At Christmas we announced preferred bidder status for the design, build, finance and operate of the Energy Centre and network to a company called Elyo Suez.
The Energy Centre is key to the Olympic Park and for legacy since it will provide all of the hot water, heating, electricity and some of the cooling needs to homes and buildings in the Park. This is instead of having individual systems in each building which are less efficient.
How the Energy Centre will look:
Located at Kings Yard, the centre is key to our Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS). It will provide carbon reduction by using CCHP (Combined Cooling Heat and Power), plus biomass boilers which use waste woodchips to create heat. A historic building in Kings Yard will form part of the Energy Centre and will house the biomass boilers. Part of the building will be converted into a visitors centre after the Games.
As we are about to submit a planning application we have had an intense few weeks meeting with our stakeholders. These have included local residents from Hackney and Tower Hamlets, the London Assembly, various sustainability groups and the planning authorities. We have presented to them the project and have given them a chance to understand the proposals in more detail, ask questions and provide feedback about the scheme.
Consulting stakeholders:
We have received support from CABE (The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) on the architectural proposals and also from Greenpeace who are supportive of the scheme.
There will be over 16km of pipework installed on the Olympic Park connecting all of the venues and buildings in the Park and two main Energy Centres, one on the Olympic Park and one located on the Stratford City development. The Energy Centre not only covers the Olympic Park but also the Stratford City Retail development and Olympic Village, Lend Lease (Olympic Village) and Westfield (Stratford City retail) will be party to the agreement with Elyo Suez.
The Energy Centre and network will be one of the largest in the UK and has the capacity to allow future development on the site and adapt to the future changes in technology providing real legacy value. The deal also provides private sector investment from Elyo Suez.
