Decentralised Energy

Energy & Climate Questions to the Mayor

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Admin

May 2013: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

whether the Mayor had signed up to the London Big Energy Switch; whether the Mayor had signed up to the Green Deal; making Greenwich Power station a low-carbon generator;  the London Energy and Greenhouse Gas Inventory (LEGGI); discussions with DECC over increasing levels of fuel poverty in London; the Mayor’s response to the Government’s consultation on a new definition for fuel poverty – (link to actual response document here); the growth of fuel poverty in London’s private rented sector; a new power station for London; energy and climate issues in Transport for London’s business plan; decentralised energy and the London Infrastructure Group; meetings with energy supplier companies on the ECO in London; the impact of rising energy prices on London’s economy; the poor uptake of photovoltaics in London; renewable energy supply to London Underground; the use of recycled cooking oil in London’s bus fleet; the number of job losses in the insulation industry in London; how the London Enterprise Panel’s Skills & Employment Working Group will promote green jobs; the number of ‘green’ double decker buses in London; the number ‘green’ single decker buses in London’; emissions related to the ‘New bus for London’; the Shoreditch Heat Network; the Citigen CHP scheme; Guidance on Low Carbon Cooling systems; zero carbon heating at the Tate modern; minutes of the High Level Electricity Working Group; future changes in London’s weather; climate change in the national curriculum; petition to remove climate change from the national curriculum; carbon emissions and projects supported under the Growing Places Fund the RE:NEW evaluation report and an update on the Mayor’s electricity ‘license lite’ application.

Previous months questions to the Mayor can be found here.

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News, Renewable Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A low carbon and more energy efficient West End needs to be prioritised

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Admin

1 May 2013: The Financial Times today highlights concerns raised by London’s West End businesses on the reliability of electricity supply to the centre of the capital. Philippa Roe, leader of Westminster City Council, comments in the article that : “It is a real issue, not just for Westminster but for London. The problem is not generation, it’s distribution. It seems foolish not to be able to plan for our future energy needs.”

Issues related to climate and energy  are set out in sections on infrastructure and the environment in a report published yesterday by the West End Commission. The report recognises the impact that climate change could have on businesses in the West End and sets out a number of significant changes to how lower carbon energy systems could be put in place to supply heat and power. These include:

  • The transition to a low-carbon economy must also become one of the key objectives of the West End partnership, including coordinating underpinning programmes as they relate to retrofit of buildings, new energy and waste systems [para 23]
  • The new West End partnership should also conduct an analysis to assess the appropriateness for the area of different forms of low carbon energy generation [para 24]
  • Some early priorities are to… plan for a low carbon and more energy efficient West End [page 32]
  • The development of new, high quality, energy efficient, mixed use/office space is a key factor in maintaining the West End’s ongoing economic competitiveness. [page 43]
  • There is a concern amongst developers that the current approach to investment in the network must be improved if the West End is going to have a secure energy supply over the long-term.  In its evidence the Westminster Property Association highlighted that ‘security and resilience of energy supplies area growing concern. This is an issue which goes to the heart of UK energy generation, distribution and regulation. The needs of the West End are quite exceptional, in national terms [page 43]
  • The current regulatory system provides limited incentives for investment ahead of demand,creating uncertainty for developers and often additional cost if new power substations are needed to guarantee energy supply. Through their statutory spatial planning process and setting of a Community Infrastructure Levy, the boroughs have the mechanism to identify and prioritise infrastructure requirements. However, boroughs do not have the power to mandate investment in electricity infrastructure and electricity supply will only be improved if the regulator allows investment ahead of demand.The Commission believes that swift action should now be taken to  implement  a new approach to investment in energy supply ahead of demand that builds on the well-established body of evidence. Such an approach should include looking at greater use of innovative sources of energy supply such as the use of hydrogen fuel cells, block or district combined heat and power networks, anaerobic digestion and waste to energy. [page44]
  • The report concludes that – In view of the pressing demand for a more resilient supply of energy to the West End,the new West End partnership should explore whether better use can be made of local decentralised and low carbon sources of supply such as district combined heat and power schemes, anaerobic digestion, energy from waste and hydrogen fuel cells, and whether more could be done to retrofit existing buildings to improve their energy efficiency and reduce demand. [page 46]

The West End Commission was convened by Westminster City Council in summer 2012 to review, explore and set out recommendations for the continued and future success of the West End of London.

Posted in Decentralised Energy, Energy Efficiency, News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Haringey issue new energy and carbon planning guidance

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Admin

April 2013: Haringey fully adopted a new and very useful Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) on Sustainable Design and Construction last month. It’s stated that the “document will be considered in determining planning applications. It does not create new policy, but complements the Local Plan and brings together policy requirements and guidance from national, regional and local planning framework that promote sustainable buildings.” The SPD can be downloaded here.

