Metropolitan/Argent

King’s Cross – Operation and Maintenance

Executive Summary

In addition to designing and installing the energy infrastructure behind one of Europe's largest developments Vital Energi is also undertaking the 25-year operation and maintenance contract which ensures the system performs as expected with the minimum amount of down time.

  • stats-numerical
    £15m contract value
  • time-24-hrs
    24-hour per day coverage

Project Overview

Vital Energi have over a decade of experience in contributing to the King’s Cross development infrastructure.  As the site has evolved, we have created numerous solutions including the district heating and cooling networks, temporary and permanent energy centres and the ground-breaking cooling solution.  The primary assets under our responsibility now include:

  • The T1 energy centre – A combination of combined heat & power engines, boilers and thermal stores which produce heat and power for the development.

  • The King’s Cross Heating Network – The main spine, branches and building connections throughout the site.

  • The King’s Cross Cooling Pod – The Cooling pod will produce chilled water for cooling 14 sections of the development and houses a combination of air, water and absorption chiller cooling as well as thermal stores and associated plant.

  • The King’s Cross Cooling Network – The main spine, branches and building entries for the connected premises.

Our operations and maintenance contracts essentially see us responsible for the entire heating, cooling and electrical generation for the development.

Our Solution

Kings Cross EC 7464

At King’s Cross we had a team of three engineers and a contracts manager who oversaw all works.  We had an engineering presence on-site 24 hours per day from Monday-Friday and on-call engineers to respond to issues over the weekend within a timescale agreed with the client.  This team delivered all scheduled, preventative maintenance as well as reactive maintenance whilst ensuring legislative compliance.

Additionally, as part of the O&M contract we provided comprehensive reporting to the client so that they have a detailed overview of how the energy solution is performing.

Solution detail

Key Benefits

Sustainability is integral to the place being created at King’s Cross. The site-wide district heating network plays a key part in our overall energy strategy and helps to make King’s Cross one of the most sustainable developments in London. We are very proud that working with Metropolitan and Vital Energi we have been able to deliver this important piece of infrastructure and that it is continuing to play an essential role in the high environmental performance of all of the buildings at King’s Cross.

Clare Hebbes, Senior Project Director at Argent

King’s Cross – Operation and Maintenance

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