Heathrow Terminal 5: energy centre

Heating and cooling the vast new terminal buildings at London Heathrow airport's £4·3 billion Terminal 5 development is undertaken by a dedicated energy centre, which provides continuous supplies of hot and chilled water for heating and air-conditioning respectively. The hot water is provided by a combination of a local combined-heat-and-power source and natural gas boilers, which can also run on fuel oil, and the chillers are powered by high-voltage electricity. This paper describes the design and construction of the highly efficient centre, which also made extensive use of off-site testing and manufacturing.