Two sections are of particular interest.  Section 3: Energy & Carbon – and Section 4: Changing Climate – the latter focused on relevant adaptation issues. Section 3 mentions the following:

“The Upper Lee Valley is one of London’s most exciting areas of change and the opportunity for an alternative energy supply in the area is unique. The core idea of the strategic decentralised energy network here is to capture low-carbon heat from waste-to-energy facilities in the Edmonton area of the Lee Valley and supply the heat to existing businesses and residential customers as well as to new developments.”

The appendices document provides further information on energy requirements related to planning applications to the borough.

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Southwark Heat Services Contract Agreed

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Admin

April 2013: Southwark has recently agreed and signed a ‘Head of Terms’ agreement on a heat services contract with Veolia for “the provision of low carbon heat from the South East London Combined Heat and Power (SELCHP)”. As set out in a 2012 press release from the council, the project is to to create a district energy network which will transport heat – that is currently wasted – from Veolia’s  South East London Combined Heat and Power (SELCHP) Energy from Waste plant in Lewisham, to serve six housing estate in Southwark. Further information on the project can be seen in an earlier post here.

Following a period of consultation last year with leaseholders setting out the proposals and projected reductions in heating costs (see documents here – see the ‘Statement of Case’ document in particular to the proposed reduction in heat prices to tenants), the council has now completed negotiations with Veolia. A new Southwark report sets out some of the key requirements of the agreement. These include that:

  • The cost of heat could be no more than the cost of heating using the current gas boilers. This has been agreed.
  • There could be no capital investment required from the Council. This has been agreed.
  • The full operational risk of the system should be taken by the contractor. This has been agreed.
  • A price indexation mechanism should ensure that the cost of the heat rises less than the expected rise in energy prices. This has been agreed
  • There should be significant environmental benefits including a reduction in CO2 emissions and local pollution. This has been agreed.
  • The Council should share in the benefits of any expansion of the heat network.

The contract will expire in April 2033 at the same time as the boroughs waste PFI contract with Veolia. This project has clearly taken considerable time and effort by all concerned, but particularly Southwark officers, and they should be congratulated on seeing this project through. Getting heat output from the SELCHP plant after such a long time  (the plant is some 20 years old now)  is a considerable ‘win’ and should hopefully provide energy cost reductions to Southwark residents and broader environmental benefits in terms of carbon reduction.

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Lewisham Renaissance and Decentralised Energy

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Admin

23 April 2013: The BBC’s Radio 4 World Tonight programme included an interesting 10 minute piece last night on sustainable cities with contributions from Peter Madden, CEO of Forum for the Future, and architecture critic Jonathan Glancey. Included in the discussion was mention of the Renaissance project, part of the Lewisham Gateway development. [The piece can be heard here – scroll to 20mins into the programme]

Lewisham Council’s website sets out that this major development project in the borough, recently dubbed as the Renaissance [but locally known as Loampit Vale  – opposite Lewisham station] incorporates an energy centre which contains:

“a gas powered engine  CHP (‘Combined Heat and Power’) which generates both electricity and heat, as well as a biomass boiler and gas boilers. Heat energy for residents’ heating and hot water requirements is generated within the energy centre and then distributed via an energy network to a Heat Interface Unit situated within each property, negating the need for conventional gas boilers.”

Unusually for such developments, the Renaissance scheme  will not only supply heating to the whole of the  Renaissance (including the leisure centre and also the London City Mission) but the “the energy centre will also supply electricity to the homes in the block above, as well as to the leisure centre. Excess electricity generated within the energy centre is exported to the National Grid, and the revenue generated offsets the cost of producing heat.” This is a really interesting  move – that is the sale of the electricity to onsite customers – by the developer Barratts, and needs to be studied to see how things progress. Much more on efforts being undertaken to help secure the sustainable energy credentials of this project here – and also some further detail in an early Mayoral planning report on the project [see para 99 onwards].

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Heygate Energy Strategy

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Admin

April 2013:  The Mayor and Southwark Council have recently given final planning permission to the development of the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle which, as the following GLA press release states, will see the “23 acre site demolished and redeveloped delivering up to 2,469 new homes, a quarter of which will be affordable, as well as new shops, offices, leisure and community facilities and a park.”

As one of the largest regeneration projects in the country, there’s been considerable focus on the development – including the energy strategy for the project (details on previous posts here and here).  The final energy assessment report for the development (and updated addendum) can be accessed at Southwark’s Planning website (and directly here Strategy, Addendum).

