NEWS
Olympics are ‘superb advert’ for UK construction
than two thirds said working on the Games had enhanced their reputation; more than a third said they had already won new business as a result; and nearly half said their company’s financial situation had been enhanced by working on London 2012.
Armitt also said that about three quarters anticipated future work at home and abroad, while more than two thirds of large businesses said it had increased their ability to take on big projects. However, he identified that small- and medium- sized businesses need more help to work overseas.
The report urged the The Olympic Park in Stratford, east London
The construction of the Olympic Park has been described as ‘a superb advertisement for UK plc’, which will help British firms win business at home and abroad. Now the government is being urged to adopt the procurement practices used in Olympic projects to improve the delivery of all public sector construction.
Sir John Armitt, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), has produced a report that highlights the positive experiences of companies involved in the Games. He listed new and better ways of working, innovation and
optimism about the future as key outcomes for suppliers. The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, Jeremy Hunt, commissioned the report. He said the Olympic Park was a ‘world-class advert for British construction’, adding: ‘I am delighted that we will now be able to help even more companies go for gold.’ But Armitt said it was important to ensure that ‘working on London 2012 is the start, not the end, of this success story’. His report includes feedback from 250 businesses that worked on the Olympic Park. More
government to adopt the ODA’s principles of procurement and programme management, and advised it to ensure that marketing restrictions applying to London 2012 suppliers ‘are relaxed as soon as possible after the Games’ to help them maximise the promotional opportunities.
It added that the ‘CompeteFor’ network – a free service enabling businesses to compete for contract opportunities – should be retained for all public sector projects and that the ODA’s Learning Legacy website should be continued after the Games end.
To read the full report visit:
www.goc2012.culture.gov.uk /2012/07/05/armitt-report
Olympic legacy is explained
The engineering experts behind the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games have revealed how its legacy will live on for at least 30 years after the event finale in August. Simon Wright, Holly Knight, Dr Dorte Rich Jørgensen and Andrew Comer described how residents and businesses in east London will benefit from the infrastructure, technology and energy facilities for a generation after the Games end, at a Science Media Centre briefing staged last month. A cornerstone of the Olympic Village is the energy centre, which already has the ‘backbone’ infrastructure in place to support power supplied by hydrogen fuel cells, gas from waste and synthetic cells. ‘Taken as a whole, what’s been achieved in east London is quite startling,’ enthused Comer, a civil engineer with Buro Happold. Meet the building services engineers who delivered the Olympics on page 12
Meter guidance could kickstart
renewable heat Better understanding of heat metering could throw a lifeline to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), according to the Building & Engineering Services Association (B&ES).
Energy firms seek virtual answer
A research consortium, co-funded by the government, is spearheading efforts to create ‘virtual power plants’ that could give much needed support to the National Grid.
Based around clusters of combined heat and power (CHP) systems, these plants would be designed to improve flexibility and give better load-balancing potential to reduce stress on the electricity network, particularly at times of peak demand. The project, which is due to report back in May 2013,
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aims to improve resilience, enable and incentivise low carbon and lower cost electricity production, and reduce the need for utility engineering projects.
ENER-G, Advanced Digital Institute, Flexitricity, Smarter Grid Solutions and UK Power Networks, have secured £100,000 of match funding from the Technology Strategy Board, the government’s innovation agency, towards exploring the development of virtual power.
The project will investigate the
feasibility of using networks of small CHP generators to support local networks. This virtual power plant system requires complex software and a central control system to ensure that it reacts immediately to local supply and demand requirements. The project will also address how to maximise the potential for distributed heat and cooling through CHP, examining district heating, heat stores and technologies such as absorption chillers.
A lack of industry standards has hampered deployment of heat meters, which has had a serious impact on RHI applications, the association said. According to reports, at the end of last month there had been a total of just 77 successful applications nationwide. B&ES president Bob Shelley said: ‘This contrasts with the government’s objective of growing the market for RHI-compliant projects by 700% by the year 2020 – with an estimated 110,000 commercial installations being supported in that period.’
He was speaking at the launch of the B&ES Guide to Good Practice: Heat Metering for the RHI, which is available as an electronic document to improve installation standards. ‘We are confident that the introduction of the guide will help stimulate renewed interest in the commercial returns the RHI can deliver to the sector,’ said Shelley. The guide is available via
www.b-es.org August 2012 CIBSE Journal 7
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