Vital Energi is helping Imperial College London’s transition to net zero

Vital Energi have been awarded the £11.5m design and build contract at Imperial College London, where they will de-steam the energy centre, saving 2,400 tonnes of carbon a year and accelerating the College’s journey to net zero by 2040.

Imperial College London is home to over 20,000 students and members of staff across many campuses, and as well as upgrading equipment within the existing energy centre at the South Kensington campus, Vital Energi will be decarbonising multiple campus buildings, including the Central Library, Biochemistry, Engineering, City Guilds building, and the Sherfield Building, which is one of the largest on site.

The project received grant funding from the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS), which is administered by Salix Finance on behalf of the Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), formally part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

To make the campus more sustainable, Vital Energi will be replacing three 12MW steam generation boilers with 3 new 10MW efficient boilers, which will serve as the main source of heat generation in the Energy Centre. From these a primary circuit of Medium Heat Temperature Hot Water (MTHW) will be installed to three main plate heat exchangers which will serve the entire campus, and then feed into the multiple buildings and faculty facilities. Vital will design and install the Medium Temperature Hot Water (MTHW) and Low Temperature Hot Water (LTHW) network which distributes water around the campus.

Once the energy centre is complete, it will serve heating and hot water to the whole campus.

Work has already commenced with an aim to be completed by winter 2023.