Standby Power

Case History
Institution of Civil Engineers

London landmark gets low noise, low emissions standby solution from Cummins ESB
Where:
London, UK The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) headquarters building occupies a prime location in the very heart of London you cant get more central than an address of One Great George Street, Westminster, overlooking Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. The venue is so well-located and so prestigious, it has even been chosen as the international media centre for the London Olympics. Like its headquarters building, the ICE itself has a long history. The ICE was founded in 1818, granted a Royal Charter in 1828, and moved into One Great George Street in 1839. Over the centuries, it has built up a presence not just in its own country but around the globe. Today it has around 83,000 members in 148 countries, including Canada and the United States and a long list of countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, including Hong Kong, India, Korea and Japan. For its membership worldwide, the ICE functions as a qualifying body, a centre for the exchange of specialist knowledge, and a provider of resources to encourage innovation and excellence in the profession.

Supply:
A containerised 315 kWe Cummins natural gas generator set with a QSK19G engine

Application:
Low-noise standby power in a restricted emissions zone

The Cummins natural gas generator set had to be hoisted into place on the roof of the ICE headquarters building.

The QSK19 natural gas engine was built under supervision by Cummins ESB and converted to meet the latest European standards.

But the headquarters building at One Great George Street does even more than serve the needs of ICE members. Its halls and rooms are also available for hire as venues for a wide spectrum of business and non-business events, ranging from conferences and seminars to private dinners and wedding receptions. The building even boasts a top quality restaurant in the basement. Such a high-profile building needs a reliable source of back-up power, and clearly any generator set installed would have to be able to run quietly without disturbing the buildings many roles. But there is a further problem. Because the building is so central, it comes within a protected zone in which use of diesel engines is strictly regulated, even for taxis and public transport vehicles. Having a diesel powered standby system in such a location would be out of the question. The answer for the ICE was to go for natural gas, and its preferred choice for providing the solution was Cummins Power Generation Energy Solutions Business (ESB). Cummins ESB installed a 315 kWe Cummins generator set equipped with a QSK19G engine and able to run on natural gas. The Cummins series of natural gas generator sets feature strong motorstarting capability and fast recovery from transient load changes. The torque-matched system includes a heavy-duty Cummins 4-cycle spark ignited engine, an AC alternator with high motor-starting kVA capacity, and an electronic voltage regulator with three phase sensing for precise regulation under steady-state or transient loads. Generator sets in this series can come with optional weather-protective housings and coolant heaters to shield the generator set from extreme operating conditions. Environmental concerns are addressed by low exhaust emission engines, sound-attenuated housings, and exhaust silencers. For the ICE headquarters building, Cummins ESB supplied the generator set with its QSK19G engine complete with remote monitoring and remote start/ stop capability. The generator set was delivered as

The installation process required Great George Street, which is right next to Parliament Square, to be closed while the containerised generator set was manoeuvred into position
a containerised solution. It could be installed quickly and simply alongside other parts of the system, hooking up to the building management system and a gas booster. It could also be hoisted to its working location, seven floors above street level on the roof of the building. The installation process required Great George Street, which is right next to Parliament Square, to be closed while the containerised generator set was manoeuvred into position. The operation went without a hitch, and the Cummins ESB solution started up the same month it was installed. Not long after, a grid failure in the Westminster area of London put the new system to the test which it passed with flying colours. The ability to deliver a low-noise, non-diesel solution was key to Cummins ESB being chosen as the supplier. Cummins ESB demonstrated it could deliver on time and at a cost effective price, and that it had the support of a well-established international company. The systems performance in the Westminster grid outage proved beyond doubt that the ICE headquarters building has low noise power that cuts in quickly and efficiently and doesnt breach the diesel engine restrictions of the heart of London. For more information about Natural Gas Standby Power or other energy solutions, contact your local Cummins Power Generation distributor or visit www.cumminspower.com/energysolutions.
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