Application Story

The Show Must Go On, And On, And On...

[picture of The National Theatre in London] Rather than being just a catchy headline, “the show must go on” also formed a major part of Moeller’s contract when it became involved in the refurbishment of the electrical infrastructure at London's National Theatre. Not only were performances to continue uninterrupted, but Moeller also had to take into account restrictive space and the inexorable flow of the River Thames.

The National Theatre, an iconic landmark on the banks of the Thames, has just benefited from a major overhaul to its power systems. Phase two, which has just been completed, has brought the entire electrical infrastructure right up to date thanks to the installation of modern hardware designed, supplied and installed by Moeller.

The contract was interesting in a number of ways. Not only did Moeller take on a lot more project responsibility than was normal, but it also had to overcome a number of major hurdles. These included restricted spaces within the distribution rooms, the continuous running of the theatre (with up to eight performances per day) and the fact that, if power was interrupted to special pumps, there was the potential for the basement to flood, as part of the building is below the water table.

Moeller was tasked by consulting engineers, Rybka, with upgrading all the power needs from the stage to the offices. Moeller's solution was to use its Modan modular switchgear and to supply and interlink all of the necessary equipment. As well as updating the hardware, some of which dated back to the 1960s, Moeller was also able to introduce power factor correction. Power factor correction, as well as improving the efficiency of the supply, also allows the theatre to realise substantial power savings. All of the equipment had to be modified to take into account the restrictive space within the switch room. Antisocial hours were also on the cards as the engineers could only work over long spells after the final show on a Saturday, sometimes starting work after midnight.

"The project went like an absolute dream," says John Moffat, chief engineer at the National Theatre. "Two years ago we also experienced a fire in our switch room and suffered complete loss of power. Engineers from Moeller were on site almost immediately and, instead of seven days without power, we only had two. They did a tremendous job, a job which was also outside the remit of the original contract."

This page last updated: 21 December 2005