1.5 megawatt Biomass Boiler.
At Melcon, we have been providing our service to Kingspan Insulation at their UK head office in Pembridge for in excess of 30 years. Kingspan are a keen adopter of eco friendly technologies, so when they had the green light to go ahead with a new 1.5 Megawatt Biomass Boiler project, to provide heating to their vast warehouses, they had to look no further than Melcon to provide the electrical installation to power the new machinery.
We were initially approached by Kingspan to provide the sub main distribution, power and lighting along with a fire alarm system in the new purpose built structure to house the new equipment. Eventually, this evolved into issuing a quote and ultimately being asked by Wood Energy (who installed the machinery) to provide the electrical installation for the power supplies and control wiring for the Biomass Boiler itself on a sub-contract basis.
The electrical works commenced in late February 2016, starting with the installation of the lighting and power in the warehouse, all circuits were wired in SWA cable and clipped to cable tray and ladder rack which we had installed. The lighting in the warehouse is controlled by individual PIR (passive infrared) sensors at each light fitting; these monitor ambient light and movement to determine whether to turn the light on. The new circuits were connected into a new distribution board for the building.
Next up was the task of installing the 100m of sub main cable. This was to provide power to the new building; the supply had to be taken from a distribution panel located in the adjacent factory building. The work had to be carried out on a Saturday, as to minimise disruption in the busy factory from which the supply had to be taken from. The job also required the use of two scissor lifts and two boom lifts, as the cable was to be installed on some existing cable containment approximately 6 metres above the ground. With a gang of three electricians and three apprentices, the cable was installed, clipped to the existing containment and connected at each end in a matter of a few hours.
After the installation had been tested and energised we were approached by Wood Energy to provide the electrical installation for the boiler itself. The main cable runs consisted of two compartment galvanised cable trunking with one compartment used for low voltage cables, supplying mainly motors and other items operating at 230 volts and the other compartment used for extra low voltage cables, mainly used for the various number of sensors located around the boiler. Galvanised conduit was used to carry cables from the main routes of trunking to their final location and some flexible conduit was used insituations where it was impractical to use galvanised conduit.
The final result is one which Melcon and Kingspan themselves are very proud of, with the project being completed on time and to an extremely high standard. The long standing partnership between the two companies is testimony to the quality of service and workmanship we provide.
