Center Parcs Longford Forest resort required renewable energy generation, ventilation that didn't harm tropical plants and a new €4.5m, 27km gas ...
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CASE STUDY | CENTER PARCS
PARADISE FORGED
Center Parcs Longford Forest resort required renewable energy generation, ventilation
that didn’t harm tropical plants and a new €4.5m, 27km gas main. Andy Pearson reports
S
hort-break operator Center Parcs’ Having worked as technical adviser to Center Parcs on some of its
first development in Ireland previous projects, including the recently completed Woburn Forest
is the 160-hectare Longford development helped. ‘Center Parcs is an end-user client, with very
Forest resort, currently under high standards, that will be running this resort for many years to come,’
construction near Ballymahon, says Ranby.
County Longford, Ireland. Servicing requirements for the luxury lodges are relatively
Scheduled to open in 2019, it will cater for up straightforward: each is provided with drinking water, gas, data,
to 2,500 guests, in 466 luxury lodges and 30 electricity and sewerage connections. However, the lodges are
apartments nestled in woodland. scattered throughout the wooded site, so the service routes had to be
At the heart of this huge development is a carefully designed to optimise connection lengths and resilience.
21,500m2 leisure and retail plaza. Built around The lodges are Center Parcs’ latest design, developed, evolved and
an open courtyard, it will house most of the prototyped, and trialled at its other UK resorts before being rolled out
restaurants, bars and leisure facilities, as well in Ireland. They have been designed to exceed the minimum standards
as the vast, enclosed complex of pools, rides, required to comply with Irish Building Regulations – for example, the
slides and rapids – the ‘Subtropical Swimming air permeability of a typical lodge is 3m3.h-1 per square metre at 50Pa.
Paradise’ in resort speak.
Creating a holiday destination in woodland, The renewable challenge
in the heart of rural Ireland, is quite a One significant difference between Ireland’s Building Regulations
challenge. ‘We’re effectively building a mini- and those in England and Wales is that, for domestic dwellings, Part L
town in a forest,’ says Daman Ranby, director requires a minimum of 10kWh.m-2 per year to be supplied by energy
of Edmond Shipway, the project’s mechanical generated using renewables. In England and Wales, no minimum
and electrical consultants. requirement for renewables on domestic dwellings is specified.
The task for Edmond Shipway was to Meeting the renewable energy requirement was a challenge. The
develop a robust, efficient servicing solution. lodges’ wooded location meant roof-mounted photovoltaic and solar
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CASE STUDY | CENTER PARCS
Center Parcs Longford Forest
Gas schematic
2/3/4 beds
Natural gas pipeline route to
Center Parcs, Co Longford.
Section 1 – Rathmore to Center
Subtropical Swimming
Parcs (180mm pipeline)
Section 2 – Ories to Rathmore-
Paradise pool,
Parcs (400mm pipeline) restaurant, sports
Back-up
facilities, bars, shops
Gas-fired
combinations boilers 35sec oil
BMS
BMS 210kWe
337kWth
210kWe
Dual-fuel 337kWth
conventional
boilers Two gas-fired
Gas Networks Ireland CHP units
Significant investment for national New 250 MMØ diameter
gas system operator Gas Networks 20MW gas compound
Ireland. A total of 27km of new low-pressure gas ring main
pipeline over two phases, taken around village
from Athlone.
