The Energy Centre is one of the 7 venue’s located within the Olympic park.
John Armitt, ODA Chairman said:
“The utilities are the fundamental backbone to the legacy that this Park will provide.”
What’s it for?
The Energy Centre provides heating, cooling and electricity to buildings on the Olympic Park and at the Athletes’ Village. It also heats the water used in the Aquatics Centre swimming pools. The Energy Centre is one of several projects that provides water, gas and electricity; other utilities projects bring telecoms in the Park and a new foul sewer will be provided.
What’s inside?
The Energy Centre is a combined Cooling Heat & Power (CCHP) powered by natural gas. It has a biomass boiler that uses woodchip as fuel to generate heat.
Design Features
Sustainability is at the heart of the design. It’s a modular design – that means it’s made up of lots and lots of small areas which makes it easier to add on extra units when they are needed to increase capacity in the future.
Visitors will be able to come to a Visitors’ Centre to learn about the new and exciting technology used at the Energy Centre.
The Primary Substation is alongside the Energy Centre and distributes electricity across the Olympic Park and the Stratford City site through electrical networks with more than 100km of electrical cabling.
A new Pumping Station collects and removes all waste water from the venues and buildings both during and after the Games.
Using the latest technology, the Old Ford centre recycles and cleans water which is then used for processes like toilet flushing, irrigating the Parklands and the fields of play within the venues.
What was here before?
The Energy Centre design is based on iconic or well-known industrial revolution buildings such as the Tate Modern and Battersea Power Station. The Energy Centre includes much of the old Edwardian building of King’s Yard. It took two years to remove 52 overhead electricity pylons from the Olympic site. 200km of electricity cables run beneath the ground through two 6km tunnels.
After the Games
The Energy Centre and the updating of all the utilities will serve the local community who live and work in the area long after the Games have finished.
Watch this:
Power on for Park utilities – information about the importance and construction of the Energy Centre
A few more number crunching facts
The Energy Centre building is 45m tall at its highest point. Equipment in the building includes five cooling towers and two hot water boilers, each weighing around 60 tonnes. It has an initial capacity of 46.5mw of heating and 16mw of cooling. The Energy Centre uses zero carbon renewable energy sources such as biomass. The Energy Centre provides heating and cooling through 16km of Community Energy Networks across the Olympic Park.
