Crossrail London, UK

Crossrail - a new 118km, high-speed, high-frequency rail service for London and South East England- is the UK’s largest ever single public infrastructure development and is currently Europe’s biggest construction project.  Around 200 million passengers will travel on Crossrail each year and the project will boost London’s rail capacity by ten per cent.  Crossrail will change the way people travel around the capital, forging links between east and west, connecting outer suburbs to the heart of the City and the West End, and, for the first time, providing direct connections between London’s main business centres.
 
The awarding of the Crossrail contract to Delmatic comes shortly after Delmatic’s appointment to supply lighting management systems for the major interchange stations at KAEC, Jeddah and Makkah (Mecca) on the Saudi Arabian Haramain High Speed Rail networks, the supply of controls for the stunning new Western Concourse at London’s King’s Cross station, and the completion of the nine stations on the Mecca Metro network and thirty-seven stations the Dubai Metro network.
 
Intelligent, Energy-Efficient Lighting Control At Seven Key Stations
Delmatic are providing intelligent, secure and energy efficient networked control and management of lighting within front-of-house, back-of-house and external areas at seven key stations:  Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street, Whitechapel and Custom House. 
 
The systems enhance energy-efficiencies through digital dimming, presence/absence detection, and photocell control in daylit areas, and these are coupled with operational efficiencies gained through real-time management and monitoring via Delmatic’s active graphical user interface.  The Delmatic systems integrate with the central battery network to provide emergency light monitoring and testing via the Dali protocol as well as comprehensive monitoring of normal and emergency lighting across each site. 
 
The Delmatic systems within each station also integrate with the BMS network, forming a key part of the energy-management systems throughout the stations and supporting Crossrail’s goals to deliver energy-efficient, sustainable solutions for London’s transport network.
 
To guarantee openness and future-proofing, the Delmatic systems use ISO International Standard communication protocols:  the Dali open protocol (ISO 62386) for switching, dimming and monitoring of Dali luminaires and the LonWorks open protocol (ISO 14908) for communication between all items of network hardware.  
 
A Complete DALI Solution
Delmatic are supplying a complete Dali solution comprising a range of Dali lighting control modules as well as Dali devices including Dali presence detectors, Dali photocells and Dali switches.  The Delmatic systems use a single network cable for the connection of Dali ballasts and drivers as well as Dali devices such as switches and sensors, halving the extent of cabling compared to other systems which require two buswires – one buswire for ballasts and another buswire for devices.
 
The Delmatic systems enhance sustainability not only through energy efficiency but also through operational efficiencies including real-time management and monitoring.  Systems log the number of hours each lamp has been in operation and generate optimised relamping plans which avoid the premature replacement of luminaires (with the associated environmental and disposal issues) by ensuring that lamps are retired at the optimum point.  The systems also monitor individual lamp operation and highlight lamp and ballast failures in real time.
 
The systems incorporate distributed intelligence such that local operations continue even in the event of nonoperation of central and system outstations. 
 
Emergency Monitoring and Testing
The lighting systems play a crucial role in station security – and ensuring the safety of every person who uses or works within the station.  The Delmatic lighting management systems integrates with the central battery network at each station and monitors the performance of the emergency light lamp and ballast, highlighting any failures in real time.
 
Design That Makes An Impact …Without harming the Environment
London has a glorious railway design history that stretches from the Brunel-designed Paddington station of the 1850s, through Charles Holden’s Tube stations of the 1920s and 1930s, to the recent revival and revitalisation of King’s Cross and St. Pancras International stations:  in the same way, the new Crossrail stations will create a transport legacy for London.
 
Crossrail has stated that the ‘architecture, look and feel of our stations will be something to be celebrated’.    The aim is to create buildings that ‘work’ as a major transport hub at the same time as offering a comfortable and attractive environment for passengers and other building users.   Crossrail has made a similarly public commitment to doing “everything possible” to minimise energy consumption and the environmental impact of the network at every stage from construction through operation.  
 
The state-of-the-art stations, designed by some of the UK’s best known architects in conjunction with world-class engineering firms, take inspiration from the past and the architectural legacy and heritage of the local area but have a fresh, modern and sustainable twist.  The station designs maximise the use of daylight and natural ventilation, and incorporate energy efficient materials and systems including energy efficient escalators and, of course, intelligent lighting control systems.  The trains and network have also been engineered to maximise efficiency using lighter trains, regenerative breaking, gentle inclines on approach to stations to boost braking, and subtle descents to assist acceleration out of stations.
 
The Delmatic systems play a key role in minimising energy consumption and carbon emissions, and support Crossrail’s goals to deliver energy-efficient, sustainable solutions for London’s transport network. 
 
Delmatic systems are designed and manufactured to last for many years which, in itself,  significantly reduces their embodied energy and environmental footprint.  Delmatic are the only supplier in the building controls field to offer a lifetime upgrade guarantee which states that any generation of system can be upgraded to latest technology.  This enhances sustainability by reusing a large part of installed equipment, and Delmatic estimate that in the order of 95% of a module is reusable or recyclable.
 
Design and Development  
Delmatic won the framework contract with Crossrail Limited to provide Dali Lighting Control Systems for the seven new central London Crossrail stations and are now part of the design team for each station, working closely with the station electrical and mechanical contractors to develop both the lighting system application and integration with each station network.
 
Equipment will be supplied during 2015 with the system commissioned and set into operation for early 2016: the system will then be run under a caretaker maintenance programme during the two year run-in period prior to the Crossrail network opening in 2018.
 
The design process has included the development of a unique set of criteria using the BRE’s Environmental Assessment  Methodology (BREEAM) for underground stations, enabling the project team not only to objectively assess Crossrail’s environmental performance but also leave a benchmark for future projects.  All Crossrail stations are to obtain BREEAM ‘Very Good’ ratings for the station buildings and will be the first underground railway stations in the world to be rated under the scheme.