PSE Power Systems generating yearly energy savings of €45,000 for Mardyke Arena

PSE Power Systems, a market leader in the provision of power continuity solutions and services, today announces that it has secured a €200,000 contract with the Mardyke Arena at University College Cork to deliver a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) solution. This includes a five year service and maintenance contract. The CHP system, which uses waste heat to improve energy efficiencies, is generating savings in excess of €45,000 per year on power and heat.

The Mardyke Arena is a world class sports and fitness facility.  It was established in 2001 and provides an exceptional sports amenity for the greater Munster area. Catering for all ages and abilities, from beginners to the elite sports person, its state-of-the-art premises is one of the best in Ireland.

Pictured above: Anthony Brennan, Duty Manager Mardyke Arena, Padraig Smith, Managing Director, PSE Power Systems and Tom O’Flynn, Director & Senior Mechanical Engineer, JODA Engineering Consultants.

The arena recently completed a new multi-million euro development to provide a wider range of facilities to its members. During this development phase, JODA (John O’Donovan & Associates) Engineering Consultants, identified an important requirement to improve energy efficiencies and running costs for the entire arena.

PSE Power Systems has now installed a new SOKRATHERM CHP unit for the Mardyke Arena, delivering significant energy savings. PSE Power Systems won the tender based on its competiveness, the quality and robustness of its CHP solution and its extensive experience in the area. The associated service and maintenance contract provides continuous assessment of the CHP system to ensure it is working at optimum levels at all times.

Padraig Smith, managing director, PSE Power Systems said, “In conventional electricity generation much of the input energy is lost to the atmosphere as waste heat. CHP systems reprocess this lost heat so that usable heat and electricity are generated.

“There is a significant year round heating demand for the swimming pool and the new hydrotherapy pool in the Mardyke arena. As a result, the CHP system is proving to be extremely economic. It is improving the efficiency of energy supply and usage and delivers the value added bonus of reducing carbon emissions through the use of this green technology.”

The Mardyke runs the CHP from 7am to 11pm every day and during this time it has an electrical demand in excess of 140kw per hour. The CHP unit generates 140kw of electricity per hour and provides heat of around 250kw, all of which is being used up by the arena’s numerous facilities.

Patsy Ryan, general manager of the Mardyke Arena commented, “As the arena is achieving full usage of the heat and electricity generated by the CHP, the solution is highly efficient. The benefits the CHP can deliver to a facility such as the Mardyke were clear from day one and the next generation technology provided by PSE backed by their experienced service engineers made it any easy choice for us.”

PSE Engineering remotely monitors the CHP unit 24 x 7, analysing and tracking performance, anticipating any issues and ensuring the system is always available. It has also provided a remote monitoring portal for the Mardyke Arena and JODA.

The remote monitoring portal has delivered some unexpected cost savings. During the hot weather this summer, JODA identified through the portal that the CHP was dumping 25% of the heat it generated instead of using it as usual. PSE recommended that the Mardyke turn down its boiler thermostats which were being affected by the ambient temperature. This prevented the CHP from dumping any of its generated heat and resulted in additional cost savings for the Mardyke.

JODA is currently designing a new automated boiler temperature control system, based on water return temperature and ambient temperature, to deal with any future extreme temperature changes.