Tag Archives: Decentralised Energy

HNDU and Heat Networks

Posted on July 31, 2013 by Admin

July 2013: DECC’s recent publication ‘Summary evidence on District Heating Networks in the UK’ highlights that extent that London dominates the regions in relation to the use of district heating. The report sets out that “London has over half the heat networks in the UK (55%) with two thirds (65%) being small”. Table 5 from the evidence paper (copied below) provides some additional detail:

To take forward the Government’s 2012 Future of Heating Strategy, a series of actions were set out in a further report published earlier this year – The future of heating: meeting the challenge which includes a major chapter on heat networks. Not suprisingly, London is featured prominently with examples of recent activity on developing decentralised energy networks in Islington, the Upper Lea Valley, the Olympic Park and Stratford City, as well as the heat network installed in The Shard.

The report also highlights how work is being coordinated in London through the DEPDU initiative. Page 55 sets out “in September 2011 the GLA established the Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit (DEPDU) to support the London boroughs in bringing forward plans for decentralised energy. The unit, which is staffed by technical, financial and commercial specialists,has focused primarily on developing heat network projects.”

DECC are now seeking to replicate this model through the creation of HNDU.  The ‘meeting the challenge’ paper states that “DECC will support local authorities in developing heat networks by establishing a Heat Networks Delivery Unit (HNDU) within the Department that will work closely with individual authorities’ project teams in England and Wales. DECC will provide funding over two financial years to contribute to local authorities’ costs in carrying out early stage heat network development. This will enable local authorities to bring forward projects to the stage where they are suitable for investment including loan finance from the Green InvestmentBank or commercial lenders.” [p38]

£3m over two years will be committed to HNDU to provide specialist expertise and be a “bridge between the local authority and the market, acting as a ‘critical friend”. The unit will also have a “funding stream of £6m over two years [which] will be available to local authorities. It will contribute to the cost of procuring technical reports and advice on the phases of a heat network’s development.” [p57] The HNDU team held a workshop in  London last week where they set out their likely criteria for how they will judge applications to the fund – see the final slide (slide 12) of the following DECC presentation for full details on this. Attendees to the workshop were also informed that the HNDU team is being finalised at the moment, with an announcement expected shortly on the appointment of a lead Investment Director who will head the unit. Finance is anticipated to become available to local authorities for qualifying projects from this Autumn. Though the HNDU team has set itself a 7-year business plan – funding secured from DECC only lasts until 2015 at the moment.

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Euston Road Energy Centre and District Heating Network

Posted on July 24, 2013 by Admin

July 2013: After several years building the case, it is hugely positive to see that Camden have now released a tender for a £5.7m  decentralised energy network along Euston Road. The tender document sets out that:

“The London Borough of Camden has identified a cluster of four communally heated estates in Somers Town, Kings Cross, London NW1 which are in close proximity to the Francis Crick Institute, a new major biomedical research facility due to be completed in 2015/16. The aggregated volume of heat and electrical demands for the estates and Francis Crick Institute has been assessed by Arup on behalf of the Decentralised Energy for London programme and is considered to provide an excellent opportunity for a phased decentralised energy network. Full planning consent for a centralised energy centre has been secured and full Cabinet approval has been secured from the London Borough of Camden to procure the project.”

The tender information goes on: “The scheme will be commissioned and delivered in the following phases:

  • Phase 1 – would see a heat only district heating project design, built, operated and maintained for the four estates via a district heating network connected to a central energy centre for which full planning permission has been granted.
  • Phase 2 – Once the Francis Crick Institute (“the Crick”) establishes a sufficient electrical demand (envisaged 2016) and an agreement is reached, Camden Council may commission the installation, operation and maintenance of a c.1MWe CHP unit (indicative size only) at the Phase 1 Energy Centre with a direct electrical connection to the Crick. Upon Phase 2 commission, the CHP system shall then also be the primary source of heat supply to the district heating network installed in Phase 1.
  • Phase 3 – Camden Council intends to extend the network to connect to Council regeneration planned for the wider Somers Town area over the next 4-5 years. This phase will not be procured within this exercise. However, the design and build under Phase 1 will include the expansion capacity to support future district heating demands.

The proposed heat route can be seen on the planning application for the CHP here. An open day will be held for bidders on Monday, 5 August 2013.

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Camden Energy Updates

Posted on July 23, 2013 by Admin

July 2013: Camden’s Environment Scrutiny Committee met recently where a detailed environment report for the borough was presented. The Green Action for Change annual review provides a pretty exhaustive account of the range of programmes being taken forward in the borough, including the following energy-related actions:

  • Pilot enhanced retrofitting planning guidance for conservation areas adopted for Dartmouth Park and Holly Lodge. Format for new borough wide energy efficiency planning guidance for conservation areas agreed.
  • Euston Road/Somers Town CHP scheme now procurement ready
  • Gospel Oak Heat Network – which uses waste heat from the Royal Free Hospital’s CHP system to heat several Camden housing estates – was connected to 1,427 dwellings, saving an estimated 37,761 lifetime tCO2.
  • Energy masterplan completed for Bloomsbury area, with detailed assessment of British Museum link to university and Great Ormond Street to Tybalds estate
  • Euston Opportunity Area Planning Framework (OAPF) energy masterplan funding secured with completion pending HS2 judicial review.

