Author Archives: Admin

New GLA DE support programme announced

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Admin

February 2016:  The Greater London Authority (GLA) has asked me to post the following online: “a new opportunity for interested contractors to be part of a new framework on Decentralised Energy (DE). The Mayor of London has set a target to meet 25% of London’s energy supply from DE by 2025. The DE Capacity Study (GLA, 2011) confirmed this target as being achievable based on both renewable and low carbon energy sources and that it represented an £8 billion investment opportunity.

The development of DE projects through the various phases to market requires significant resource and a diverse set of skills, knowledge and expertise. These elements combined with the risk profile of the project development phase act as real barriers for both public and private sector organisations.

Since 2011 the GLA has been supporting others to identify and implement DE projects through various programmes. Energy for London will be delivered by the GLA and will procure and direct technical, commercial, financial and other advisory and support services to help others develop, procure and bring into operation larger-scale DE schemes that deliver significant CO2 reductions at market-competitive prices.

Please take a look at the Prior Information Notice, which has just been issued and is available here.” Hmm… – the GLA have decided to call this initiative Energy for London…

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More for a London energy company…

Posted on February 26, 2016 by Admin

26 February 2016 …and yet another Mayoral candidate pledges to establish a London energy company

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Dawn Butler and Jeremy Corbyn launch #PrePayRipOff campaign

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Admin

February 2016: The Kilburn Times reports that Brent Central MP,  Dawn Butler, and Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn (who is also the Islington North MP) have launched a campaign in the House of Commons to tackle the higher costs of using prepayment gas and electricity meters. The campaign was kick-started with the launch of a petition on behalf of more than 13,000 residents in Brent who use the prepayment method.

Following on from an Early Day Motion (EDM) on prepayment meters put forward by Dawn Butler, the Brent MP held a debate in the House of Commons on the 1st of December 2015 highlighting that her “constituency has one of the highest numbers of people on PPMs in the country—at 26%, it is 10% above the national average—and those on PPMs pay on average £226 more a year than those with the cheapest direct debit deals.” (full transcript here – youtube video here).

The Kilburn Times also reported that Mayoral candidate Sadiq Khan was at the campaign launch where he said “One in five households in London have no choice but to use prepayment meters to pay their bills. This could be costing the most disadvantaged families in the capital an additional £140 million a year. “I am calling on the energy companies to automatically give Londoners the best possible deal on their energy tariffs and ensure the most disadvantaged in our communities are given reduced standing rates.””

Another London politician supporting the campaign is East Ham MP Stephen Timms.

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London Energy Plan Scenarios and energy infrastructure map

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Admin

23 February 2016: The GLA launched the first outputs from their forthcoming London Energy Plan (LEP) at an event held at the The Crystal. The purpose of the LEP is to support the development of the London Infrastructure Plan by evaluating  London’s future energy needs to 2050, as a result of a rapidly increasing population (approximately 100,000 people a year) and the predicted increase in energy demand as a result of this growth. Further background to the London Energy Plan can be seen on the following presentations here and here.

As part of this work, the GLA have built on previous work in establishing a London Heat Map, to develop the first spatial mapping of London’s energy demand, supply and infrastructure. The interactive map allows different scenarios for energy supply and demand across London in 2015, 2025 and 2050 to be explored (in that, it is similar to DECC’s 2050 Energy Calculator). The London Energy Plan map can be accessed here.

The London Energy Plan looks at four scenarios for the city’s energy infrastructure to 2050:
• High demand, centralised supply
• Mid demand, mixed supply
• Low demand, decentralised supply
• Low demand, centralised supply.

An accompanying Scenarios to 2050 narrative document (direct download here) provides the detail and context to the assumptions made across these scenarios. Two key messages that came out of the event was that for London to achieve its longer term energy and carbon goals, there was an urgent need to start planning and to act now. Additionally, the highest amount of effort in terms of energy and emissions reductions needed to be achieved over the next decade – something that an incoming Mayor in May 2016 will need to address.

Continue reading…

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Camden Passivhaus Tower

Posted on January 31, 2016 by Admin

January 2016: CIBSE Journal case study on on how “Camden’s Agar Grove estate is to become the UK’s biggest residential Passivhaus project.  Max Fordham’s Bertie Dixon describes the challenges of building an 18-storey tower to the standard, and explains why the council is committed to the low energy code

The redevelopment of the Agar Grove estate, in Camden, is not only expected to be the biggest residential Passivhaus development in the UK. It is also highly challenging for the designers involved.

As well as having an 18-storey Passivhaus residential tower on a tight inner-city site, the development is subject to environmental planning requirements that are not always compatible with Passivhaus principles. For example, heat networks might appear to be a prerequisite for large housing schemes in London, which means incorporating a network of heating pipes. The heat loss from the pipework introduces an increase in annual ‘primary energy demand’,I which is limited in the Passivhaus standard, so the project team had to work hard to come up with an ultra low-loss network design.” Read the full case study here.

Camden already has two other developments that meet the passivhaus standard – Loudoun Road and Alexandra Road,

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District heating as heterotopia

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Admin

27 January 2016: “District heating as heterotopia: Tracing the social contract through domestic energy infrastructure in Pimlico, London” – new research paper published in the latest issue of the journal Economic Anthropology (PDF here). A presentation on the paper can be seen here.

