The nature of the site owner’s financial business demands an uninterrupted energy supply. This necessitated investment in specialised backup assets providing instant backup generation if mains electricity fails or fluctuates. This onsite diesel rotary uninterruptable power supply (DRUPS) system made them a perfect candidate for the National Grid’s frequency response (FR) programmes. 

Assessment and design

• KiWi Power worked with the bank’s engineering teams and CBRE to identify UK sites suitable for FR with assets capable of shifting site load within one second.
• KiWi provided a detailed technical assessment, identification of functional specification, system design, installation and contractor commissioning.
• Commercial terms and conditions were agreed with the UK and US management teams leading to final commissioning and site FR declaration.

Installation

• KiWi Power’s detailed specification included the use of a leading protection relay to monitor site frequency and second by second metering of the DRUPS system.
• In addition, the status of circuit breakers and condition monitoring is instantaneously recorded back to the London based KiWi Power control centre in real time.
• The commissioning plan included injection testing from an independent provider, witnessed by National Grid to ensure critical operational parameters were within limits.

Delivery

• In an FR event the DRUPS system generator responds in milliseconds providing power to the site and displacing power from the grid with total run time limited to 15 minutes. This process must be automated and there can be no manual intervention or operation for assets to respond so quickly.
• The first four FR events responded seamlessly in less than 120 milliseconds, running for a maximum of 15 minutes.
• All performance data is recorded in real time back to a FR system computer at the KiWi Power control centre, with further reporting to National Grid control.
• Revenues are paid to the client with earnings statements, performance data, and FR metrics available through KiWi Power’s live dashboard for client use and information.