Severnside Energy Recovery Centre

The SERC project was undertaken to contribute to meeting the need for new facilities in London, providing capacity to deal with up to 400,000 tonnes of commercial and residual waste from 2016.

The majority of the waste arrives by rail to an adjacent railway transfer area, from two facilities serving the West London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames.

SERC produces and exports enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 50,000 homes.

VVB’s scope of works was primarily Building Services orientated, and included:

• Site wide power distribution: non-essential, essential and emergency supplies
• Fire systems: Fire Detection BS5839 P1 System and fire suppression in accordance with ACE guidelines
• The building management system: HVAC and water services control, intelligent lighting control, and natural ventilation control
• A security system: internal and external CCTV and access control
• Communications system: including structured data cabling network, VoIP installations and a disabled refuge system

Our installation at SERC is site wide, designed to be robust and meet the challenging conditions of energy from waste management.

VVB’s role included:

• Design, Installation and Commissioning of Mechanical, Electrical (M&E) and Control systems
• Liaison with consultants and the end user, managing specialist suppliers and subcontractors, and coordinating with the Civils team

We used current BIM and 3D Drafting Facilities to ensure that the installations were fully coordinated and integrated with the building structure, as well as the complex process environment. This meant we could provide graphical simulations so our engineers and operatives could see the facilities before they were built.

The construction period was two years, with our Mechanical, Electrical, Public Health, Fire and Security installations undertaken in approximately one. We were then involved in the handover of the facilities to the operators, providing training and advice on the operation and maintenance of the installations.