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The £1bn Paddington Village project is a 30-acre development in Liverpool City’s Knowledge Quarter which will develop 1.8m square feet of science, technology, education and health space. Vital Energi were initially appointed on a pre-construction services agreement and worked in partnership with the developer, Morgan Sindall, to design an energy solution which would evolve alongside the development’s build out and deliver maximum decarbonisation. Our solution was a ground-floor energy centre which would later have a multi-storey car park built above it. Heat is distributed via a district heating network and electricity via a high voltage private wire network. After developing the energy infrastructure concept, we were appointed to a design, build, operation and maintenance contract to deliver the full energy solution.
The new energy scheme serves the entire Paddington Village site, with the energy centre sitting on the ground floor of a 14-storey car park which was built later in the process. The energy centre houses a 1.1MWe / 1.3MWth CHP engine which will provide both heat and electricity. Morgan Sindall constructed the energy centre and car park, with Vital Energi fitting out the building.
Much of the project was delivered during the Covid-19 pandemic which caused some disruption and required a flexible outlook towards the fit-out works and, crucially, to ensure that our programme fit in with the wider Paddington Village development as seamlessly as possible.
The first phase of Paddington Village is the central development which is comprised of a mixture of residential, commercial, hotels and laboratories.
We worked in partnership with the client to enhance the design of the energy infrastructure, create the energy model and look at various commercial options for the ESCo.
Unusually, we created a 3D model of the energy centre during the bid stage to help the client visualise the scheme and this proved successful, with Andy Dinnage, Head of Building Services – North Construction for Morgan Sindall saying, “In the pre-construction period, Vital couldn’t do enough for us, they found solutions to any and every challenge. Vital demonstrated an understanding of their audience who hadn’t completed a district heating scheme before and the bid document and videos helped the client team visualise the complexity, and scope and scale of the project.”
Our initial contribution involved working with the client’s team to enhance the design of the energy infrastructure. Once the optimum design had been finalised, we then delivered the energy centre, district heating network and private wire network to meet the client’s challenging time scales.
The client complimented the transition from the pre-construction services agreement to the design, build operation and maintenance contract, crediting their early and continued involvement in the project for making it a positive experience.