OCS PROVIDES A COOL SOLUTION TO HOTTER SUMMERS AT LANDMARK LONDON SITE

The challenging and complex replacement of roof-based chiller plant at one of the City of London’s landmark buildings has been successfully completed by OCS Engineering, the engineering and technology support division of the UK’s leading property support services group.

The contract included the safe removal of two twenty-year-old duplex chiller units at Senator House in Queen Victoria Street and the specification and installation of new chiller plant on the building roof.

The project was planned and managed by OCS Engineering and required critical scheduling to bring together all phases of the work yet at the same time ensuring minimal interruption to busy traffic conditions around the building. “We planned the project to complete the works in an original timescale of thirteen weeks from commencement to completion. However, this was achieved in just seven weeks with an additional two weeks prefabrication of pipework offsite. This considerably shortened turnaround added major logistical considerations to the project,” said OCS Engineering managing director, Richard Burl.

This involved the provision and coordination of a number of trades required at each stage of the project including engineering, crane lifts, factory production, pipework engineering, control engineering, fabricators and many more. The restrictive work area at street level meant mainly weekend working to facilitate access for the 300 ton crane which, after rigging and de-rigging, left only a three hour window for lifting. At this crucial stage, an OCS team of 25 specialists worked together to to ensure safe, on-time completion of the work.
“Not only did we have to plan the removal and installation meticulously,” said Richard Burl, “we also had to specify the optimum configuration of replacement chiller plant to meet the client’s demands for a replacement cooling system able to operate more efficiently We also had to take into account the need to meet the City of London’s requirements involving restrictions to roofline plant intruding on on the City’s roofscape.”

The replacement chillers were required to deliver higher efficiency and performance, ensuring long-term comfort for the occupants of the building.
The new units have the benefit of state-of-the-art control systems with built-in computer access port for programming of sensitive adjustment to building operating conditions and external climate changes. This promises long-term operating cost savings with CoPs of 3.13

Although awarded as a separate contract, OCS had already earned the trust of the building owners and operators through its responsibility for the care of full HVAC services for Senator House. The on-site OCS team manages BMS, water services, heating and ventilation, drainage and power factor correction in addition to chiller plant maintenance.

Chris Cracknell, chief executive of OCS, which employs 61,000 people in four continents, said, ‘This project, delivered in an extremely demanding timescale, demonstrates the importance of trusting an engineering team which can call on both a depth and breadth of professional resource and which is well used to working together as a team of professionals. It mirrors perfectly the OCS philosophy of going the extra mile to ensure client satisfaction.”