Siemens equipment ripens competitiveness

AA Electric proposed the use of Siemens low voltage switchgear for helping Ecotech glasshouses

Ecotech has built a vast series of glasshouses on Teesside covering an area equivalent to 20 football pitches, with the aim of growing UK tomatoes all year round to compete with imported varieties from Spain.

The automation equipment for this huge multi-million pound nursery, including electrics, lighting, biological pest control, irrigation, feeding and systems control has been supplied by Siemens Automation and Drives.

At present British tomato production amounts to around 75,000 tonnes a year, over half of which are sold in summer.

Over 300,000 tonnes are imported every year (190,000 tonnes from Spain).

The project at Teesside, which is the first of its kind in the UK, has been driven by Supermarket giant, Sainsburys, which wanted a source of high quality UK tomatoes in the winter.

Rising to the challenge was Humberside fruit and vegetable grower, John Baarda.

Baarda selected a brownfield site at Billingham in the industrial heartland of the northeast, which may sound like a strange decision, but there was method behind the madness.

The huge site on Cowpen Lane Industrial Estate uses the pioneering approach of deploying waste steam and carbon dioxide produced by the neighbouring chemical plant, Terra Industries.

"Carbon dioxide and steam are by-products of the nitrogen fertiliser produced by Terra Industries, and previously the CO2 was being vented to the atmosphere - but the glasshouses can make use of both by-products and therefore reduce CO2 emissions," says sales director at AA Electric, specialist distributor for the project.

"The right concentration of carbon dioxide can enrich the growth of tomato plants, boosting production by up to 50 per cent, while the waste steam can be converted to hot water for heating purposes.

One of our main challenges was to make all of this happen in a controllable manner.

The 12,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide supplied annually by Terra Industries had to be ducted and distributed effectively, while a heat exchanger was required for converting steam to hot water." On top of these requirements, the 23-acre site (which could soon expand to 38 acres) needed lighting capable of generating a luminance of 12,300 lux for growing purposes, which would necessitate 15,000 light fittings rated at 600W each.

To meet such exacting demands, AA Electric proposed the use of Siemens low voltage switchgear, moulded case circuit breakers for the 60 large control panels required for the site, which in total would handle 13MW of power distribution.

"We had not used Siemens before," says Ross Hibbs, managing director of Ecotech, but we knew of their reputation for quality and reliability.

When Siemens presented to us, it was clear that they also offered another huge advantage - compact size.

Although the glasshouses at Billingham are vast (if you walked every row of tomatoes it would equate to a distance of 63 miles), the idea is to fill every inch of floor space with plants.

The target is to grow 360,000 cherry and plum tomato plants simultaneously, totalling some 10 million vines a year producing 7000 tonnes of tomatoes.

This means that squeezing in 60 large control panels would be a real challenge." Mr Moulds takes up the story: "The compact size of the Siemens equipment and busbar system for moulded case circuit breakers allowed us to reduce the overall size of each enclosure.

This was naturally a huge attraction for Ecotech." The size of each control panel was reduced from 2.1 to 1.8m, saving around £150 per panel.

Across 60 enclosures this amounts to a total saving of £9000, making the Siemens proposal extremely competitive.

Siemens low-voltage controls and distribution offers a comprehensive and innovative product line: from switching devices for load feeders and components for energy distribution, control and signalling devices, through to complete cubicles systems.

Speed of assembly was also important as time was of the essence - Sainsburys was looking to have its first delivery of tomatoes by Christmas 2005.

To this end the 8US distribution and busbar system would enable Ecotech to mount and electrically feed the Siemens moulded case circuit breakers with relative ease, saving crucial time.

"This is a hugely adventurous multi million pound project being undertaken by John Baarda," say Mr Hibbs.

"Some growers have witnessed energy bill hikes of over 300 per cent over the past year, which is a measure of the task faced by UK growers.

John Baarda is bucking the trend by creating this innovative facility at Billingham.

Not only is it putting to good use the waste steam and carbon dioxide produced by its neighbour, the company has also negotiated cheap rate electricity through a partnership with Terra Industries.

We knew that by selecting Siemens equipment, the project was in safe hands.

The venture is set to become one of the largest glasshouse horticultural centres in Europe and is a defining moment in British crop production.".

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