Decentralised Energy

Solar sector hails innovative move as even more significant than EMR

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Admin

15 March 2013: A BusinessGreen story today reports on some industry reaction to the Mayor of London’s proposal to enter into the electricity trading market  (details of which are set out here).

“Leonie Greene of the Solar Trade Association said London was taking a “pioneering” step that could encourage other towns, cities, and communities to follow suit. London is the first to apply for a Licence Lite.“We’re much more excited about this than anything else in the Electricity Market Reforms process going through Westminster,” she told BusinessGreen. “People who live near renewable projects often say they want a way of buying the electricity directly, and through this kind of licence they can.”She added that the licence would allow independent generators to sell their electricity at a retail price via the GLA, rather than having to sell it much more cheaply on the wholesale market.”

DECC’s Secretary of State Ed Davey (also the London MP for Kingston) also welcomed the initiative stating: “This is a hugely encouraging development and I welcome the London Mayor’s announcement today and fully support councils such as Haringey with this project.  Opening up our energy market to smaller companies is good news for competition and therefore good news for consumers.  This is a welcome initiative that will make better use of energy produced locally and help Londoners get the best bang for their buck.”

The Electricity Market Reforms – or EMR – refer to the proposals currently going through Parliament in the Energy Bill. These include the introduction of Contracts for Differences (CfDs) for low carbon generators – guaranteed market prices which will be paid for the production of power. The new system proposed has been widely criticised as being overly complex and a significant barrier to smaller power generators (see the following post for more detail).

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Intelligent energy integration for London’s decentralised energy projects

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Admin

15 March 2013: “The Mayor is interested in how decentralised energy can form part of a Smart energy system to provide more efficient, sustainable and resilient supply. He has commissioned a technical and market analysis of the emerging opportunities to use smart technologies and services to integrate the production and use of heat and power within London. This considers how an intelligent energy system might evolve in London in the period up to 2050, the key technologies that could be deployed and the organisational structures required.”

Download the report “‘Smart City’ – Intelligent energy integration for London’s decentralised energy projects” here. Will return to some of the outputs of this report in a future post.

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DE plans for Croydon Town Centre

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Admin

February 2013: Following a consultation last Summer, a Croydon Town Centre Opportunity Area Planning Framework (OAPF) has just been adopted by the Mayor,  Croydon Council and TfL. OAPFs  set out planning, regeneration and design guidance for major growth centres in London, called Opportunity Areas. The London Plan identifies 33 Opportunity Areas one of which is the Croydon Metropolitan Centre and its environs.

Included within the  OAPF are considerations of future energy requirements within the area. Chapter 4 of the document sets out the following:

“4.68 Delivery of a Croydon Central Area Heat and Power Scheme is an objective of the Croydon Council climate change strategy. In order to achieve a major reduction in the Borough’s carbon footprint, and meet the Mayor’s decentralised energy target, the Core Strategy (Policy CS6) expects that larger  developments and refurbishments should be enabled to connect to district energy networks based on centralised combined heat and power plants (CHP), particularly in the COA and other district centres within the borough.

4.69 Croydon Council has undertaken a detailed study on the viability of delivering a district heating network to support the regeneration of the COA. The scheme would provide low carbon heat to new developments which would enable them to meet the energy performance standards required by planning policy and national Building Regulations. Existing buildings would also be able to connect to the scheme to benefit from the lower carbon heat. Some key features are:

• A centralised “energy centre” fuelled by gas fired Combined Heat & Power plant

• This heat is distributed across the COA as hotwater in a network of buried pipes

• The electricity generated could be sold for use in near by buildings with the excess being exported to the public supply grid

• The scheme would be financed, designed, builtand operated by a commercial partner

• Cost of connecting to the scheme would be lower than making on-site heat provision

• Cost of heat to building users will be less than alternative on-site provision of heat (e.g. having own boiler system and paying for heat)

• Wandle Road car park has been identified asa potential location for the energy centre butfurther feasibility work is required to assess thisoption in more detail

4.70 It is envisaged that the first phase of the scheme would connect to new developments in mid Croydon and East Croydon, along with a core of existing public buildings. The full potential would expand to buildings across the wider COA area. The council will be working with the GLA “Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit” to configure the scheme so that it would be commercially attractive to the energy services market. This work is currently ongoing. As and when new development comes forward it will be expected to help deliver and connect into such a district heating system, if feasible.”

Other OAPF energy studies undertaken include Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea, London Riverside and White City amongst others.

