Good Practice Case Study

CHP Installation at Queens University

Belfast Physical Education Centre

Combined Heat and Power (CHP) achieves

efficiencies of 60-80% or more and can make
significant energy and cost savings compared to
conventional forms of electricity generation and
heat only boilers. The installation of a CHP
system can lead to significant energy and carbon
savings at sites that have relatively constant
heating demands. At the Queens University
Belfast Physical Education Centre, the benefits
resulting from the CHP installation include:

Annual Cost Savings of

over 34,200

Carbon dioxide savings of

over 188 tonnes/annum

A payback period
about 4.4 years

surplus electricity wheeled to other University

sites when necessary.
The CHP unit comprises a natural gas engine,
alternator, heat recovery system, stainless
steel exhaust silencers and acoustic housing.
The operating strategy of the heating system
for the two pools (a 312m2 swimming pool and
a 156m2 diving pool) was altered allowing the
unit to operate without a heat rejection
radiator; this reduced the capital cost by
approximately 10%.
The high-grade heat
produced by the CHP unit was recovered to
preheat the PEC's boiler return water. This
project received 100% funding from the
Northern Ireland public sector Central Energy
Efficiency Fund in April 2001 and was installed
and commissioned in April 2002.

of

Queens University Belfast

Queens University Belfast is the ninth oldest
university in the United Kingdom and was
founded as Queens College in 1845. The estate
comprises over 250 buildings, of which over 100
are listed as being of special architectural
interest.
There are also playing fields and
grounds extending to over 100 acres.
The
majority of the buildings are located in the main
campus area of south Belfast. The buildings
range from the original Victorian Lanyon Building
of 1845 through to the modern purposebuilt properties constructed in the last decade. A
major capital investment programme is under
way, including plans for a 45 million new library
to be completed in 2009.

The hub of Sport & Recreation Services at Queen's

is the Physical Education Centre (PEC) in Botanic
Park. Opened in 1971, this facility boasts an
impressive range of sporting facilities, services
and programmes to meet the needs of first time
casual users, top-class athletes and life-long
regulars.
The
PEC
provides
both
an
administrative and management base for Queen's
Sport, and plays host to most of the University's
indoor sporting clubs.
The Project
A Nedalo 210kWe (210kW electrical output) gas
fired CHP unit was installed in the boiler plant
room to provide the baseload heat requirement
for the Centre. Most of the electrical power
generated by the CHP unit is used on site, with

Energy and Cost Savings

Before the CHP installation, the annual
electricity and heat energy consumption for
the Physical Education Centre was metered at
802MWh and 2,670MWh respectively, with a
total annual energy cost of 98,200. Table 1
summarises the project benefits.

Considerations for Other Sites

Table 1 Project Benefits
Predicted
Grid Electricity
Reduction
Increased Gas
Consumption
CO2 Savings
Capital Cost
Additional
Maintenance
Cost
Savings
Payback Period

600 MWh

Post Project
Evaluation
434 MWh

890 MWh

612 MWh

251 tonnes/yr
150,000
6,000

188 tonnes/yr
149,400
6,000

47,300
3.6 yrs

34,200
4.4 yrs

Background to CHP Technology

Conventional power stations have an electrical
efficiency of between 35% and 40%, the
remaining 60% being waste heat lost as low
grade heat to the atmosphere or to water.
Thermodynamic constraints limit steam power
plant efficiencies to under 50%, with typical
efficiencies of under 40%. The most advanced
natural gas combined cycle plants achieve
maximum efficiencies of about 55%. Taking
into account grid transmission losses from
power plant to end user, overall electricity
generation efficiencies could be as low as 35%.
Combined Heat and Power is a technology that
has been used for over 100 years to generate
electricity and heat for use in community
heating schemes and industrial processes. CHP
plants generate electricity at slightly lower
efficiencies than conventional power plants,
but the overall efficiency of a typical CHP plant
can be as high as 70-75% because waste heat
from the generator is recovered and used.
The benefits of CHP depend on the application.
A key determinant is the heat-to-power ratio of
the site. For a typical building, a CHP plant
could increase the overall energy efficiency for
the site by up to 25-35% with a corresponding
decrease of energy costs and greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions. Traditionally CHP units have
been
used
for
large-scale
industrial
applications using coal, fuel oil or natural gas
to run steam turbines or gas turbines. More
recently smaller scale reciprocating engines
have been used in building applications, such
as leisure centres, hospitals and care homes,
hotels, housing developments and other
government buildings.

Accurate sizing that corresponds to

individual project needs, high quality
installation and continuous monitoring of a CHP
unit is crucial to realising the benefits from its
installation and could help toward Climate
Change Levy exemption.

The PEC has large swimming pools that

in this project replaced the heat rejection
radiator. With no heat rejection radiator it
was necessary to alter the control strategy
carefully. This took some time to fine tune and
resulted in a few outages before the correct
strategy was applied.

The company responsible for the

installation and maintenance of the unit
experienced some contractual problems with
their suppliers. The unit had to be switched
off for 5 days until the spare parts required for
the scheduled maintenance were delivered. A
spares policy has since been developed and a
spare set of general maintenance parts is
currently being stored on site.

The installed unit cannot be set for zero

electrical import. If possible, it is best to set
the unit up to export excess electrical power,
otherwise expect to import a minimum of 5kWe
from the grid. Calculation on savings will need
to be adjusted accordingly; this figure can be
more than 3% on the electrical side.

It should be noted that a special CHP

natural gas tariff is available which is better
than other tariffs.
Project Conclusions
The whole project became operational six
months ahead of schedule due to the
availability of a standard unit. The installation
went smoothly and was relatively trouble free.
The NEDALO CHP unit installed is a very quiet
unit and fits very neatly into the plant room.
With the CHP unit set as the lead boiler the
other boilers are cycling better. The more
commercially available 210kWe unit was 24%
less expensive/kWe than the originally
recommended 150kWe unit for the site. This
results in spare electrical capacity being
available for export to other University sites.

Supporting Information
For further information on the Central Energy
Efficiency Fund see website: www.psecni.gov.uk
Publications from the Carbon Trust
GPG388 Combined Heat and Power for Buildings
FL87 Saving Money With Combined Heat and
Power
GPCS458 - CHP at an Engineering Company
GIR082 The Managers Guide to Custom Built
Combined Heat and Power Systems
For details of the Carbon Trusts services and free
publications, call the helpline on 0800 85 20 05 or
visit the website:
www.thecarbontrust.co.uk
The Combined Heat and Power Association
Website: www.chpa.co.uk
The Combined Heat and Power Quality Assurance
Scheme
Website: www.chpqa.com
To register under the CHPQA scheme for climate
change levy exemption a quality index (QI) of
greater than 100 is required. The formulae for
calculating QI is as follows:
QI = X P + Y H
Where:
X is a factor for power related to alternative
electricity supply options.
Y is a factor for heat related to alternative heat
supply options.
P is the electrical generation efficiency
H is the heat generation efficiency
Other Publications
Energy Efficiency Office Good Practice Guide 312 - Invest to Save
Further Project Information
Peter Erwin
Senior Estates Manager
Estates Department
Administration Building
Queens University Belfast, BT7 1NN
Tel
02890973010
Email p.erwin@qub.ac.uk