On the Green Deal and energy efficiency retrofits, the report outlines that: Continue reading…

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Further Funding for London Sustainable Industries Park

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Admin

July 2013: The Mayor has approved further funding for the development of the London Sustainable Industries Park (LSIP) with the provision of £2.989m to go towards investment in “essential infrastructure”. The new approval form sets out that this spend will include £1 million to bring a gas connection to the London Sustainable Industries Park . The Mayor had previously announced £30m going to LSIP in September 2012, which is based in Dagenham and which will include a new anaerobic digestion plant along with a planned decentralised heat network.

The approval form also provides some background to the development:  “LSIP will create a landmark cleantech business park, concentrating leading environmental industries and technologies. By co-locating businesses that share resources and exchange by-products, the LSIP encourages synergies that can deliver cost savings and competitive advantages through industrial symbiosis. The UK cleantech sector has continued to grow throughout the recent economic downturn and investment in the new infrastructure at the LSIP represents an opportunity to access a market estimated to be worth over £23 billion in London alone and to support up to 750 jobs in clean tech/energy businesses and up to 500 construction jobs.“

More on LSIP on their website www.londonsip.com. Further information on the project can be viewed on an earlier post here.

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London Electricity Future Discussions

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Admin

18 June 2013: In November of last year the Mayor held an Electricity Summit at City Hall where a High Level Electricity Working Group was formed to “discuss the energy systems needed by London over the coming decades and the mechanisms by which the challenges can be met”.  A background paper Delivering an Accessible and Competitive Electricity Network for London was presented as well as a presentation setting out the remit of the Working Group.

The  papers from the first two High Level Group Meetings have now become available and can be downloaded here (15 January) and here (28 March).

The papers for the 15 January meeting set some comprehensive information of key issues and detail the future priorities of the Group including:

  • Identifying growth hotspots and areas of existing network stress that require strategic infrastructure investment
  • the Potential of Decentralised Energy systems, district heating and demand side response measures to reduce electricity distribution infrastructure costs
  • and Estimating costs of investments required and considering models for how they could be met/shared

The March 28 meeting set out a series of action points including that:

“The GLA and UKPN are establishing a sub- group with respective experts to discuss identified Decentralised Energy and demand side response issue identified at the January meeting. It meets for the first time on 3 May. As and when appropriate, the sub-group will report back to the High-level Working Group.”

The third of the Working Group meetings took place today: Sir Edward Lister is standing down from chairing, and the Mayor’s Environment and Political Advisor Matthew Pencharz will attend the Group meetings from today and chair from henceforth.

See here for the Mayor’s response on how renewable generators issues will be represented on the Group.

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London District Heating Workshop

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Admin

June 2013: Earlier this month the Greater London Authority (GLA) hosted a workshop that “covered the design principles of secondary heating systems in new developments, to ensure compatibility with existing or planned DH networks across London.” Presentations made on the day are available to view here including talks on the Kings Cross decentralised energy scheme, and on the latest proposals for the development of Battersea Power Station.
The workshop builds on the release earlier this year of the initial version of the GLA’s ‘District Heating Manual for London‘ (link to manual here). The press released issued at the Manual’s launch states that “London is experiencing a significant uplift in decentralised energy schemes with City Hall currently supporting the delivery of schemes valued at more than £300m where the principles of the manual are being applied. This is helping to support a growth in the sector including jobs　and infrastructure investment in the capital.

“The manual, the first of its kind in the UK, is designed to be a ‘live’ document that will be updated and feedback is encouraged in time for the next revision to be published this summer.”

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Community Energy in the Energy Bill

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Admin

13 June 2013: The House of Commons Library has issued a useful briefing note on the Energy Bill. Included in the note is a summary of  discussions on concerns of how community energy schemes will operate under the new complex electricity market reform (EMR) regime.

The note highlights the key issues with the following text:

“Community Energy Schemes

“In its pre-legislative scrutiny of the Draft Energy Bill, the Energy and Climate Change Committee concluded that the proposed CFDs were unlikely to work for smaller electricity providers, such as community schemes. It heard evidence that the problems for smaller-scale projects included:

  • A lack of financial capability to deal with the complexities and uncertainties of CFDs, resulting in high transaction costs; and
  • Difficulties in obtaining the full reference price for the electricity they generate, resulting in lower income per unit of electricity generated.

