The chilled water system has to
be reliable – as well as effi cient – to ensure RTÉ stays on air
DIRECTOR’S CUT
Public service broadcasters can’t be seen to squander licence fees on ineffi cient operations, which is why Irish broadcaster RTÉ undertook an extensive audit of its Television Centre chilled water system. It led to an overhaul of the energy control strategy, resulting in savings of 70,000 a year. James McConnologue explains
I 30 CIBSE Journal December 2012
reland’s national broadcaster, Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), is committed to energy reduction in the management of existing and new infrastructure. In
a bid to reduce energy use and cut costs it undertook an audit of the Television Centre’s chilled water system (CHWS), focusing on the system’s direct electrical energy consumption and the potential for delivering improvements that would increase operational effi ciency. The audit revealed the inadequacy of
the initial control strategy and led to the introduction of an enhanced building
management system (BMS), which helped cut energy bills by €70,000 (£55,600) at a capital cost of only €3,400 (£2,716). The changes were introduced without compromising the performance of air handling units (AHUs), which were critical in cooling transmission equipment used for live television.
The project The Television Centre building is a two- storey structure with basement and roof plant space. The building was constructed over two phases (1962 and 1979). It houses all the main television studios, along with technical and administrative areas supporting the full television production process. Its CHWS comprises two chillers, two
cooling towers, six condenser water pumps and four primary CHW pumps. Prior to this project, all AHUs and the CHWS were set to run on a time clock, based on the occupancy of the building. This level of control was achieved using a BMS. The CHWS supplies the cooling energy requirements of the Television Centre’s 22 AHUs. There are a number of different modes of use for the chilled water, from the original dual-duct, multizone AHUs, to
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