This week has seen remarkable achievements above and below ground, onshore and at sea.
Utility Week rounds up a selection of the key projects.
Yorkshire Water
Yorkshire Water has awarded £1 billion in frameworks, covering the full range of civil engineering requirements across its clean and wastewater assets from 2020 – 2025.
Each of the five-year frameworks come with an optional extension of up to three years, covering design and build projects, renewal and replacement of assets, and specialist works.
There is a total of 17 framework partners including Amey Utility Services, Barhale and Kier Integrated Services.
- Complex Civils – Design, build and refurbishment of treatment assets including reservoirs and pumping stations.
Appointed partners: Complex Civils, Barhale and Doosan Enpure, Eric Wright Water, Galliford Try Infrastructure, Interserve Construction, Kier Integrated Services, Mott MacDonald Bentley and Peter Duffy.
- Minor Civils Lot 1 – New build and upgrading works to treatment assets with limited design
Appointed partners: Amey Utility Services, Barhale, Clugston Construction, Interserve Construction, JN Bentley, Morrison Utility Services, Peter Duffy and Seymour (Civil Engineering Contractors).
- Minor Civils Lot 2 – Specialist works to water retaining structures
Appointed partners: nmcn, Seymour (Civil Engineering Contractors) and Stonbury.
InnoTecUK
The second phase of project to tackle subsea biofouling by a consortium led by InnoTecUK has been initiated.
Biofouling is the accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae, or animals on wet surfaces.
Its presence can decrease the efficiency of energy generation and lead to corrosion which can reduce the survivability of technologies.
The 24-month RoBFMS (robots to inspect, maintain and repair in extreme and challenging environments) project will develop an automated robotic system to monitor, identify and clean biofouling from subsea structures, building on the learning gained from the development of a prototype robot in phase 1.
The system will consist of a variety of sensors, navigation systems and camera equipment in order to monitor and detect fouling on submerged structures. It will also be capable of identifying defects within technologies in environments where human intervention presents high safety and cost concerns.
The fully functional system will contain cleaning systems which will be able to remove biofouling through the deployment of a focused high-power ultrasonic cleaning technique.
The robot is expected to be deployed for real sea testing on marine energy technologies at EMEC’s test sites in Orkney, off the north coast of Scotland, in Spring 2020.
Open Energi
Technology company Open Energi is working on a project to automate trading and optimisation of a front-of-the-meter battery at Hill Farm, home to the UK’s largest Tesla installation.
In collaboration with Zenobe Energy, Open has connected its “Dynamic Demand 2.0” energy optimisation platform to Zenobe’s 10MW/12MWh battery at Hill Farm.
By using Open Energi’s control software, Zenobe is able to further optimise its battery use across a wider range of ancillary services and trading markets
Open Energi says its platform increases responsiveness and tracks key indicators while reducing throughput and degradation to extend battery lifetime.
National Grid
National Grid has announced its 160-metre long tunnel boring machine has successfully completed an almost 5km tunnel underneath the River Humber.
The 4.86km tunnel from Goxhill on the south side of the river to Paull on the north bank took 18 months to complete.
Workers are now preparing to push through a vital pipeline which can provide up to a quarter of Britain’s gas supplies.
The next stage of the process will see two hydraulic thrust machines push eight huge 610-metre long and 850 tonne sections of pipe on rollers into the new tunnel from the Goxhill side.
The pipes will be pushed at about one metre per minute into the tunnel which will have been flooded with water to aid installation.
EDF Renewables
EDF Renewables has officially opened its Dorenell windfarm in Scotland, its largest European onshore windfarm to date.
The site in Moray consists of 59 3MW turbines which can produce enough electricity to power 106,000 homes.
Matthieu Hue, chief executive of EDF Renewables, said: “We take a long-term approach to the windfarms we develop and recognise the importance of supporting those communities in which we operate.
“It is great local people were able to join us to mark the opening of this project – and that local initiatives in the area will now be able to share in the success of the wind farm and benefit from the community fund in the future.”
Elsewhere EDF has announced that the world’s largest crane has arrived at the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station site.
At 250 metres tall, the crane is known as “Big Carl” and it can reach higher than the tallest tower at London’s Canary Wharf and can carry 5,000 tonnes in a single lift.
The Sarens SGC-250 crane will be used to lift large prefabricated sections of the power station into place. The crane was developed to support the growing trend towards modularisation in big construction.
The crane’s size and capacity allows large components to be built in covered factory conditions on site, which EDF says will improve quality and save time.
The SGC-250 runs along six km of rail track and will lift 700 pieces, with a maximum weight of 1,600 tonnes. At 50 metres radius, the crane can lift the equivalent of 32 single-storey houses or 1,600 cars. It was brought to Hinkley Point C in 280 loads from its base in Antwerp via Bristol Port’s Avonmouth Docks.
The port is also handling aggregates being brought to the site by sea and large loads like the tunnelling machines.
Simec Atlantis Energy (SAE)
Simec Atlantis Energy (SAE) has revealed plans to create a new data centre in Scotland.
The centre will be powered by SAE’s MeyGen tidal turbine project in the Pentland Firth. It would be supplied directly through a private wire network, avoiding the costs incurred through the use of the power grid.
The company envisions the data centre being connected to multiple international subsea fibre optic cables, offering fast and reliable connections to London, Europe and the USA.
It is hoping to get the centre up and running by 2024 in line with its plans to add another 80MW of capacity to the MeyGen project for its next phase.