Case Study WhiteTower Energy
PROJECT OVERVIEW
Thinking Space were engaged to deliver the refurbishment of a small power plant control room and supporting facilities for WhiteTower Energy. Fulfilling the role of main contractor, Thinking Space responsibilities included all CDM works, subcontractor management, client liaison, full fit out works and the design and build of the control room furniture.
OVERVIEW OF CLIENT
Whitetower Holdings UK Limited, an entity owned by Rockland Power Partners 3 purchased Peterborough power station from CENTRICA in August 2021 creating River Nene Power Ltd.
With the growing portfolio of the Whitetower Energy power stations it was clear that a new control room was required and the Peterborough facility had such a building that would form the basis for this, although being over 30 years old was very dated and had been mothballed by its previous owners.
The scope was to produce a modern facility with a layout that would allow for future expansion of the business should further power stations be added to the group’s portfolio.
SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
The project was completed within a 12 week program. The works included the complete strip out of the existing control room and supporting facilities. This included offices, meeting room, server room, kitchen, locker room and toilets.
The refurbishment scope included the installation of a new AC system, electrical services, grid ceilings, raised floor, carpets, lighting, decoration, new kitchen and fit out of new toilets facilities.
Thinking Space assigned a dedicated project manager and a full-time site manager to coordinate proceedings. The project management scope included the creation of a Construction Phase plan, health & safety plan, full RAMS, coordination of induction and site management, along with all other preliminaries and the project programme.
Control Room Design
Within the control room, the design focused around two large curved consoles, each 8.4 metres in width. Each console was heavily populated with monitors to provide process management of the numerous WhiteTower Energy sites across the country.
The monitors were double stacked across the width of the desk, each on their own individually adjustable monitor arm. All monitors were mounted on columns that dropped into the moni-trak rail within the worktops. LED lighting was fitted into the footwell of the consoles to provide mood lighting within the control room that will aid the environment for late shift operators.
Large reference monitors were mounted on high level Evolution ceiling mounted supports. These screens provide overview data to the operators as required.
Finally, an engineering console was located in the corner of the room to allow technical management of local services, without disturbing the key operator positions.
The spacious control room space, allows for additional furniture to be installed in the future as the WhiteTower Energy portfolio expands.
After initial discussions and a visit to the Thinking Space factory they were able to produce a proposed layout of a what the refurbished control room would look like taking account key design features that were required by us.
A Project Manager was assigned who worked very closely with us and our contractors. Being a multi-disciplined project with key deliverables weekly project calls proved invaluable to maintaining the project on programme and resolving technical issues.
The project was delivered on time to budget with excellent communication throughout and as a client we felt our business was important to Thinking Space and would recommend to others considering this type of project.
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