STOKE-ON-TRENT DISTRICT HEAT NETWORK CONCEPT DESIGN

SSE

BACKGROUND

The Stoke-on-Trent District Heat Network (DHN) scheme, is an innovative low carbon heat scheme for the city.

The project will utilise heat extraction from a new state-of-the-art Energy Recovery Facility which will distribute heat to customers across the city through a DHN of 22km in length (11km of trenching). It will be future-proofed to connect to further loads as the new legislation for zoning will be established and new sources, such as Geothermal, become available. 

The project will aim to maximise building connectivity for a number of existing buildings throughout the city and also support connection of future developments that are able to take advantage of a city-wide low carbon heat source.

OUR ROLE

D3A was appointed by SSE as the lead DH designer to provide a RIBA Stage 3+ “Design for Tender”.This included undertaking a thorough review of the proposed route, along with building connectivity and delivering a 2D outline route. The route was then developed further in a 3D environment, taking account of both above ground infrastructure and buried utilities and a level of optimisation carried out to trench depths in order to support a robust foundation for installers to subsequently price against as part of a formal tender. 

As an output from the model circa 300+ design drawings were produced, these including General Arrangements with and without utility data plus a series of outline Long Sections to provide an assessment of the route deviation required as a result of buried utilities.  

As part of the scope, D3A also managed a series of specialist sub-consultants to deliver a series of desktop studies, including Archaeology, UXO and Historic Ground Conditions. We also undertook mathematical modelling of the demands in order to validate the pipe diameters for each leg. As designer we also managed a series of staged design reviews throughout the design process. 

OUTCOME

Despite a highly compressed programme, D3A successfully delivered all elements of the project ahead of schedule, working closely with SSE and Stoke-on-Trent City Council to ensure they were fully engaged and consulted throughout.

We jointly and successfully managed the risks to the programme, clearly highlighting all major health and safety, technical, commercial and delivery risks and proactively implementing a risk management plan to ultimately reduce or remove any risks. 

As part of a continuous improvement philosophy, we have also used the learning from this project to further optimise its delivery processes so that new projects can take full advantage of this experience. 

In summary, the project will now ensure that the city of Stoke-on-Trent DHN scheme has a robust design for the network, providing a basis for tendering activities and ultimately enabling a critical part of DH infrastructure to be deployed as part of UK District Heating Network roll out.