American Edge Engineers ·
What the MEP engineer contributes
An environmental clearance application describes how a project will use water, energy and land, and how it will deal with its sewage, storm water and waste. Much of that is building services: how much water the people in the building will use and where it comes from, how the sewage is treated and reused, how much power the building draws and how much of it is saved or generated on site.
The environmental consultant puts the application together; the MEP engineer works out those figures and draws the layouts that show them. For larger residential and commercial projects in India, the application is appraised by the state expert appraisal committee, and the figures are checked against each other, so they have to be worked out together rather than collected from different people.
The calculations
A typical residential or commercial EC set includes:
- Population: residents per flat, and staff and visitors for the shops and offices
- Water demand: domestic, flushing, landscape and any pool, with the source of each
- Sewage generated, the treatment plant size, and how the treated water is reused
- Connected load and maximum demand, with the transformer and DG set sizes
- Energy conservation measures and the saving they give, with the ECBC parameters
- Rooftop solar power and solar hot water
- EV charging points for cars and two-wheelers, and the load they add
- Fire water storage and pumps
- Rainwater harvesting and storm water
- Basement ventilation, normally and in a fire, and basement dewatering
The drawings
| Layout | What it shows |
|---|---|
| External MEP services | Water, drainage, sewage plant, tanks and electrical routes around the buildings |
| External plumbing | Water supply, drainage and storm water lines to the municipal connections |
| Solar | Panel layout on the roofs and the solar hot water system |
| EV charging | Charging points in the parking levels and their supply |
| Lightning protection | Air terminals, down conductors and earthing |
| Basement ventilation & dewatering | Fans, sensors, air changes and the sumps and pumps |
| Rainwater harvesting | Recharge pits and storage, and how the roof and site water reach them |
Figures from real projects
The scale of the numbers depends on the population and the uses on the plot. Three projects we prepared the EC data for:
What the figures show
On the Kiwale towers, 158 EV charging points add 755 kW, almost a third of the connected load, which is why charging has to be in the load calculation from the start. On the Wakad project, the towers and the commercial wing each have their own sewage plant, DG set and tanks, so the EC data is worked out for each part as well as for the whole. The Indapur plant shows the same set of figures for an industrial building, with effluent treatment alongside the sewage.
| Project | Area | Water and sewage | Power | Solar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two towers and a commercial wing, Wakad, Pune | 64,887 sq m built-up | About 209 kL a day; two plants of 195 KLD | 3,320 kW connected, 1,791 kW maximum demand | About 128 kW |
| Two residential towers, Kiwale, Pune | 27,786 sq m of construction | About 182 kL a day; a 170 KLD plant | 2,392 kW connected, 1,274 kW maximum demand | 102 kW |
| Edible oil plant, MIDC Indapur | 28,795 sq m built-up | Water, sewage and effluent treatment | 3,561 kW | 342 kW |
Keep the figures consistent through the revisions
The plans change while the application is being prepared - a floor is added, a wing changes use, the parking is replanned - and every change moves the population, the water, the sewage and the load. On the Wakad project, the water demand went through four revisions, the energy calculation through four, and the EC layouts to their fifth issue before the project went to the committee.
The simplest protection is to work every figure from one population and one area statement, and to revise the water, energy and drawings together, so the committee never sees a sewage plant sized for a different number of people than the water demand.
What to send
To prepare the MEP data for an EC application, we need:
- The area statement and the architectural plans, sections and site plan
- The number and size of flats, and the use of every commercial floor
- Parking numbers for cars and two-wheelers, by level
- The water supply and drainage NOCs, if already applied for
- The environmental consultant's format, if they have one
Our EC work
We have prepared the MEP data and layouts for environmental clearance on residential towers, mixed-use redevelopments and factories across Pune and Mumbai, usually alongside the full MEPF design - see MEP consultants in Pune or our MEP design service.
Next step
Learn how our MEP Design & Engineering service works, or send us one drawing set for a free project review and decide after you see our work.