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Energy initiatives in the Mayor’s new budget

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Admin

February 2013: Following a short consultation period, the Mayor’s final 2013/14 Budget for the GLA Group has just been agreed at City Hall.  A press release sets out that this budget comprises funding for the the “Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, Transport for London (TfL), the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA), the London Legacy Development Corporation, and the Greater London Authority including the London Assembly. The total budget for GLA Group services is £16.5 billion.“

The final documents are posted here. In terms of funding directed to energy programmes, the background statement to the budget sets out that:

“The Mayor is continuing to work towards improving London’s environment. Energy supply and master-planning is key to delivering sustainable development for London’s economy. Investment will continue through a Decentralised Energy programme (with £1.3 million over the next two years) which provides technical, commercial and financial advisory support to partners to help them bring their decentralised energy projects to the market. This work builds on the mapping of opportunities identified through the London Heat Map. Work will also progress with partners towards a district heating demonstration project, supported by European funds.” [para 5.8]

Also mentioned is that finance will be directed to homes in London through “a fund of up to £300 million with the European Investment Bank to deliver carbon-efficient affordable homes” [para 5.4]. This relates to a loan organised by The Housing Finance Corporation (THFC) and the EIB which should be available to be utilised shortly by London housing associations – see here, here and here for further information. The funding will be managed by THFC.

Though a few other environment-related projects are mentioned in the background statement document, and reference is made to energy efficiency work to be undertaken by LFEPA and also TfL, no mention is made of the Mayor’s RE:NEW home energy efficiency retrofit scheme, or RE:FIT or RE:CONNECT – however, with the budget only just finalised, it may be the case that further information is yet to be released.

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‘Groundbreaking plan to use excess heat from tube system for domestic electricity supply’

Posted on February 10, 2013 by Admin

8 February 2013:   Following on from the recent inauguration of the Bunhill heat and power scheme, the Islington Tribune newspaper reports that the council is looking to use waste “heat from London Underground that escapes through a vent in City Road…to supply new private homes being built nearby.” The proposal was discussed at the Council’s Executive meeting on 7 February where the borough’s Energy Strategy for 2013-16 was also set out. The papers presented at the meeting provide additional information on the heat offtake scheme:

“The network extension will be innovative by capturing waste heat from the London Underground tube tunnel vent and the electrical substations on City Road. £1m grant funding has been applied for and is now available from the European Commission (EC) to help part-fund this innovative extension of the Bunhill heat network. £2.7M council capital is required to match this funding and this is being taken forward as part of the 2013/14 budget process.”

Building on the existing Seasonal Health and Affordable Warmth (SHAW) plan, the Strategy paper additionally sets out that a borough Fuel Poverty Strategy will be developed by March 2013. Download Making Islington fairer in tough times: Energy strategy 2013 -16 here.

Also discussed at the Executive meeting were procurement details of community heating system on the Finsbury Estate.

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Wembley Decentralised Energy Plans move forward

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Admin

January 2013: An update on plans for a decentralised energy network around Wembley has become available through the following news release from energy consultancy firm Ramboll:

“London Borough of Brent and Greater London Authority have recently commissioned Ramboll Energy to develop a decentralised energy masterplan for the Wembley Regeneration Area. …The scale of regeneration, together with the nature and mix of building uses, suggests that a district heating network is likely to have a strong role to play in delivering carbon reduction to the area. The masterplan will focus on the role of district heating, but also consider the role for building level and plot level renewable technologies in locations where the heat network may not be suitable or economically viable.”

Brent have already commissioned a heat map for the borough (which is downloadable from the London Heat Map website) and an initial feasibility study for a Wembley decentralised energy project was originally undertaken in 2008 (see earlier post on this). Details for DE network are also set out in the 2011 Wembley Local Development Framework consultation sustainability report. Brent are also advancing plans for a DE network in Kilburn – see earlier post on this.

Finally, an academic study of Brent’s planning rules and decentralised energy can be viewed here.

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Comparing PV in London to other regions

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Admin

January 2013: With the publication of Ofgem’s new  FITs newsletter (Quarterly Report 10 – December 2012 which looks at data up to September 2012) – it’s useful to look at back at the data over the past 10 issues and see how the capital has been faring under the programme with respect to most appropriate of the FIT technologies – photovoltaics (ie PV or solar electric). It should be noted that PV makes up 98% of FIT installations and 90% of total FIT generation capacity installed (see the newsletter for full details).

Previous posts (here and here) have looked at various FIT data sets and highlighted the fact that London has had the lowest capacity of PV installed of any region.

Plotting the installation rates of PV capacity per region per quarter (as provided by data in the Ofgem newsletters) since the FIT programme started (April 2010) provides a comparison of not only how low London’s capacity is compared to other regions of the country (London is the line skirting along the bottom, just below the North-East), but also how the various regions reacted to the sudden and major change in FIT tariffs (a good summary of which is in the following Guardian article).

The majority of regions witnessed a significant’spike’ in the number of PV systems installed as a result of the Government’s announcement that there was to be an near-immediate reduction in the FIT tariff level for PV.  However, in London, though there there was an increase – it was incredibly modest compared to nearly all other parts of the country. Does this reflect:

  • A low level of interest in PV by Londoners?
  • More renters and more flats in London reducing demand for PV?
  • Perhaps only a small number of companies are offering PV in the capital?
  • Less knowledge in the benefits of PV by Londoners?
  • Or are PV companies more attracted to doing business outside London – ie cheaper staff, less hassle factor, easier to put up scaffolding etc etc – more installs mean more money for them?

Whatever the reason, the potential of the most appropriate of the renewable technologies for London is currently being unrealised. The GLA’s 2012 London renewable energy study estimated that PV has the technical potential to supply up to 19% of the capital’s electricity consumption.