A site-wide district heating network is being proposed connecting all apartments and commercial units supplied from a single energy centre.  The energy centre building would also include an  education centre and cafe. Which is nice…

Further information is contained in the Mayor’s Planning report on the application – paras 210 onward highlighting that:

  • A potential to link the heat network to the proposed SELCHP district heating network, in Bermondsey has been explored. This is unlikely to be viable in the near term. The applicant has committed to designing the energy infrastructure to allow future connection to SELCHP should it prove viable at a later stage.
  • A phased installation of combined heat and power (CHP) is being proposed in line with the phasing of the development. This would begin with a 263 kWe gas fired CHP unit being switched on during 2019. This would then be followed by a 985 kWe gas fired CHP unit being switched on in 2021 as the lead heat source for the site heat network.
  • The preferred renewable energy strategy for the site  is to use biomethane fuel supplied over the gas network. This renewable fuel would be produced and injected into the national grid elsewhere and then purchased as a credit to supply some or all of the gas consumption requirements of the CHP plant and gas boilers in the energy centre.
Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

£67.23m of DE projects to be delivered in London

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Admin

22 April 2013: A useful update on some of London’s key decentralised energy (DE) projects being supported by the Mayor has been produced for the GLA Investment and Performance Board meeting taking place tomorrow (23 April). The Mayor’s Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit (DEPDU) is a three-year programme set up in August 2011 with €3.3m funding, 90% of which was secured from the European Investment Bank’s ELENA facility.

The paper (link to paper, direct here) sets out that the GLA has a contractual target with the EIB to deliver £67.23m of DE projects to market before the 3rd of August 2014.   The following projects as of 31st December 2012 have been taken to market through the GLA’s Decentralised Energy for London programme and, as agreed with the EIB as eligible projects. Together, they represent £42.3m, or 64% of the final ELENA target.

Project Eligible CAPEX (£) Construction completed CO2 savings (t/year) Project stage
Islington Bunhill Phase 1 £6,499,107 2011 2,950 Operational
Cranston Estate £7,800,000 2011 1,200 Operational
Crystal Palace CHP £1,490,000 2011 1,850 Operational
Olympic Fringe Extension £1,350,000 2011 960 Operational
Royal Free £6,073,621 2012 4,060 Operational
Brent South Kilburn £17,170,000 Unknown* 835 Procurement
Lewisham Goldsmiths College £1,911,706 2014 947 Construction
TOTALS £42,294,434 – 12,800 –

The paper states that when “fully developed and in operation, these projects will contribute with 4.7 MW of installed electrical capacity (and 35.7 MW of installed thermal capacity (enough to provide heat and power to 6,000 homes) to London’s generation from DE sources and will save up to an estimated 12,800 tonnes of CO2 per annum.

“In addition, the DEPDU is also currently supporting the development of an additional 22 projects with a combined value of £304m. Of these, five are in advanced stages of development, and are expected to be brought to market within the following 12 months.”

Project Estimated CAPEX (£) Construction completed CO2 savings (t/year) Project stage
Euston Road £7,025,000 2014 4,594 Procurement
Westminster PDHU / Whitehall £5,480,000 2015 5,500 Business case
SELCHP £6,000,000 2013 3,395 Construction
LSIP £2,000,000 2014 1,584 Procurement
Haringey North Tottenham £8,060,000 2016 5,148 Pre-feasibility
TOTALS £28,565,000 – 20,200 –

When fully developed and in operation, the paper states “these projects will contribute with 3.2 MW of installed electrical capacity and 90 MW of installed thermal capacity (enough to provide heat and power to 14,000 and 4,500 homes respectively) to London’s generation from DE sources and will save up to an estimated 20,200 tonnes of CO2 per annum.”
The paper goes on to say that the “paper does not include projections on jobs created. However, it is our intention to incorporate estimates of jobs created for future reporting and we will work with GLA Economics to establish a robust methodology.”
Further information on many of these projects can be found by searching on this website.

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Greenwich Power Station- a long term low carbon energy solution for London?

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Admin

April 2013: Greenwich Power Station (GPS) is Transport for London (TfL)/London Underground’s (LU)  single remaining source of non-National Grid electricity. It’s Wiki entry lists it as a “a standby oil, gas, and formerly coal-fired power station available as a back-up electricity source for the London Underground”. A past TfL environment report sets out that  “Originally a coal-fired power station, Greenwich was built between 1902 and 1910 in order to supply electricity to the London Tram Network. Today electricity is generated by eight Rolls Royce Avon gas turbine engines which were installed between 1967 and 1972. These engines are fuelled by natural gas and are also capable of running on fuel oil which is stored as an emergency reserve at the site.”

