DISTRICT HEAT NETWORK PERFORMANCE REVIEW

MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

BACKGROUND

The Birley Field campus consists of accommodation for 1000 students and an academic block. The site is served by a LTHW district heating system generated from an energy centre with 3000 kW of gas fired boiler plant with an additional 400kW generated by the rejected heat from a Combined Heat and Power unit with thermal storage.

d3associates were commissioned to conduct a conditional survey of the Energy Centre and the satellite plant rooms located in accommodation blocks A, B, C, and D as well as the Academic blocks, two main roof top plant rooms. The purpose of this survey was to review the control and hydraulic arrangements of the existing heat interface units and district heating network with the intent to provide hydraulic model (developed with Hydraulic Analysis Limited) and recommendations with regard to optimising the LTHW systems flow rate with supply and return temperatures whilst optimising the usage of the CHP plant and thermal storage and effectively utilising the rejected heat into the district heating system.

OUTCOME

d3associates and Hydraulic Analysis Ltd provided initial advice to Manchester Metropolitan University with regard to confirming the suitability of the existing district heating primary pumps to meet the varying loads throughout the year. Further analysis of the heating demand profiles for space heating, mechanical ventilation and domestic hot water usage attributed to the accommodation blocks and academic building.

New heat metering devices, installed over the summer of 2018, will be developed further to provide real data to for input into the hydraulic model soft ware. Once this data input is completed during the heating season 2018-2019 the model will be used to fine tune the controls and operation for the most economic operation of the CHP, thermal storage and gas fired boilers.

The whole process has relied upon a relationship being developed between the surveying team and the University Estates Department. A regular dialog between the parties avoided abortive work with regard to the operation of plant, which was being upgraded as part of other works commissioned by the Estates Department and work to verify the impact of the improvements to the control systems is ongoing.