Spotless : AE Smith trigeneration plant up and running at Sydney Town Hall

AE Smith is excited its trigeneration power system is now supplying power, heating and cooling to the iconic, heritage- listed Sydney Town Hall and neighbouring Town Hall House.

In early 2015, the mechanical services firm was awarded the contract to design, construct, operate and maintain the gas-fired, Microturbine trigeneration plant, situated on the Town Hall House roof. It is the first trigeneration system in New South Wales to feed into the power grid.

AE Smith was responsible for every facet of construction, from client and building occupier liaison through to supply and installation of every nut, bolt and washer. This included 50 tonnes of structural steel.

'One of the big challenges we faced was with the plant being installed on the roof - 24 floors up - in the heart of Sydney,' AE Smith Construction Manager, Jeff Wright said. 'Our team was only allowed to have cranage four nights a week so some creative thinking was required. We installed a 16-tonne tower crane on the roof and used of a small recovery crane.'

AE Smith also undertook offsite manufacturing at the start of the project, which reduced onsite time and lessen the impact to the client and building occupants.

'It was exceptional collaborative effort from our engineers, draftsman, prefab construction team and site manager,' Mr Wright said. 'They were able to complete the installation phase in less than four months with minimal complaints from the building occupiers and no injuries.'

AE Smith is working closely with the City of Sydney's facility management team to optimise the performance of the system. About 1,500 people work at the site and the 1,400 kilowatt system was expected to cut carbon emissions by more than 40,000 tonnes over its 30-year lifetime. The seven 200 kilowatt capstone micro-turbines that can each turn down to a tenth of their total power output, meaning they can follow the electrical demand in the building during both summer and winter months.

AE Smith is a Spotless company that delivers technical and engineering services covering mechanical, electrical, energy, hydraulics, refrigeration, construction, maintenance, building controls and electronic security.

For further information please contact Jeff Wright, Operations Manager Construction e:jeff.wright@aesmith.com.au