Electrification of a major mixed use precinct, Sydney, NSW

The project includes electrification of heating systems in a 300,000 m² mixed-use precinct, including 5 premium-grade office towers. The existing gas-fired heating hot water plants will be replaced with modern, centralised electric heating solutions.  

Scope of work 

Following a comprehensive feasibility review, we recommended the removal of the current systems in favour of centralised water-sourced, electric heat pumps, integrated with the existing district systems.  

The scope of work encompasses data analysis of building management system (BMS) trend logs to establish individual heating demands and overall precinct peak demand and load profiles. These looked at existing system performance with reduced heating temperatures for hot water to determine design criteria,  system options life-cycle analysis and engaging with the market to inform the equipment options in consideration of performance, lead time and maintainability.  

Mitigating disruption is key to our design strategy, considering the scale of the precinct, extent of pipework reticulation and the significant current operations.   

The approach includes the development of detailed procurement documents and life-cycle costing assessments to inform decision-making, alongside ongoing collaboration with the broader project team to ensure efficiency and compatibility within the existing infrastructure. 

Challenges and solutions 

• Centralised water sourced heat pumps provide the most energy efficient option and does not require valuable and constrained roof space.  

• Analysis of heating coil performance was undertaken with the original equipment supplier to understand the coil performance at reduced temperatures which has minimised coil upgrades throughout the precinct and significantly reduced cost. 

• Data analytic of BMCS data is key to understanding the existing load profiles with plenty of enquiry required into the control settings and field behaviours to eliminate data outliers and data noise improving the veracity of the data.