Westfield: setting the pace for a better tomorrow

Westfield Stratford City is a flagship destination in East London and forms part of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield(URW), who are a premier global developer and operator of real estate.Sustainability is a key priority, as the business has set out some ambitious targets to cut 50% carbon emissions across their value chain by 2030, as wellas joining the Net Zero Initiative (NZI).

URW has developed a ‘Better Places2030’ strategy, covering 3 pillars in their sustainability mission:

• Better together: Empowering people, focussing on inclusion, and encouraging their team to become sustainability change-makers in their day-to-day life
• Better communities: Committed to being a catalyst to make a positive change within the communities they operate in when it comes to their social,     environmental and economic well-being
• Better spaces: Designing sustainable buildings in terms of carbon footprint, energy efficiency, circular economy and biodiversity.

Better spaces with better engineering

The latter is where Hysopt comes into play. The shopping centre consists of 8 building blocks with each block having its own independent mechanical and electrical infrastructure, serving different tenants with heating and cooling provided from the Olympic ParkEnergy Centre.

Mark Dimmick, Senior FacilitiesManager at Westfield Stratford City explains the current situation: “The Centre has a district heating network on site, and we experience losses on the system.We had issues with high flow rates and poor delta T’s back to our heat exchangers. We were aware the system did not run at optimal performance since we had imbalances in the system. As a result, we experienced energy losses within the systems, which would never be resolved if we didn’t come up with a design to engineer those imbalances out and find a better solution for overall system performances”.

“We needed to look at each system as a whole to find an all-round operational performance solution, instead of isolated fixes in certain areas”.

The use of the Hysopt’s Digital Twin

As URW is always keen to try new technology and innovation; a cooperation with Hysopt seemed like the logical thing to do. The Hysopt Digital Twin was selected because of its system level approach. “This was one of the main selling points, since the hydraulic balancing and optimisation is critical for our tenants and customer comfort” according to Mark

For the first project, theM7-building was selected by URW for Hysopt to demonstrate the impact of the digital twin. After the implementation and validation of recommended changes, improvements were made on better return temperatures, higher Delta T’s as wellas a big reduction in energy pump consumption:

• 44% reduction in Pump Energy Consumption (kWh) 
• 37,9% validated energy reduction on combined heating (LTHW) and cooling (CHW)
• 34% Co₂ Emission reduction 

“Since incorporating the Hysopt Digital Twin on M7-building, we’ve seen improvement of the delta T on both heating and cooling systems back to our heat exchangers. So, we definitely achieved what we set out to achieve in terms of return temperatures”.

But the true value of the DigitalTwin lies in the possession of the software itself. Having a copy of your system ensures that any expansions or replacements in the future can be based on a clear, objective science-based mapped-out system. The Digital Twin gives lifelong access to the life cycle management of your installation.

Towards a net zero future

The next steps for WestfieldStratford City have already been taken. To feel the impact of the Hysopt Digital Twin, even more, URW have decided to test another heating system. Where the first system was a smaller test subject, this one is filled with balancing issues, and it will give the software an even truer run for its money.

Mark continues “What we want to do, is to have a digital twin for every single system on site. So as the centre evolves with exciting new tenants, instead of going to our M&E consultant to request a new design input, we go to a Hysopt preferred partner that can use our digital twin, and come up with a design and a calculated impact for the rest of the building.  The ultimate goal is to have any system changes managed via the digital twin to ensure our systems remain at optimal performance for all our tenants and customers.”

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