The Solution

Special attention and customised designs were employed to ensure that the non-standard height product could be installed within the limited available space. Certified designs of the busbar systems had to be maintained and incorporated, together with customised design and build of a Power Quality Filter (PQF) system within the space limitations.

Special measures for environmental monitoring and control within the containers were necessary to ensure effective heating and cooling of the equipment, which included the PQF, Variable Speed Drives, and other significant heat-generating components.

The original concept of using high-volume forced-air ventilation for the container was dismissed as being too noisy and not cost-effective. Specialist sub-contract designers were employed to model the worst-case heat-gain scenario, taking into account insulation values of the custom container build (including the solar gain relative to the geographical location and external colour of the container) to identify the most economic air conditioning solution for the buildings.

Field cabling access to the MCC was developed with an innovative approach adopted for cable glanding. As a result of the height restrictions within the container, cable glanding space within the MCC had become compromised. To counter this and applying out-of-the-box thinking, gland plates were relocated to the underneath of the containers which were to be suspended above ground to provide cabling access from below.

To assist with the turn-key solution, the container had to be equipped with a certified Fire Alarm system interconnected with the MCC to effectively cut the power by tripping the Mains and Generator Air Circuit Breakers in the event of an alarm. Together with the alarm system, general domestic services were built into the container customisation and connected back to the MCC.

Following the build and witness-testing by the clients, the MCCs were installed into the containers at CEMAs factory, re-built and re-tested prior to delivery. Specialist lifting and transport equipment was used to ensure the completed units, each weighing twelve tonnes, were delivered to site on schedule.