Network Rail has commissioned the rollout of Passcool Free Air Cooling at 300 GSM-R cabins sites in Wales, as they seek to deliver huge energy savings in Control Period Six.
Hybrid completed the full installation across the entire project on behalf of Passcomm for SSE/Network Rail.
By working alongside the existing HVAC system, Passcool CoolFlow DUO provides up to 90% energy savings per year vs traditional HVAC alone. On top of this, by adding an additional layer of cooling technology, the GSM-R cabin has added resilience built-in to its operation.
As GSM-R Cabins are classified as CNI (Critical National Infrastructure), the additional cooling resilience offers huge maintenance benefits and savings to Network Rail.
The CoolFlow DUO is designed specifically for installation in the GSM-R cabin, where it is positioned on the internal door leaf at all sites. This provides consistency across the network as all commissioned sites have the same configuration and cooling protocols.
The CoolFlow DUO has been deployed in two formats;
- 4 sites have 3G enabled realtime monitoring
- 296 sites have control only systems
Network Rail use the 4x fully-monitored sites to learn how the cabin is cooled and the characteristics of the Free AIr Cooling and HVAC systems. These four sites have been used to develop and refine the control logic for the 296 ‘fit and forget’ sites that have been rolled-out subsequently.
Passcomm are now working alongside Network Rail at national level with a view to a nationwide roll-out programme as they seek to hit their ambitious energy saving targets that have been provided to each of the routes.
Hybrid have built a strong relationship with all parties; Passcomm/SSE/Network Rail and hope to continue as the principal installer for all future projects.