Sphere
#36
2014
12
<<
Party Time
for supplying energy to 29 of the 34
Olympic Games venues. They also
powered a greater number of associated
supporting non-sporting venues, such as
the International Broadcasting Centre and
Main Press Centre.
The construction programme began in
2006. An entirely new Olympic Park
distribution network was required. The
new main substation at Kings Yard had a
132 MVA capacity and needed a 7 km bore
tunnel to carry new 132 kV cables. The
substation was accommodated in an area
two-thirds the size of an equivalent capacity
substation, a triumph of innovative, cost-
effective design. The engineers had a place
for nature in all this construction – the main
substation features a brown roof providing
a habitat for nesting birds.
Olympic Park, when operational,
comprised a network covering 185
distribution substations, 250 km of cables,
and 900 street lights.
The construction cost to UK Power
Networks was more than GBP125
million, and included the removal of
100 temporary distribution substations
after the Games. These substations have
now been serviced and reused on the
company’s network.
The software: devising a plan
Three years before the event, the group put
together a special project team to devise
the operational strategy.
Four hundred and sixty individual
mitigation measures were implemented,
including the testing of network protection
systems at 116 major substations across
London. Steps were taken to safeguard
the system from physical attacks. Staff
members were deployed strategically to
respond to system faults. Capital works
were brought forward to ensure the overall
network had maximum availability and
resilience. The network was at its best
for Olympic and perennial customers
alike. Detailed contingency plans were
developed for a wide range of possible
issues, and in the final six months leading
up to the Games, eight separate exercises
were carried out involving all levels of
response management.
Even pre-planning for a possible cyber-
attack proved invaluable, when in the
early hours of the day of the opening
ceremony, credible plans for cyber-attacks
against electricity supplies for the opening
ceremony were uncovered by security
services. Thankfully no attack came to
fruition, but the plans implemented were a
product of attention to detail and forward
thinking.
Gold medal performance
UK Power Networks successfully
remained invisible. The significant influx
of tourists and those watching the Games
caused a seven per cent increase in
energy consumption across London for
extended periods of time, compared to
the same period in 2011. Yet, despite
higher demands, unprecedented travel,
and roadwork restrictions, network
performance actually improved during
the Games. No power failures occurred
at any of the Olympic sporting venues,
hotels, transport networks, command and
control centres, or broadcasting stations
during the Games. The London Organising
Committee’s standby generators were kept
idle throughout.
In addition to the Utility of the Year title,
UK Power Networks’ London 2012 team
was also granted the Team of the Year
award by Utility Industry Achievement
Awards in 2012. It required a colossal
team effort from the preparation to the
execution of service. This experience
benefited later Olympics, as UK Power
Networks shared their expertise with Sochi
2014 and will do the same for Rio 2016.
Rock-steady engineering isn’t the
only way Hutchison has supported
past Olympics. At the Beijing Summer
Olympics 2008, it was human capital that
had to be upgraded.
Everything a visitor to the Beijing
Olympics needs - especially how to find a
Watsons outlet!
