E-SURV, a thriving, national building surveying business, is a truly 24-7 operation. Its headquarters is based in Kettering , near the very busy Newlands Shopping Centre, and is the central heart of all their operations. Every survey, every email and all paperwork pass through this office on a daily basis.

Trev Walker has already project managed the installation of 3 x 60kVA Powerware UPS Systems into this building, with CPP responsible for the round the clock emergency cover and maintenance of these units. We were now invited by Nigel Adams of E-SURV to implement a Generator to supplement these.

Working closely with our supplier, Scorpion Systems, CPP undertook a full survey of the site and submitted a written report back to E-Surv, the local council and the Centre Management team at Newlands. The only location for the Generator was on the second storey roof adjacent to E-SURV's offices. To compound the challenge, we had to take the Generator feed and supply cables down one storey of the building and then back up four, install the Generator and implement all of the necessary electrical works without disruption to either E-SURV's operations or the Shopping Centres.

After a structural survey was carried out by Paul Hutchinson of Hutchinson Whitlam Associates Civil and Structural Engineers, a plan for a steel framework was designed to span the roof section, with feet at critical loading points, and cradle the Generator centrally.

CPP then brought in a local specialist steelwork company, Henry Bilsons, to manufacture and erect the steel. The 330kVA Generator was delivered and then craned into position by another local company, County Lifting, using a small adaptable “city” crane which due to its light weight, allowed us to lift the set from the service deck at the back of the centre minimising disruption to the surrounding area. The lift went well, and 3 days after this, CPP's team of engineers then moved in over two weekends to complete the cabling. The generator had fitted a “super sound” noise reduction canopy to satisfy the local council's planning requirements, and residential needs.

On the second weekend following a scheduled power shutdown, the power was off in the entire building, CPP engineers, as part of the UPS maintenance program also carried out a complete battery change out of all three 60kVA UPS units. In total, 192 cells were manually lifted into place on the third and fourth floor of the building. As all the old cells had to be lifted out, CPP provided a fully certified battery disposal service to dispose of all these cells.

All in all, five days of installation works were carried out on the site, 95% of which were out of hours. The turnover of the Generator and Commissioning took place late on a Sunday evening in March, with staff returning to work on Monday morning unaware that they now had a building totally covered with emergency power.

CPP provided a total engineering solution, and Nigel Adams of E-SURV commented “this project has been a long time in planning, and with the installation of this vital cover, we feel secure now with all our future operations, and thank CPP for their consummate professionalism throughout”.

Trevor Walker of CPP said: “We were given a superb test in having to provide a major solution for a long standing client. I believe we rose to the challenge and provided a system that exceeded E-SURVS needs, one which will provide great service not just now but for many years to come”.

Notes to Editors:

Although MGE have now acquired American Power Conversion (APC), MGE products below 10kVA are now sold by another organisation. However, you can be assured of a continuous supply of APC and MGE products from Computer Power Protection Ltd.