GDF Storengy

Solution:

Alan Leadbetter, Technical Director at Storengy UK Ltd, says: "A detailed tendering process was conducted to select the best supplier for these buildings. Portastor was chosen because it offered the best value and the technical compliance we were looking for - and could tailor its buildings to meet our specification.

"We chose factory-manufactured buildings to simplify our on-site activities and remove construction work from the potentially risky site area, where poor weather can often disrupt construction activities. The off-site construction method is cleaner and safer and the products are fully tested in the factory before they arrive on our site. The building work can also be done by Portastor in tandem with site preparations and on site civil work. Plus, the completed buildings can be held safely by Portastor until we are ready to receive them. Overall, it accelerates the whole programme."

Portastor supplied 16 environmentally controlled packaged equipment housings for the project. This included three large substation buildings to house electrical switchgear for the site and two others containing variable speed drives for the ten brine and water pumps. Another building is fitted out as a control room for the whole facility. The remaining ten smaller buildings are well-head control cubicles, housing equipment and instrumentation used to control the solution mining process.

All of the control equipment, switchgear and instrumentation was fully installed and integrated by Portastor at its manufacturing facility in York. The buildings were pre-cabled and fully tested in this controlled factory environment, before being delivered to site for simple and rapid installation.

To provide a more complete solution for the packaged substations, Portastor has also supplied the transformer compound and canopies, as well as the above-ground cable basements. The substation buildings are located on support columns providing a two metre clearance to allow the electrical cables to enter via the floor without the need for intrusive and expensive groundworks.

Alan Leadbetter continues: "Everything ran to schedule and Portastor delivered the equipment housings on the agreed date, keeping our programme on track. The buildings were delivered and installed with no problems and we are very happy with them. They are all individually tailored to the requirements of the project and we have been very pleased with the whole process and the service from Portastor."