Power Supply Solutions for the Royal Spanish Mint

A modular canopy guarantees the maximum soundproofing of the custom-designed generator sets.

The Royal Spanish Mint will leave its beautiful headquarters in Madrid’s Salamanca district in a few months to adapt to the demanding security regulations stipulated by European Central Bank. It will occupy a 15-hectare plot of land in the Vicálvaro district of Madrid.

With an investment of approximately 185 million euros, the work is nearing completion and the towering building will be equipped with four generators designed by our team of engineers to guarantee the power supply at all times.

The new building is intended to overcome the technical limitations of the current premises that arose as a result of the ECB’s new legal framework, which mandated Spain to produce banknotes in a printing works owned by the Banco de España (National Bank of Spain).

In addition, for efficiency and cost-saving reasons, part of its facilities will be used for some of the National Bank own cash operations, thus facilitating business continuity tasks.

The design of the new industrial plant has taken into account efficiency and sustainability criteria, both in terms of energy and materials, in order to reduce the environmental impact. From a technological point of view, the factory will be equipped with the most advanced printing machinery and equipment, which require a constant source of electrical power and, therefore, first class emergency equipment.

Previous Next

1 2

Description of the project

The generator sets will be used to provide back-up power for the building and auxiliary services. After carrying out a detailed study of the site, and in order to achieve the required power, we designed four units: two 630/700 kVA units, one of which has a synchronisation panel with mains return without zero crossing, one of 1,000/1,100 kVA and a fourth of 1,250/1,400 kVA.

A new concept of modular canopy as opposed to the traditional container

Given the special characteristics of the equipment, the versatility of the container was sought in order to reduce noise levels as much as possible and the modular canopy with the designation 5000M was implemented in its construction.

The result is a modular canopy of variable length depending on the desired power and noise level. Unlike the container, this new canopy concept allows us to add air inlet and outlet modules, with different attenuation options.

“This new modular canopy can store generator sets with power ranging from 900 KVA to 1650 KVA, and also makes it possible to make better use of the production area inside, as in the initial stages of manufacture the dimensions are smaller than those of a container”, explained by the Engineering Department.

Another of the advantages of the cabin is the assembling time, which is much shorter than the time required for the assembly work in a container, so costs are also reduced on this front, which is undoubtedly another advantage for the customer.

Features – Unit 8293

Soundproofed unit, capable of providing 1000 kVA prime power and 1100 kVA standby.
Equipped with a 995-litre integrated fuel tank, which ensures 5 hour autonomy at 100% load.
Alternator with PMG due to the type of loads.
Due to the noise level required – 72 dB at 10 m – an upper air outlet module was added to the new 5,000M canopy, resulting in a final dimension of 6,550 mm long.
External fuel transfer control system, combined with an external fuel inlet.

Features – Unit 8294

Soundproofed unit, capable of providing 1250 kVA prime power and 1400 kVA standby.
Equipped with a 995-litre integrated fuel tank, which ensures 4 hour autonomy at 100% load.
Alternator with PMG due to the type of loads.
Due to the noise level required – 78 dB at 10 m – upper air outlet and inlet modules with attenuation baffles were added to the new 5,000M canopy, resulting in a final dimension of 7.800 mm long and with a much lower noise level than the requested in the project.
External fuel transfer control system, combined with an external fuel inlet.

Features – Unit 8295 and 8296

Soundproofed unit, capable of providing 630 kVA prime power and 700 kVA standby.
Equipped with an 860-litre integrated fuel tank, which ensures 6 hour autonomy at 100% load.
The noise level required was 70 dB at 10 m – for which we used our highly tested canopy applied to this power range.
External fuel transfer control system, combined with an external fuel inlet.
Alternator with PMG due to the type of loads.