When one of the UK’s largest nuclear power stations started losing supply of its process cooling water a call went out immediately to Andrews Chiller Hire.

Despite it being a Sunday afternoon, engineers at the company were able to put a temporary solution in place within 12 hours, saving the power stations potential losses that could have amounted to many thousands of pounds.

Andrews Chiller Hire, part of the Andrew-Sykes Group, is one the UK’s leading chiller hire companies, operating with a network of more than 25 national depots throughout the UK and an extensive fleet of air-cooled fluid air chillers, with capacities from 6kW to more than 750kW.

This breadth of coverage and 365 days, 24/7 support service ensures Andrews Chiller Hire can respond and deliver temporary fluid processing chiller solutions extremely quickly. This was key for plant managers at the nuclear plant, enabling Andrews Chillers to meet a time-critical response to the unwelcome situation presented by the power station.

Provision of uninterrupted chilled water is an essential element for processing cooling systems in the nuclear power industry. This is one for which the power station can have high profile consequences and often high losses, should any of their processes go off line. When a compressor on the primary cooling plant failed and quick repair was unlikely the plant management team looked towards a ‘fast fix’ by contacting Andrews Chillers to provide a temporary solution that could be installed within 12 hours.

All companies in the Andrews Sykes group provide round-the-clock support, so it was not unusual for the Chiller Hire division to receive an emergency call on a Sunday.  Within the given time frame engineers from Andrews Chiller Hire had discussed specific issues with the site’s engineers, modified a standard chiller to meet requirements including supply of a recirculating pump set on the flow-side of the system and all associate pipe-runs.

Such was the efficiency of Andrews Chillers in achieving this time critical solution, which by passed the fixed chillers and pumps, and was commissioned successfully it had the positive outcome in that the nuclear plant lost no production.