite and onsite associated
works.
Project Manager Dave Harrison said:
“Our contract was to provide a ‘one-stop’
service to the client for both the offsite
and onsite high-voltage (HV) installation
works.
“For the offsite works, we had to install
2.5km of 11kV HV cable from the point
of connection (POC) in Silloth to a HV
metered substation at the site boundary
that would be adopted by Electricity
North West, the Distribution Network
Operator (DNO). We carried out this
installation work as an Independent
Connection Provider (ICP).
“For the onsite works we installed a
private HV network and substation with
an export capability for 2.4MVA. This
included all the protection and control
equipment for the private HV installation
to comply with the requirements of the
DNO and to ensure that the client’s AD
plant generator met with all G59 import
and export generation requirements.
“The substation works to be adopted
included the procurement and
installation of a new type of DNO-
WHAT WE DO
Infrastructure Services is our
multi-utility project management,
design and construction business.
Our expert team can provide a full
end-to-end solution for electricity,
water and gas infrastructure and
connections, including private
networks after the meter.
specified G59 protection panel and
emergency tripping facility, which
was fully tested by our site team and
witnessed by the DNO. We also supplied
and installed the DNO substation glass
reinforced plastic housing and a separate
metering kiosk as well as the HV
substation earth mat.”
CASE STUDY
Pulling out all the stops to meet
superstore deadline
“The client’s private installation works
included a private HV cable and
multicore protection cable (0.5km), 11kV
switchgear, 3MVA transformer complete
with LV air circuit breakers (ACBs) and LV
singles from one of the LV ACBs to the
clients’ AD generator housing.”
The team also installed the private
substation GRP housing (complete
with fans for ventilation, internal small
power and lighting), and a marshalling
panel for all the necessary generation
indication and tripping capabilities –
and earthing – for the client’s private
substation and transformer.
Dave coordinated ‘pre-start’ meetings
with the local highways and bridge
structures departments at Cumbria
County Council to discuss the works
programme. It was agreed to delay work
PROJECT DETAILS
The Infrastructure Services team
worked to install a HV metered
supply, with G59 export capability.
The works include the installation of
DNO offsite HV cables and an onsite
substation, plus the client’s private
HV cable, onsite HV substation and
transformer (complete with LV ACBs)
and private LV singles to the
generator for the AD plant.
Veolia Water Infrastructure Services
Registered Office:
Fifth Floor, Kings Place, 90 York
Way, London N1 9AG
www.veoliawater.co.uk
on a section of the cable route located
close to a large caravan park, to avoid
a negative impact during the summer
holiday trading period.
There were a number of special
engineering difficulties for the team
to overcome during the project. One
required directional drilling under a
river culvert, in order to avoid damaging
it and to minimise disruption for
holidaymakers. Another involved a
quaint little humpback bridge - fixings
were not permitted, so the team
constructed a free-supporting highdensity duct crossing instead. The team
also used a similar method to span a
small stream on the farmer’s private
land.
Following an extensive programme of
testing and pre-commissioning, the site
was energised in October 2011 (only four
months after commencing works). Veolia
provided an Operational Engineer on the
day to ease the handover of the client’s
private HV installation, and completed all
MPAN registration (import and export)
with the DNO on the client’s behalf.
Impressed with the quality of its service
delivery, Farmgen has since awarded the
Infrastructure Services team a further
contract – another anaerobic digestion
plant on a farm in Cumbria.
Processes
Installations:
• 11kV HV cable (2.5km)
from POC location to
boundary DNO substation
• G59 export capability for
2.4MVA
• DNO offsite HV cables,
onsite substation, GRP
housing, metering kiosk
and substation earth mat
installation
• Client’s private HV cable,
onsite substation, 3MVA
transformer and LV
singles
• GRP housing (with fans
for ventilation) for client’s
private sub
Additional processes:
All pre-commissioning and testing
for both DNO and client’s private
HV installation requirements for
energisation
Coordinating MPAN process for
client’s metering installation
Coordinating client’s G59 testing
and witnessing with DNO for
generator plant protection and
synchronisation
Providing all Health and Safety
documentation to the client