BMS
BMS New gas
BMS pipeline
Utility meter/
Utility/sub
pressure gas meters
compound
Arrival lodge, cycle centre, pancake house,
housekeeping and technical services Spa, treatment rooms, outdoor
swimming pool, cafe, retail
Ø BALLYMAHON
M TOWN
M Back-up 71.0kWe
(FUTURE CONNECTION) 35sec oil
Gas-fired Gas-fired
Gas 4-bar combination or condensing 109kWth
source natural gas boilers boilers
Dual-fuel Gas-fired
ATHLONE TOWN conventional boilers CHP unit
Providing gas to Ireland’s first Center Parcs resort was the biggest utility challenge as there was no gas infrastructure in County Longford
thermal panels could not be used. ‘The panels would have been shaded renewables in the central facilities,’ he says.
by the trees and covered in pine needles,’ says Ranby. Heat and power for the central facilities
Micro domestic combined heat and power (CHP) units were also are supplied by two 300kWth gas-fired CHP
considered, but deemed too expensive compared with a standard engines for the leisure and retail complex,
domestic gas boiler – and the ongoing maintenance of 466 CHP units and one 100kWth gas-fired CHP engine for
was a ‘real concern’, says Ranby. the spa complex. This low carbon technology
The solution is to heat each lodge using a wood-burning stove was accepted as a suitable offset for the
with top-up space heating. All hot water is supplied by a gas-fired absence of renewables on the lodges; the
condensing combination boiler. According to Ranby, the wood burner expected carbon savings from the CHPs
counts towards the renewable requirement, with the remainder offset are predicted to exceed the carbon savings
by renewables used in the main leisure facilities. ‘Building control that would have accrued from the lodge-
was happy for us to offset the lodges’ renewables obligation with mounted PVs.
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CASE STUDY | CENTER PARCS
‘The thermal base load for the leisure and
retail complex is approximately 700kW, and
both engines will run for about 20 hours a
day – and one 300kWth unit will probably
run for 24 hours, to meet the continuous
heat and ventilation demand from the
Subtropical Swimming Paradise,’ says Dean
Maude, senior mechanical engineer at
Edmond Shipway.
The low-temperature hot water total heat
load for the retail and leisure complex is
7.5MW, which includes heat for the pools,
mechanical ventilation systems and domestic
hot water.
Top-up heat is provided by five 1,500kW
dual-fuel gas/oil-fired boilers. The fuel
oil connection provides resilience in the
event of a gas supply interruption. There
is no minimum renewables requirement
under Part L of the Building Regulations for
commercial buildings in Ireland.
Creating a paradise
The enclosed swimming complex is at the
centre of the resort. It will be maintained
at 31°C and 60% relative humidity to The Pancake House at Longford
create a balmy environment for up to 1,500 Forest resort (main picture); an
holidaymakers and the 2,335 lush, green isolation transformer (left, top);
and a gas skid (left, bottom)
tropical plants and trees that will festoon
the space. ‘The main draw on energy is the
heat and ventilation load for the pools,’ are strategically positioned around the
says Maude. site: one feeds the pool area and central
The size of the pool complex – and factors building west; one feeds the central
such as airborne water and chlorine, as building east, including other facilities in
a consequence of the water slides, water the restaurant/leisure complex; and the
jets and wave machines – mean that the remainder are dotted around the site, to
calculated ventilation rate for the space is feed power to the lodges and spa.
approximately 40m3.s-1, which equates to ‘The high number of substations is
about four air changes per hour. a function of how long the low-voltage
The three dedicated air handling units cables can be before it becomes cost
are capable of delivering 60m3.s-1 to offer effective to put in a transformer; we have
resilience and incorporate a margin for future around 6,000m of 10kV cabling alone,’
changes to the pool facilities. says Ranby.
‘We had to use CFD modelling to develop Power is supplied from a primary
the design because the tropical plants are substation, located approximately
very vulnerable to air movement,’ explains 12km away, by a cable that has been run
Maude. ‘We’ve made extensive use of fabric overhead and underground. ‘We’ve had
ducts and employed nozzle diffusers to to upgrade a primary substation and
supply high volumes of air over a long throw, negotiate with the various landowners
so as not to disrupt the planting.’ to bring this cable across their lands,’
explains Ranby. The supply went live at the end of July and is now
Infrastructure powering the construction site.
