Vital

Vital Power (UK) Ltd are working closely with The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland in upgrading the infrastructure within the 87 acre site at Edinburgh Zoo.

Following a recent upgrade from LV supply to an HV supply new substations were installed at the Lion House and to the rear of the Budongo Trail, a subsequent extension to the network saw a third HV substation installed at the Mansion House.

Proposals for a final substation to be installed and the completion of the internal HV ring are being considered and will hopefully progress early in the New Year.

This upgrade constitutes a major investment by the Royal Zoological Society into the site in Edinburgh and Vital Power are pleased to be associated with this organisation.

GTC is a nation-wide provider of energy infrastructure to the new-build market, and in 2008 reached a milestone of 500,000 homes or commercial properties connected or contracted to be connected to a GTC network.

GTC offers various combinations of products to its customers, covering all utility needs including single fuel, dual fuel or in some areas multi-utility.

Customers can be sure of the quality of work delivered, as under its two Ofgem-licensed businesses - GTC Pipelines Ltd (for gas) and The Electricity Network Company Ltd (for electricity) - GTC will own and operate networks in perpetuity whether built by their own construction division operatives or by accredited infrastructure providers, including Vital Power.

Vital Power are contracted to carry out the installation and maintenance of electricity networks on behalf of GTC in Scotland, the North West, North East and Central England.

Once GTC have secured the contract with the customer, the design of the new network is issued to Vital Power who carry out the excavation works, substation installation, cable installation, cable jointing and  connections.

Vital Power also provide an emergency call out facility for GTC where in the event of a supply failure on one of its sites action can be taken quickly to assess and deal with the problem.

Vital Power have to date complete works to sites in Leeds, Ellesmere Port and Oswestry, and have ongoing works to sites in Sheffield, Barnsley and in Lanark.

Client:  London Underground Limited
Location: Metropolitan Line, London
Start Date: 17th April 2009.
Completion:  November 2009.

Vital Power Ltd were approached in April 2009 by London Underground, sub surface lines (SSL) in regard to Vital’s experience and capabilities to install DC traction power cables into the LUL infrastructure.

The work involved installation of new 935mm cables to supply power to the newly installed  Extra Low Loss Composite Conductor Rail (ELLCCR) being installed by LUL. In order to carry out the work Vital Power had to have personnel with London Underground experience, entry permits and all relevant certification for carrying out the work and able to begin work almost immediately.

Vital Power having all the required skills and accreditations were able to react positively to the request and able to start within four days providing a fully competent managed team which not only included the skilled personnel but also the protection masters and SPIC’s, thus able to work as a stand alone team.

To date Vital Power have installed thousands of metres of cable and terminations (sweated lugs)

Vital Power has delivered on time, on schedule and within budget.

Project Management and Site Supervisory Services for Schneider Electric Ltd at Media City Salford Quays

Client:            Schneider Electric UK
Project:          Media City, Salford Quays
Start Date:     July 2008
Completion:    September 2009

Vital Power have recently provided Project Management and Site Supervisory services to Schneider Electric Ltd at Media City Salford Quays.

These services have assisted Schneider Electric Ltd in successfully delivering complex MV and LV projects on the new BBC Media City Site.

These include:-

a) The design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of 12 off packaged substations in buildings A, B and C.  The acoustic and vibration isolation criteria to which the package substations have to comply are particularly onerous and have resulted in unique designs incorporating transformer spring mountings and acoustic enclosures.  Each substation consists of a MV 6.6KV incoming Vacuum Circuit Breaker (Genie Evo), a step down transformer 6.6KV/417V installed inside an acoustic enclosure and a LV switchboard (Okken type) incorporating Air Circuit Breakers, MCCB’s and Power Factor Correction equipment.

b) The design and manufacture (for free issue to installation contractor) of Canalis busbar and tap off distribution boxes (1000A to 5000A) distributing power throughout each of buildings A, B and C.

c) The design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of 6 off Un-interruptible Power Supply (UPS) Switchboards (Okken type) controlling 6 UPS units which ensure the electrical supplies to buildings A, B and C are not interrupted.

d) The installation and commissioning of 5 off 2MVA generator and synchronisation sets for the BBC.

e) The design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of 2 off 13 section main incomer switchboards (Genie Evo) distributing power to packaged substations throughout the site.

f) The design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of 2 off generator control 7 section switchboards which support power to the site in the event of mains power loss.

g) The design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of equipment providing power to the multi-storey car park.  Equipment includes; transformer and ring main unit, Canalis busbar from transformer to LV switchboard (Okken type), LV switchboard and LV generator.

h) The design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of equipment providing power to the Tri-Gen Combined Heat and Power Facility.  Equipment includes; transformer and ring main unit, Canalis busbar from transformer to LV switchboard (Okken type), LV switchboard and LV generator.

i) The design, manufacture, installation and commissioning of equipment providing power to the Studio Building.  Equipment includes; transformer and ring main unit, Canalis busbar from transformer to LV switchboard (Okken type), LV switchboard and LV generator.

