Abellio-Walworth Bus Depot
Overview of Works
Abellio Bus operates over 50 bus routes across London on behalf of Transport for London, and are part of the Abellio Group. They carry over 150 million passengers per year, operating 800 buses and employing 2,500 staff across 6 depots in Central, South and West London. Abellio Bus have made a commitment to the electrification of their bus depots across London as part of a four-stage project. By the end of 2022 15% of their bus fleet will be formed of electric vehicles - making them one of the cleanest bus fleets in the UK. Sinewave were appointed to carry out a multi-phase project on the Walworth Bus Depot providing 7.6 MVA worth of power.
Contestable works on behalf of Abellio included:
4 Phases of contestable works across two connection offers with all design, consultancy, technical studies and feasibility works.
Temporary 800kVA point of connection fed of a 2MVA package substation and 365m POC.
Installation and commissioning of 3 x 2MVA package sub-station.
Over 2km of excavations and cable installations into the primary substation moving asset adoption from DNO to IDNO.
Earthing design to include cross bonding of the existing connection and battery storage solution already on site.
All civils and builders work for substations and cable route.
Project Management & Delivery
The project was split into four phases across two connection offers and multiple design iterations. The first phase has been completed Sinewave delivered a 800kVA temporary point of connection installing 365 metres of new HV cable and a 2MVA substation.
Phase 2 is the installation of a further 2km of cable into the UKPN primary disconnecting the temporary supply from UKPN and moving the adoption to IDNO allowing for the full 2MVA supply to be utilised.
Phase 3 & 4 are the installation and commissioning of a further 3 2MVA package substations and ACB metered LV supplies to feed the additional load requirements.
Abellio were able to appoint a single point of contact to carry out the grid connections work on their site across multiple phases. With the utilisation of an IDNO they were able to reduce cost and adapt the design to suit the multi-stage project.
“Walworth was our first London Depot to operate electric buses. The work that Sinewave completed supports Abellio Bus to continue to grow our fleet of best-in-class electric vehicles, and support the Mayor of London’s vision for zero emissions.”
Key Challenges
Live working bus depot with restrictive working.
Multi-phased design and feasibility.
Existing substation considerations for cross bonding of earthing systems.
Tight project deadlines and working in central London.