A few months ago, TfL issued something called a ‘Periodic Indicative Notice’ – the purpose of which  was to allow interested parties with appropriate experience to participate in “developing a solution to exploit opportunities for low carbon energy generation” at Greenwich power station.

Continue reading…

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Newham’s Heat-Heat-Power-Power Station

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Admin

April 2013:  There’s been a lot of coverage over the past week over news of an East London scheme to burn so-called ‘fatbergs’. Here’s a run-down over what’s being proposed:

  • The developer, 2OC, has signed a 20-year deal worth over £200m with Thames Water to develop a new power station
  • 2OC say that a ‘Combined Heat and intelligent Power (CHiP) plant’ will be constructed at Thames Water’s Beckton Sewage Treatment works
  • The plant will use  fuels derived from fats, oils and greases (FOGs) – being called ‘fatbergs’ by the press – which build-up in London’s drains [the Sunday Times describes these ‘fatbergs’ as“boulder-sized balls of grease” the worst of which “require “flushers” — clad in protective white suits and shovels — to descend into the bowels of the city to break them up”]
  • A Thames Water press release states that the company has committed to provide at least half of the fuel the generator requires – in the form of 30 tonnes a day of FOGs
  • Other fuel sources will include oil wastes from food outlets and manufacturers, processors and tallow (animal fats). The company say that there no virgin oils from field or plantation grown crops are to be used
  • These FOGS would otherwise be tipped down the drain or dumped in landfill and are responsible for most of the blockages in Thames Water’s 109,000 km of sewers. Removing them costs £1m a month.
  • 2OC’s press release states that “The CHiP plant will produce 130 Gigawatt hours (GWh) of renewable electricity a year – enough to run just under 40,000 average sized homes. 75GWh will be purchased by Thames to run its sewage works – and desalination plant (also based at the Beckton site) – and the rest will be sold on to the national grid.”
  • Waste Management World states that 19MWe will be generated with the CHP based around a two-stroke marine diesel engine
  • Thames Water’s press release provides some additional information on a further novel use of the scheme. The heat output from the CHP scheme will “be used to heat up gas as part of the pressure reduction process at the adjacent Beckton gasworks. The gas pressure has to be dropped to make safe for delivery to homes and businesses. Lowering the pressure of a gas causes a huge drop in temperature, which could freeze and crack pipework. Using waste heat from the engine will reduce the need from gas to be burned to produce the heat currently required to do this job. 20C will also recover some of this thermal energy to generate even more electricity.”
  • Back to the 2OC press release which provides some extra info on the last line of the para above: “Additional power is generated from the recovery of thermal energy (provided by heat from the engine)  via a turbo-expander in the gas stream”
  • Additional renewable heat will also be made available for any housing schemes nearby
  • The Sunday Times article states that “Workers have begun clearing the site, adjacent to the Beckton sewage plant. They must work fast because time is against 2OC and Thames. The facility must be up and running by April 1, 2015, in order to qualify for the giant subsidies it needs to be viable.
    The government guarantees two renewables obligation certificates, a type of green subsidy, for each megawatt hour of power that is generated by experimental technologies. That equates to three times the wholesale electricity price of about £50 per megawatt hour. However, if the Beckton plant comes onstream even one day later than April 1, it will be disqualified.” It’s less to do with it being an ‘experimental technology’ but it being a waste CHP plant which helps quality it for 2 ROCs under the RO.
  • The Sunday Times article also considers what the fuel requirement will mean in practice: Importantly, Thames will not be collecting the cooking oil that one would find in a deep- fat fryer. There is already a big market for this. McDonald’s, for example, recycles the oil from its restaurants into biodiesel for its fleet of delivery lorries… At least once a week a Thames lorry will arrive at participating restaurants to collect a fat-laden tray and replace it with it a clean one. Co-ordinating the operation will be a logistical nightmare. The Beckton power plant will need the equivalent of a shipping container’s worth of fat every day.”
  • Andrew Mercer, chief executive of 2OC, said:“This is good for us, the environment, Thames Water and its customers. Our renewable power and heat from waste oils and fats is fully sustainable. When Thames doesn’t need our output, it will be made available to the grid meaning that power will be sourced, generated and used in London by Londoners.”

Okay:  a lot going on there which is worth going over. What is being proposed is the combustion of these various FOG fuels in a diesel engine to generate electricity. This electrical output from this engine will be directed in the first instance to the sewage treatment works, the Beckton desalination plant (when it needs it – it’s not expected to operate that often) – and also exported to the grid.

