Client

Pre-pandemic, London Stansted Airport served 28 million passengers in 2019, making it the third busiest airport in London and the fourth busiest in the UK.  Stansted has more scheduled connections to Europe than any other UK airport and when Emirates resumes daily direct flights to Dubai in August, passengers will be able to access more than 150 worldwide destinations from the airline's Middle East hub.

Thanks to its location, Stansted is also a major cargo hub, with more than a dozen major international carriers shipping goods to the Far East and the USA. It plays a very important role in the thriving local and regional economy and is the largest single employer in the East of England with over 12,000 employees. The airport is also the UK’s leading airport for public transport and is among the best in Europe.

Challenge

Security and resilience of supply through technical innovation is the foundation of our 90-year contract with the airport. Its critical to Stansted that operations are safe, resilient and efficient: 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Keeping power flowing continuously is a significant challenge in fast-moving, large-scale environment which sees tens of thousands of members of the public pass through per day. We provide extensive operation and maintenance for the airport’s private electricity network, utilising 54 high voltage (HV) substations, 98 transformers, and thousands of high and low voltage cables down to the airport’s street lights. We’re also working closely with Stansted to continually upgrade and enhance the visibility and control of the network.

Approach and innovation

Our collaborative relationship with Stansted sees us take care of the operation and maintenance of the network through hundreds of on-site experts and our on-site call centre.  We have delivered on our track record of security and resilience while the airport has continually developed, including through an expansion of the terminal building, increase in connection capacity to the local public (DNO) supply system, and an expansion of aircraft stand numbers and customer car parks.

In total, we’re delivering:

• Electrical infrastructure design, project management and project delivery
• 24/7, 365 operation and maintenance, with fully resourced standby teams on call to respond
• Emergency generation supply and connection, including ongoing monitoring of assets
• Scheduled asset replacements including cables, transformers, LV and HV switchgear, batteries and chargers

Delivery and collaboration

We are working closely with Stansted to make sure the design, build, commissioning and operation of the network continues to function effectively, meaning they can focus on delivering for their customers.

Our operational and client relationship teams are strategically located, enabling us to regularly check in with key personnel. We’re able to call upon a large resource pool of qualified and experienced engineers across all our projects and maintenance contracts throughout the airport’s footprint. In total, we have around 115 senior authorised persons and over 200 technically qualified engineering employees on hand to ensure the network runs smoothly and Stansted continues to deliver exceptional service to their customers.