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Citizens Advice District Heating research

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Admin

20 January 2016: Citizens Advice research just published District Heating Networks: analysis of information request which found:
“There are an estimated 2,000 heat networks in the UK and with district heating schemes having been identified as one of the key technologies to decarbonise the heat we use in our homes and businesses this is set to increase.
At present there is very little available data on these existing district heating schemes making it difficult to assess how well they work in practice or whether they offer good value for their customers. There are many unanswered questions when it comes to the use of district heating for residential properties and without a central database of publicly accessible information questions about its applicability and affordability will remain.
Through the process of conducting this information request Citizens Advice has found the availability of information patchy at best and the fact that Local Authorities, through no fault of their own, don’t have sight of these systems is concerning.”

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Arriving soon… heat from tube line piped straight to your home through £6m energy scheme

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Admin

8 January 2016:  The Islington Tribune reports that “Building  work on a groundbreaking £6.2million energy scheme which will see waste heat from the Northern tube line piped into homes will start this month. As first revealed in the Tribune last year, the project – the first of its kind in Europe – will harness heat from the underground and help keep energy bills in 500 council homes on the King Square estate in Finsbury up to 10 per cent cheaper.”

“This month, work will start on a new, four-storey energy centre at the junction of Moreland Street and City Road, on the east side of Kestrel House, as the Town Hall extends the Bunhill heating pipe network to capture heat from a tube line ventilation shaft. The underground provides access to natural heat stored within the ground. Both the trains and the nearby electrical sub-station produce waste heat, which will be captured and piped to the combined heat-and-power unit in Central Street.”

Read full story here.

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District Heating cost comparator tool

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Admin

15 December 2015: Useful response to the following PQ on district heating – especially in relation to work to launch an online heat ‘comparator tool’

Lord Black of Brentwood: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made any assessment of the cost of energy bills to people served by District Heating Networks.

Answered by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth: 15 December 2015

In March 2015 DECC published a report by AECOM titled ‘An Assessment of the Costs, Performance, and Characteristics of UK Heat Networks’. The report included a review of the prices charged to final customers by a representative sample of heat networks (7 in total). The average heat price was found to be 6.43p/kWh but with a wide range of 4.64 to 9.88 p/kWh reflecting differences in network design, construction, commissioning and operation. On average this is less than the modelled cost of gas central heating in flats and terraced houses when boiler ownership costs are included (7.22 to 10.24p/kWh).

The Government is aware that costs to the consumer can vary and achieving cost savings is dependent on the quality of the individual network. DECC has supported industry development of a technical code of practice for heat networks, and worked closely with industry and consumer groups on the development of Heat Trust, an independent consumer protection scheme that launched in November 2015. There are also plans to launch an on-line cost comparator tool in 2016 to allow a consumer to assess their charges against gas central heating. This greater transparency of heat charges is complemented by the billing information requirements in the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014.

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TfL CO2 emissions increase

Posted on November 25, 2015 by Admin

November 2015: Transport for London latest ‘Health, Safety and Environment’ report has been recently posted online – available to download here (direct link here).

An important issue in relation to carbon emissions raised in the report, is London Underground’s reliance on grid supplied electricity:

“For electricity, we calculate the total CO2 emissions generated by multiplying the amount of energy we use by the Government’s annual emissions factor. This measures how much CO2 was emitted during the energy generation process, for example by power stations. It depends directly on the grid mix, eg the amount and type of fuel (coal or renewable energy) that was used to generate the national grid electricity in that year. Figure 9 shows that there was a 10 per cent rise in the carbon intensity of the grid mix in 2014/15. This means that our electricity-based CO2 emissions results are indicating a similar level of increase. To show the underlying trend of the change in energy use, rather than the change affected by the energy source, over which we largely have no control, we are for the first time also reporting our total energy consumption figures as kilowatt hours.”

No mention is made in the report of TfL’s activities to increase the amount of renewable electricity it generates or – curiously – efforts being made by GLA to help source local, decentralised electricity supplies for TfL through their Licence Lite programme.

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Energy & Climate Change Questions to the Mayor

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Admin

October 2015: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to: the number of London projects awarded funding from government’s Urban Community Energy Fund (UCEF); minutes of the London Plan Energy Advisory Group meetings; helping reduce energy bills for Londoners who have electric heating; GLA loan to Tempus Energy; the impact of the closure of the Green Deal; minimum energy efficiency standards on London’s Private Rented Sector; support for the Governor of the Bank of England’s recent comments on carbon disclosure (and again) ; the FIT consultation and it’s impact on London’s solar industry (and again here); suppliers on the Mayor’s new RE:NEW energy efficiency retrofit framework; London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA) investment in the fossil fuel sector; projected returns from investments made by the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF); planning approval of the Beddington incinerator; a health impact assessment for Beddington incinerator; London Plan requirements for borough planning carbon offset funds; London business risk and financial exposure to a ‘carbon bubble‘; climate sceptic views; Greenwich Power Station update; LED lighting on the Great West Road; production of BioSNG in London; tackling fuel poverty; the rollout of smart meters in London; supporting London businesses resilience to climate change; and an update to the License Lite process.

Previous months questions to the Mayor can be found here.

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How Deep Does London Go?

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Admin

27 October 2015: Great graphic and post on The Londonist website illustrating subterranean London which shows – amongst many other things beneath our feet – the newly constructed London Power Tunnels project.

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