Sunfield Garden School | Overhead Cable Removal Project

Ruskin Mill Trust

Location

Sunfield Garden School & Children’s Homes
Clent Grove
Woodman Lane
Stourbridge
West Midlands

Phase 1

SCI was tasked with assessing whether it would be possible to remove the existing 1950s three-phase overhead power cables. This was necessary as the area was being remodelled and the poles needed to be removed. The client had consulted a local electrical engineering firm, but unfortunately, they felt the project was beyond their capabilities.

As a result, we carried out a three-day site survey to determine the requirements for installing new underground cables to maintain power across the site.

The survey involved entering each property to assess the load requirements for all 10 properties currently supplied by the overhead cables. Using this information, we calculated the total load demand for the buildings, completed the necessary load balancing for each phase, and designed a new system to enable the installation of SWA armoured cables below

The red dots represent the current locations of the poles, which support four overhead cables carrying three phases, neutral, and earth around the facility.

Phase 2

As there are residents who stay permanently at the children’s home, we needed to ensure that some properties maintained power throughout the transition. We were given a four-hour window to disconnect the power supplying the poles and reconnect the properties to the new underground power cables.

Buildings B1, B2, and B3 house permanent residents and required uninterrupted power after the existing supply was isolated and removed.

To facilitate this critical changeover, we installed cabinets throughout the site and ran cables to each cabinet below ground, as well as to the respective properties.

Phase 3

Once the above properties were re-energised, we proceeded to run the appropriate cables to each cabinet location and then to the respective buildings.

During this phase, we were also asked to provide power to the car park as part of a future-proofing process to allow for the installation of EV car chargers at a later date. However, the power supply to the properties was already at its maximum load. To address this challenge, we ran a new cable from the main building’s plant room to the car park area and constructed a plinth to mount an additional cabinet for future use.