NB More recent data – up to December 31 2012 – is available in Ofgem’s latest  FIT register database of 8 January 2013 (link  to the Excel spreadsheet here – it’s a big file at 39MB with around 350,000 separate entries for FIT installations across the UK). The database indicates that of the 31MW of PV capacity in London, the vast majority – around 27 MW – comes from small scale household installations.

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South Bank Decentralised Energy Scheme Proposed

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Admin

14 December 2012: There were several news reports this week (here, here and here) that plans have been released to redevelop the area around the Shell Centre on the South Bank which include mention of an onsite ‘energy centre’.

The developer’s press release goes on to say that “The system will be designed to interconnect with a district heating network being explored for the wider South Bank area.” This is referring to a study undertaken in 2009 looking at the potential for an area-wide decentralised energy heat network connecting new and existing buildings along the South Bank, which was undertaken by London South Bank University for the South Bank Employers’ Group (SBEG).

The planning application is to be submitted to Lambeth  before Christmas. Some additional information on the South Bank Master Plan is posted here and on the Shell Centre Dialogue here.

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London Housing and Community Heating Presentations

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Admin

December 2012: Three talks focused on communal heating were presented at the recent National Housing Federation ‘London Development Conference. The series of ‘go on, go green’ slides – downloadable here – contain some useful information:

  • Sam Hunt of BSSEC sets out some really clear slides on the design approach for heat mapping, as well as issues that need to be considered when implementing district heating and CHP. Worth a look.
  • Robert Greene of a2dominion housing association states that they have a 6,000 home development pipeline over the next 5 years, of which 70% will use communal heating systems
  • Results from an ongoing G15 – Communal Heating Research Project are also presented (G15 group – consists of London 15 largest Housing Associations) and highlight that there are currently 134 Schemes with Communal (Decentralised) heating. Much more very useful info is touched upon from the research, however the final results from this will not be published until April/May 2013. See the slides for the full information (slide 28 onwards).
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London installations removed from EUETS

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Admin

6 December 2012: Ahead of the start of Phase III of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EUETS), which starts on 1 January 2013, DECC has today introduced new legislation which looks to simplify the rules around the CO2 ‘cap and trade’ scheme.

The EUETS covers around 1,100 energy-intensive industrial installations in the UK such as power stations, refineries and large manufacturing plants. Not surprisingly, not many of these participants are located at London, however, there are a few at the very lowest end of the EUETS requirements, and it is these sites which are addressed in the changes made today. DECC’s press release states that these ‘small emitters’, many of which are hospitals, have been given the opportunity to “‘opt-out’ of the EU ETS from 2013 into a lighter touch alternative scheme, which will address the disproportionately higher administrative costs faced by these installations.”

The ‘opt out’ list includes the following schemes in London:

Other sites include the Hammersmith Hospital Energy Centre and the University College London Hospital.

Common to many of these installations is that they had chosen to utilise Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems to provide greater energy resilience on site, access more affordable heat and power, and reduce the site’s overall environmental impact related to energy consumption. However, by choosing to install more energy efficient generation directly on site, rather than importing electricity from the grid, they also passed the threshold on energy consumption for inclusion under the EUETS rules (20MW thermal input). This brought these relatively modest generation sites under the complex EUETS rules, hence, this new action by Government to simplify the rules under their operation under the trading scheme is to be welcomed.

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‘How Green Will the New Heygate Be?’

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Admin

December 2012:  35percent.org is an useful blog focussed on sustainability issues related to the massive new development proposed at the Elephant and Castle (see earlier post on this).

The top link to the site sets out some current concerns over the energy proposals on the site, especially in relation to connecting the different energy centres on site (which would hep form a more efficient area-wide heat network), and also the likelihood of using biomethane gas (the proposal in the developers application is to use the Green Gas Certification Scheme to link the London scheme to a site which is injecting biomethane elsewhere in the national gas transmission grid). The blog entry states that no such injection schemes are currently operating, which was true at the time of writing (early November 2012) but, coincidentally, the Poundbury anaerobic digestion (AD) in Dorset began operation just over a week ago (see here and here) and is injecting renewable gas generated from the AD into the gas grid.

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Boroughs pushing forward decentralised energy

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Admin

November 2012: In addition to a supporting 25 decentralised energy projects in the capital, London boroughs are also working on some innovative projects to support the uptake of district heating.

Two recent projects worth mentioning are Newham’s work on establishing special planning guidance – a Local Development Order (LDO) to help streamline the process for a proposed new heat network running ” predominately along public highway from Beckton to Royal Docks, Canning Town and Custom House, West Ham and Stratford, including a short length of the Greenway between Manor Road and Stratford High Street.” Further information on the LDO project is on Newham’s website here; in a report to the council here; and in a Newham Council meeting paper here.

Southwark council have also been working on developing a contract with the SELCHP waste to energy plant to offtake heat from the plant which will be supplied to a number of estates (further information on this project in an earlier post here). Details of the contract can be viewed in council papers here.

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