Vital Power have established a strong working relationship with Siemens Metering Services to undertake meter installations and associated services. With a significant presence and workload in inner London we have been successful in achieving the highest performance standards and KPI returns. 

We undertake the installation of electricity metering in both the domestic and business sectors.

Our service includes full installation of single and three phase metering, AMR, testing, load checks, and 24/ 7 emergency call out standby.

Our dedicated supervisory carry out full quality and safety auditing in accordance with industry standards and legislation, this is supplemented with additional management and client audits to ensure that the highest standards are maintained.

This contract is still on-going.

TruRead is one of a few major participants in the UK offering a completely managed end to end Automated Meter Reading service using its own technology.

Vital Power works in partnership with TruRead to provide a complete installation service for their products.

A key element of the services provided by TruRead is the supply and installation of data loggers on gas meters and the subsequent collection and management of energy usage data.

The loggers record the pulse outputs of the meters and then automatically communicate the data to a central unit where the information is used to provide real time energy consumption information that is available to clients on line.

Vital Power has MPU agreements in place with the major UK Gas suppliers that authorise us to undertake the installation element of the Data Logger equipment on behalf of TruRread.  Our fully trained and authorised operatives provide a full national coverage for the installation and commissioning of the data loggers.

In addition to the installation of data loggers on Gas equipment Vital and TruRead are now carrying the installation of similar equipment for water metering. Where the existing water meter does not have a pulse out put we are able to install a new meter with the correct capability and the data logger, this again enable a dumb meter to become smart.

The existing partnership arrangement has been very positive for both parties and the volume and scope of work continues to grow.  

Vital Power undertakes electricity metering installation services in North West England, East Midlands, Yorkshire and North East England.

The work undertaken is predominately high volume domestic single phase metering and includes multi rate and key meters. The projects are managed from our Liverpool office and each has dedicated supervision, administration and support from our HSE and auditing staff.

The overall scope of work undertaken varies across the areas and can include, scheduling, planning, recertification, customer driven, and out of hours on call works.

Metering assets that are supplied free issue from United Utilities are managed via our bar coding system that ensures all meters are individually recorded into and out of our stores with the issued to operative recorded.

The majority of the operatives undertaking the work have graduated from our in house training facility with subsequent assessment and authorisation carried out by United Utilities.

The contract is planned to continue into 2010.

The Vital Power management team have a strong commitment to training and staff development within the company. This is very clearly demonstrated in our metering business.

Following our initial success in securing metering contracts it became clear that the availability of suitably trained and skilled resource was limited.

In order to ensure that the quality of our staff was maintained at the levels that we and our clients expected we committed to establishing a training centre at our Liverpool office.

In consultation with our clients we recruited a training manager and established procedures and documentation to ensure that all aspects of safety and vocational training were fully covered during the training course. Training bays that simulate the on site arrangements were installed and a lecture room was built.

A detailed recruitment procedure was put in place to ensure that all trainees were confirmed as suitable for the course. The training has an emphasis on safe working and concentrates on all aspects of single and three phase metering with CT metering to be introduced during 2009. 

Following the training and internal assessment the trainees are presented to the relevant client for further interview and assessment prior to authorisation.

Following this they undertake a period of on site mentoring with an existing experienced member of our workforce, an additional review is then undertaken and if approved the operatives begins site work. A detailed auditing regime is undertaken on an ongoing basis for all operatives.

To date in excess of two hundred trainees have successfully completed our training and have gone on to be fully authorised meter installers. During 2008 and 2009 our trainees have received a qualification at NVQ level 2.

As a result of the success of our Liverpool training centre we have now established a further metering training centre at our Manchester training base.

This will allow us to increase both the volume and content of our training and further demonstrates our commitment to the industry.

West Burton Power Station Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Project.

EDF Energy has commissioned the building of a new Gas Fired Power Station adjacent to the existing West Burton Power Station.

This new station is to have three identical generating units that will provide a total of 1300MW of electricity, and will take 3 years to build with completion scheduled for mid 2011.

Each unit will comprise of:
A gas turbine-generator.
A heat recovery steam generator.
A steam turbine generator.
Cooling towers.
Transformers.

Gas reception facilities, water treatment, auxiliary steam and compressed air will be shared between the three units.

Vital Power has successfully completed the installation of containment systems, cabling and connection of the power and control wiring within the Electrical Switch Yard and Control building.

The cable containment system comprises two tiers of ladder racking within concrete cable troughs installed across the 260 metres wide site. Cable trays are provided above ground fixed to the equipment steelwork which will carry the cables rising to the control panel termination points.

Within the control room a network of cable basket has been designed and installed beneath the raised flooring to allow cable access to each of the 34 panels and control desk.

In excess of 50000 metres of cable with over 2000 glands and 24000 terminations made up the power control and monitoring wiring system for the substation switch yard.

Vital Power is worked closely with ABB to ensure that the project was delivered safely, on time, on budget, and to the highest of standards.