The resort and its leisure facilities are Data is via high-speed fibre, which has been routed 7km from
open all year round, so ensuring heat and Ballymahon. ‘The biggest utility challenge was providing gas, because
power are always available is a fundamental there was no supply available anywhere near the site,’ says Maude. In
requirement. ‘One of the biggest challenges fact, there was no gas infrastructure anywhere in County Longford.
has been getting utilities to site,’ says Edmond Gas is the primary fuel source for the project, which has a peak
Shipway’s Ranby. demand expectation of 14MW. To meet this, Gas Networks Ireland
The 3,000kVA import capacity electrical has installed a new 27km, 400mm diameter, 4-bar, medium-pressure
supply to the resort is delivered through main from Athlone to the site, at a cost of ¤4.5m. The new main is
infrastructure with capability of 8,000kVA sized to deliver 20MW to allow for the resort’s future expansion; it
via nine 10kV to 400V substations. These also incorporates connections to the nearby town of Ballymahon and
60 November 2018 www.cibsejournal.com
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SPONSORED FEATURE |
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November 2018 61
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CASE STUDY | CENTER PARCS
Center Parcs Longford Forest
Simplified high-voltage schematic
9 x 10kV/400V
transformers
8,000kVA capacity
10kVA
switchgear
4,000kVA
dual primary
NER voltage isolation
20kV/10kV to 10kV
Neutral earthing
resistor 24kV-rated,
X 10Kv operational
ABB switchboard
“We had to use CFD modelling to develop
X
24kV-rated Utility works ESB 10kV
switchgear supply, upgradable
the design because the tropical plants are to 20Kv 3,000kVA
import capacity
very vulnerable to air movement”
Electricity substations are dotted around Longford
Forest and there is around 6,000m of 10kV cabling
several local villages, with the potential to link them to the gas network A tank on site stores 1,000m3 of
for the first time. On site, the gas is distributed under low pressure via a water in two compartments
250mm diameter ring main.
Maude says the team looked at other primary fuel options for the
resort – including liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and oil, both of which
are common fuel sources in Ireland – but the logistics of maintaining
the fuel supply ‘made no sense’.
The team also considered biomass, which has been used successfully
at Center Parcs Woburn Forest. ‘The tariffs on renewable heat are not
in place in Ireland, so it was a pure capital outlay and – in our view –
the long-term prospects of burning wood, and the pollution it creates,
is questionable,’ adds Maude.
The only utility connection that did not have to be brought any use and storage for the sprinkler system in
great distance was water, because a 200mm water main was already main buildings,’ says Maude.
in place next to the site. Average daily consumption for the resort is The tank also helps take pressure off the
expected to be about 450m3 of water per day, with a peak of 750m3 per local water infrastructure because the site’s
day in summer. ‘Center Parcs has five UK resorts, so we had a lot of peak flow rate of 17L.s-1 mains connection is
historic data that we could use in determining water use,’ says Maude. insufficient to meet peak demand. There is
In addition to wholesome water, Edmond Shipway’s design has no wastewater connection to the site. ‘The
to cater for firefighting. ‘If this was a single building, you’d have a connection cost for foul drainage was far too
wholesome water main and a separate fire main – but it’s not a building; high,’ says Ranby. Instead, up to one million
it’s a small village spread out over a large site,’ says Maude. ‘We’ve used litres of wastewater a day will be treated in
a combined water and fire main – the same way a utility supplier would the site’s own treatment plant, where it will be
pipe up a town.’ cleaned and purified before being discharged
Even as a combined fire and wholesome system, Maude estimates into local rivers.
there are about 10 miles of pipework. Center Parcs Longford Forest is set to open
The site has 1,000m3 of water stored in a tank comprising two 500m3 in 2019, at which point the mini-town in the
compartments. This is based on 750m3 for peak daily summer use and woods will become Ireland’s newest luxury
250m3 for firefighting. ‘We need to maintain a reserve for fire-hydrant holiday resort. CJ
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