(House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Committee, Draft Energy Bill: Pre-legislative Scrutiny July 2012, HC 275-i of session 2012–13, para 66)

Continue reading…

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London Energy & Climate Priorities for the year

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Admin

June 2013:  The GLA’s Environment Programme budget for 2013-14 has recently been approved by the Mayor, setting out a total spend of £946,000 to support the delivery of the GLA’s environment policy and programmes. The approval form sets out in detail priorities being focussed on across the environment programme,  but listed below are those actions specifically related to energy and climate:

  • £100,000 to fund consultancy support for Energy Assessments: The London Plan sets out a requirement for developers to submit an energy assessment as part of their planning application.The Environment Team appraises at least 300 applications per year and requires part time expert consultancy support to assist on some highly technical issues. More on this  here.
  • £125,000  for the preparation of the London Energy & Greenhouse Gases Inventory (LEGGI) and London Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (LAEI) which provide baseline information on London energy use, greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions.
  • £30,000 for a CHP in social housing study. This research will help demonstrate the commercial viability of Combined Heat and Power schemes in social housing over the installation of individual boilers and support the application of the energy hierarchy in the London Plan.
  • Guidance for developers on revised Building Regulations. The review of Part L of Buildings Regulations will lead to revised standards for new buildings coming into effect in October 2013. This study will recalibrate the standards in the London Plan (Policy 5.2 – see page 141) and provide guidance to the London Plan team and developers.
  • £30,000 to London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP) to undertake 3 projects: a) working with commercial landlords to reduce climate risks to the premises and tenants, b) working with social housing landlords in 4 boroughs to reduce overheating risks, c) undertaking a scoping study to define and increase the ‘adaptation economy’.
  • £30,000 for Hydrogen London – The Hydrogen London 2013-2014 programme will deliver the Mayor’s vision of London as a global centre of hydrogen and fuel cell activity, services and early adopter of these technologies.
  • £10,000 to review London’s CO2 emissions from waste – including to monitoring CO2 emissions from municipal waste management and reviewing CO2 metrics for waste (for previous work on this issue by the GLA see the following links here and here)
  • £160,000 to retrofitting London –  £110k will support the development of interventions with London Councils and the boroughs to remove barriers to delivery of energy efficiency. These include guidance for conservation areas and areas with a high density of listed buildings; procurement and analysis of energy performance certificate (EPC) data to enable the targeted identification of properties, quantification of the impact of emerging energy legislation and build the investment case for increasing the ‘success rate’ for delivery of measures. £50k will support the development of delivery models to maximise engagement to increase uptake in the private rented and owner occupied sectors (70 per cent of London’s housing stock).
  • £66,000 to delivering decentralised energy – Funding the London Heat Map (£16k in 2013/14 and £9k per year thereafter) – which identifies opportunities for local energy supply projects. The costs involve the GLA maintaining the current site hosted by RADE includes cost of ArcGIS server licence (a one off fee), hosting and admin costs for the site. LWaRB have agreed to pay 50 per cent towards the licence and hosting services.
  • £30,000 for Energy master plans (EMPs) – these provide the strategic planning function that underpins the delivery of strategic DE projects. The EMP provides a high-level feasibility and viability assessment and puts forward a ‘preferred solution’ for the energy infrastructure of that area. Funding will support three EMPs . EMP costs around £50k to produce. GLA will make £~10k contributions, developers and boroughs will contribute the remaining required budget. Recent energy masterplans undertaken include major regeneration sites in Croydon, Vauxhall Nine Elms Battersea, White City and London Riverside.
  • £20,000 in 2013/14 and £50,000 in 2014/15 to Licence Lite – following our recent application to become a supplier we will need to work with Ofgem and the electricity supply market to develop business model and submit for Mayoral approval. We will work with market advisors on completing matrix of services needed and completion of formal legal agreements for services. (see here and here for further detail).
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Heads of Terms Signed for Funding Enfield Biomass Project

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Admin

June 2013: News reports provide an update on progress being made by developer Kedco of their 12MW biomass heat and power plant planned in Enfield. The article states that “Kedco plc, the renewable energy developer and operator focusing on the production of clean energy in the UK and Ireland, is pleased to announce the appointment of the Foresight Group (“Foresight”) as the preferred funding partner in relation to its 12 MW Enfield Biomass CHP project located in North London. Kedco has signed a non-binding heads of terms with Foresight for the provision of debt and equity facilities which will part finance the construction and operation of the Project.” See previous posts here for detail on the scheme.

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GLA ‘license lite’ to allow opportunities for London DE

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Admin

May 2013: A recent question to the Mayor provides some useful information on the Mayor’s application to the energy regulator Ofgem for the Greater London Authority to be classed as ‘license lite’ under the electricity supply regulations (see previous post for background). Asked what the process would be if the GLA were successful, the Mayor response was as follows:

“Following grant of the licence the Greater London Authority will enter into agreements with the owners /operators of decentralised electricity generating capacity in London for delivery to the GLA of the electricity to be supplied under the licence, supply agreements with the parties who will consume it and an agreement with a fully licensed electricity supplier for the provision of the necessary technical electricity market services to enable the licence to be operated.”

All of this is conditional however on internal approval within the GLA for the organisation to take on electricity supply operations:

“Acceptance of the licence and commencing operations is conditional on a positive and commercially prudent business model being approved by Mayoral Decision .”

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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.

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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.

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