The heat from the engine will be captured (as it’s operating in CHP mode) and that will be used to go to the sewage treatment works also, and some is also being proposed to go to local residents via a district heating scheme (of which there is scant detail at the moment). But  some the CHP heat will also go to a Gas Pressure Reduction Station owned by National Grid which is next door to the Beckton sewage treatment works. This is a site where gas is depressurised from the high pressure national gas transmission system, to a lower pressure local distribution system, which can then be fed into homes and businesses. Lowering the pressure of a gas causes a huge drop in temperature, which could freeze and crack pipework, hence heat via a boiler has to be provided on site to help this process (which is currently done). The CHP waste heat will now help fulfil this role, helping reduce the need for gas-burn in the existing boiler.

Last bit: 20C have been exploring for several years now on integrating a device called a turbo expander into the gas pipeline at these pressure reduction station sites.  The expansion of gas at these points from higher to lower pressure allows – with the use of the turbo expander – the generation of electricity. All in all – this  is probably the reason why 2OC are calling this project a ‘Combined Heat and Intelligent Power’ (CHiP) plant!

And did I mention that Thames Water are also installing a 1.5MW wind turbine at the Beckton site also…?!

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Greenwich Peninsula DE network

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Admin

April 2013: Industry journal Utility Week revealed last week that E.ON is planning to support the development of a district heating development in the Greenwich Peninsula. The brief story states that “The energy company is in talks with the Royal Borough of Greenwich to develop heat networks around the O2 Arena”.

E.ON’s website provides some further detail on their role to date: “Initially E.ON undertook a high level technical model of the Greenwich Peninsula to assess and validate both heat demand and the indicative heat network design. A design audit shortly followed. E.ON is advising the Greenwich Peninsula Regeneration venture on the heat network design and specification provided by other consultancies, ensuring it’s sufficiently robust to be adopted by an ESCo (Energy Services Company).”

The March 2012 Greenwich Heat Mapping Study provides much more information, setting out that the “Greenwich Peninsula cluster focuses on the existing district heating network at the Greenwich Millennium Village and the O2 Stadium site and the proposed district heating network for the Greenwich Peninsula Regeneration Limited (GPRL) site. The new redevelopment site consists of 10,000 new homes and 340,000 square meters of mixed use space.”

The study goes on to say that a wider area heat network could in fact be developed by “engaging with the developers for Heart of East Greenwich, Lovell’s Wharf and Enderby Wharf to gain clarity on progress and potential for linking to wider DE network”.

Greenwich’s Climate Change Strategy from 2011 sets out plans for the wider use of decentralised energy across the borough. Greenwich’s Core Strategy consultation also sets out plans for supporting the development of CHP.

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Decarbonising London’s electricity network

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Admin

March 2013: An update on  progress of the Low Carbon London programme as it moves into the trial phase – the key areas for which are:

  • Smart metering (SM) – monitoring residential and commercial electricity use and trialling variable tariff pricing to shift consumption behaviour.
  • Small-scale embedded generation (SSEG) – quantify generation output, understand demand and manage techniques for accommodating these connections.
  • Electric vehicles (EV) – understand and influence EV charging patterns and manage the impact on the electricity network.
  • Distributed energy (DE)/Distributed generation (DG) – active network monitoring (ANM) – quantify generation output, understand how to facilitate and manage DG and how active control can be used by DNOs.
  • Demand response (DR) – understand the potential to postpone/defer electricity network reinforcement during peak demand.

Further information on Low Carbon London here.

Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Admin

March 2013: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

the number of applications to the London Energy Efficiency Fund; the Mayor’s correspondence with DECC on the ECO;  fuel poverty and health; Details of decentralised energy schemes being supported by the Mayor; visits to Brixton Energy Solar projects; energy efficiency targets in the Mayor’s London Rental Standard; fuel poor families in London – and RE:NEW delivery in the private rented sector; the Mayor’s work to plug the energy gap; progress under the RE:FIT programme in London boroughs; the level of Green Deal activity in London; Is the GLA a Green Deal provider; plans in place to spend the £5,627,342 DECC Green Deal and Fuel Poverty funding to the GLA; 2013/14 funding to the RE:FIT programme; evaluation of the RE:FIT programme;
RE:CONNECT programme budget for 2013/14; Better Building Partneship programme budget for 2013/14/; events attended by the Mayor’s Environment Advisor; Bunhill CHP scheme; attendance at the High Level Electricity Working Group; and participation on environmental issues on the Talk London website.

Posted in Decentralised Energy, Energy Efficiency, News, Renewable Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment