The Hoge Rielen is a residential domain for youth - and anyone with a youthful spirit - that creates space for residential experience, adventure and tranquility in a green environment of 230 hectares. The non-profit organization General Service for Youth Tourism (ADJ) manages it on behalf of the Flemish government. Scattered throughout the green domain are several buildings and sheds. Many buildings have been renovated, but a number of sheds still date back to when this was a military domain.

Looking at overall picture

The Hoge Rielen wanted to partly demolish and partly renovate 4 buildings and at the same time make them fossil-free. Because not only heat pumps will be used from now on, but also the demand for electricity - due to more electrical appliances and the need for charging infrastructure for bicycles - is increasing, the electricity supply proved to be insufficient and the Flemish Government came knocking on Ingenium's door.

However, opting for fossil-free implies that the demand for electricity will continue to increase in the future on the rest of the site, so we decided to look beyond the initial demand and take an overall view. We made an inventory of the technical installations - including those for heating and sanitary hot water - for all buildings and mapped out the needs for an upgrade to fossil-free, both per building and for the entire site. Specific to the electrical facilities in the Hoge Rielen is that many buildings are linked to one another. We mapped out and unraveled this organically grown 'tangle'.

Loop avoids expensive cables

A first concern was high voltage. Our analysis showed that there was still plenty of margin on the transformers in the available cabins, each of which has a number of buildings connected to it. To reach all the buildings from there, however, long distances had to be covered, and with increasing consumption, much thicker (and more expensive) cables would therefore have to be installed because of the voltage drop along the way.

We proposed to lay a high voltage network over the entire site, with a high voltage loop around the domain, and enough surplus capacity for in the future. The total number of high-voltage cabins will come to 6 with 3 new ones, and 2 existing but outdated cabins will be thoroughly addressed. In the part of the domain furthest from the main entrance, no electricity was available yet. Wiring is now being provided there but not yet connected, until when it is needed in the future. We are also providing low-voltage cables from the high-voltage cabins to the buildings, and providing a thorough update of outdated general low-voltage signs.

Working cost-effectively

By zooming out from the customer's original demand and alternatively preparing the full site for a fossil-free future, we made a more sustainable choice. In doing so, we also looked at cost price optimizations. For example, the choice to expand the high-voltage network and the number of cabins turned out to be 40 percent cheaper than the initial idea to keep the current cabins and implement the network in low voltage.

Electrification is underestimated

We see more and more often that clients are in favor of a fossil-free future in the field of heating and the electrification of mobility, but do not always take into account that their electrical network is not at all equipped for this today. Ingenium has the expertise and experience to make that upgrade future-proof, with a logical phasing in time - among other things so as not to jeopardize the continuity of use of the site - and cost-efficiently.

We start from a master plan - the overall picture - and can also engineer the installations. Once in operation, we collect measurement data so that we can not only monitor the progress compared to the baseline measurement, but also collect data to optimize the operation of the installations in the future through commissioning.

Want to know more about how Ingenium can upgrade your electrical system to make your site fossil-free? Contact Joris Dedecker at 050 40 45 30 or joris.dedecker@ingenium.be.

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