Equans supplying low carbon energy for Edinburgh’s St James Quarter
Equans has completed the delivery of an energy centre at the £1bn St James Quarter venture in Edinburgh this summer, which is now supplying low carbon energy for the whole site.
The wider development includes a major retail space, bars & restaurants, residential apartments, a hotel, cinema and bowling alley. In addition, there are two levels of underground parking.
Equans’ Urban Energy business installed and commissioned an energy centre in the basement of the development, split over two levels, with the chilling plant located on the roof of the John Lewis store. The plant will deliver up to 7Mw of heat and 5.1Mw of chilled water; plus high voltage (HV) electricity to the development.
The build programme was interrupted by a complete shutdown for Covid between March 2020 and July 2020, but Equans has now successfully installed more than 100 tonnes of major plant, pumps, ancillary equipment, piping systems HV & LV electrical equipment and controls systems.
In addition to the energy centre build, Equans is adopting the distribution network for supplying the heating & cooling to the whole development, which has been installed by Laing O’Rourke. Once the pipe work systems were completed in the energy Centre and on the network, they were joined together ready for commissioning to commence.
If the UK is to meet its net zero carbon targets, energy generation has to be a consideration for all major developments – new and existing. “St James Quarter can be leading example of low carbon energy generation for mixed-use developments and Equans has the expertise to support this. We operate many large scale heating and cooling networks, including Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and ExCel. “This has been a monumental project to be a part of and we are thrilled to have been able to complete this in time for the opening, despite the delays caused by lockdown.
About Equans
Equans is a market leader in the sector with 74,000 employees leveraging 200 years of expertise. With revenues of €12 billion, Equans is present in 17 countries - mostly across Europe, but also with significant interests in North America, Latin America and Australia.
In the UK & Ireland, Equans is a provider of technical, FM, regeneration and energy services – with specialist capabilities in smart buildings, green mobility, district & embedded energy and decentralised renewables.
