Five star 'green' electrical installation

The new $300 million Parramatta Justice Precinct in Sydney is designed not only to deliver the efficient administration of justice, but also as a model of good energy management and conservation.

 

The project — which includes the Justice Precinct Offices building, the first NSW government building designed to achieve a 5 Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia — was constructed by Brookfield Multiplex for the Attorney General’s Department. It integrates legal services into a single location to deliver better services while reducing the long-term cost of doing so.

The state-of-the-art project features Schneider Electric power control distribution and monitoring technology specified by Star Electrical throughout the high-security complex involving nine trial courts for major criminal matters, six courts for children’s matters, a 20,000 m² administrative centre for the Attorney General’s Department and a refurbishment of the site’s former hospital for community health services.

“This is a landmark energy management project,” says Star Group Project Manager Ric Fewtrell. “Power quality is vital — you can’t afford to have power interrupted when you’re delivering sophisticated services to as many as 15 courtrooms at once, plus the major audiovisual centre, X-ray and other security systems, health services and enormous data processing demands.

“It’s also important that energy monitoring technology — including over 100 Schneider Electric PowerLogic power meters — is the best available, to give a fully transparent installation that allows end users to drill down to the final distribution board and access all current, voltage and power parameters via Modubus.

“This technology bears directly on the day-to-day costs of efficiently running all the lifts, lights, heating and all the mechanical and electrical services associated with the 9-storey Justice building, Trial Courts building, Children’s Court building and ancillary offices. If you can’t measure your energy usage precisely, how can you reduce it where you need to?

“Given that buildings in general consume 42% of Australia’s energy, it’s only common sense that major projects such as this be used as a showpiece for more sustainable practices.”

The installation includes a high-voltage network upgrade, emergency generator systems that support the courts and Justice building, design and installation of all communications systems, design and installation of all general light and power systems to achieve the 5 Star Green rating and all lighting controls interfaced to the building management system.

The project involved six main switchboards incorporating Schneider Electric technology, plus 50 distribution boards custom made by Schneider Electric. (It also accommodated numerous design changes as the system evolved to achieve its critical quality, control, monitoring and conservation objectives.)

“Schneider Electric technology was used in the project’s low-voltage power distribution and power control. The technology was chosen because it was readily available and easy to adapt,” said Schneider Electric Customer Service engineer Robert Christensen, who worked with Star Electrical and switchboard manufacturer SMB Harwal Electric: “The close relationship between Schneider Electric and the Star and Harwal groups helped ensure that a very tight project was delivered on time and on budget, despite several challenging design reviews.

“The flexibility of the technologies chosen was important to achieving design objectives. For example, dozens of Masterpact NW air circuit breakers were selected for the critical role of switching up to 2500 A. Many were used to switch between mains supply and generators and when the scope of the works was extended to incorporate synchro-coupling transfer, they were able to accommodate the task as part of their standard mode of operation.

“More than 100 PowerLogic Powermeters were used throughout the installation to give a fully transparent system, allowing the end user to drill down to the final distribution board to access all current, voltage and power parameters. Despite a very critical delivery schedule, the customer’s objectives were exceeded on several occasions.”

Fewtrell said Star Group specified Schneider Electric technology for the switchboard and distribution roles because it was the best technology for the job, readily available at short notice and backed by the local expertise of a global leader: “Just knowing that the backup is there is obviously a big factor when the pressure is on. It’s also reassuring that the technology has been successfully proved in world-class projects and found to be versatile.”

 

www.schneider-electric.com.au