London King’s Cross district cooling network fully operational

Metropolitan’s King’s Cross district cooling network in London is now live, following activation on Wednesday.

The network will serve the area north of Regent’s Canal, providing carbon-efficient cooling to four commercial and three residential buildings, and has been designed to enable later expansion to further buildings and customers.

The new district cooling network completes the implementation of tri-generation – the harnessing together of heat, power and cooling – at King’s Cross.

Tri-generation achieves significant carbon-emission savings, delivering on the project’s sustainability targets. The new cooling network operates alongside Metropolitan’s district heat network which has been providing heat and power for King’s Cross since 2013.

Cambridge Network reports that the centralised cooling system, consisting of the Cooling Pod and pipe network, removes the need to install and manage separate systems for each building, lowering running costs and assisting buildings to achieve higher BREEAM ratings.

The location for the Cooling Pod at King’s Cross presented a number of design, engineering and building challenges. It occupies a narrow strip of land next to the HS1 Channel Tunnel Rail Link (CTRL).  Maximising the limited space available to accommodate the cooling plant and towers was the first challenge and required an innovative design with a cantilevered first floor. The second challenge was to eliminate any risk of pluming drifting across the rail line and affecting train operation. The utilisation of three different types of chillers – absorption, water-cooled and air-cooled – together with a sophisticated Building Management System resolved these issues and optimised the cost- and carbon-efficient running of the network.

John Marsh, Managing Director of Metropolitan Infrastructure, noted that the district cooling network would have real benefits for customers: “The advantages extend beyond the expected reduction in running costs and capital savings. Customers of the district heating network are protected by the scheme’s membership of the Heat Trust, a self-regulatory initiative which recognises best practice, and we are confident that district cooling systems will also be covered under the scheme in the near future.”

The district cooling network at King’s Cross is just one part of the complete utility infrastructure delivered by Metropolitan there, which includes district heating, electricity, ultrafast Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH), gas, water, and wastewater.

Source: Decentralized Energy
London King’s Cross district cooling network fully operational