Tag Archives: Decentralised Energy

South Kensington Heat and Cooling Network

2 December 2011: Article in the latest issue of The Engineer providing detail on a novel new Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system which will form part of a South Kensington Heat and Cooling Network. The project will potentially include the Natural History Museum, Imperial College, the V&A, the Science Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Geographical Society and “envisages an underground heating and cooling network beneath Exhibition Road in South Kensington linking some of the buildings occupied by the above list of prestigious institutions – which last year had a combined utility carbon footprint equivalent to five major hospitals.”

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

London – What Future for CHP and District Heating?

November 2011: Slides from a recent presentation made by Peter North, Senior Manager of the GLA’s Sustainable Energy Team. Includes information on the GLA’s new Decentralised Energy Project Delivery Unit (DEPDU). Further information on London’s DE plans can be found in Chapter 4Securing a Low Carbon Energy Supply for London – of the Mayor’s recent Climate Change Mitigation and Energy Strategy, as well as in the 2009 report ‘Powering Ahead‘.

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

Enfield Gasification Scheme

21 November 2011: An update on Irish developer Kedco’s plans to develop a biomass gasification scheme in Enfield which it believes have become more positive as a result of the recent proposed changes to the renewable obligation

The project received planning permission in October 2010 to build a c. £45 million biomass wood gasification plant in Enfield capable of generating 12MW of electricity and 10MW of heat and – as the article linked above explains – has secured a supply deal with a company processing waste wood from construction and demolition. Kedco report that tenders currently being prepared to source a suitable contractor for the proposed construction of the plant.  Details submitted at the time of application in relation to a ‘heat output assessment’ for the facility can be viewed here and para 6.3.1 onwards  of the planning officer’s report (report also here) on the application provide details of the scheme’s proposals to export heat to some nearby sites.

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

Greenwich Peninsula Decentralised Energy Project Update

November 2011: Greenwich Council has issued a tender for services in relation to the construction of a district heating network across this major London redevelopment site. The tender states that “The Greenwich Penninsula Project is a major regeneration scheme involving 67 development plots. As part of this development and in support of low carbon initiatives a district heating system will be installed to provide heating and hot water to the development utilising low carbon energy technology. The scope of this enquiry is for the architecturl design of the buildings to house all the equipment including Biomass Boilers and CHP units.”

Further information on the Greenwich Peninsula DE project is available on:

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

London’s Decentralised Energy Programme Delivery Unit

November 2011: The GLA have appointed engineering consultants Arup to provide services to support the development of  decentralised energy (DE) schemes in London, through the provision of  technical, commercial and financial advisory support.
The contract with Arup runs from September 2011 to August 2014 and will resource a new Decentralised Energy Programme Delivery Unit (DEPDU). Further information on the previous round of this programme www.londonheatmap.org

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

Three schemes bid to generate heat and power from North London’s waste

October 2011: Three bids have been submitted to the North London Waste Authority (NLWA) to generate energy from the 300,000 tonnes of solid recovered fuel (SRF)  created from the 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes of North London’s waste that cannot be recycled  or composted.
The NWLA is a statutory waste authority managing the disposal of municipal waste from seven London local authorities (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Islington, Hackney, Haringey and Waltham Forest) and this procurement is one of two that NLWA is running to provide a “long term and sustainable waste management solution for North London”.  A separate procurement is being run that will involve recycling or composting half of North London’s waste, producing the fuel and minimising the landfilling of municipal waste.
The contract for the use of SRF will be available from 2015 for up to 25 years and the NLWA states that it “is striving to achieve the most efficient form of energy recovery. This could be with the fuel being used in a Combined Heat and Power (‘CHP’) plant, located close to where the energy demand is.”
The NWLA have provided updated details of the three bids, all of which utilise CHP technology  on the following news release.

  • Covanta Energy project is the only one based in London and is proposing a Combined Heat and Power plant at the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery site at Silvertown, East London. The Covanta proposal involves the transport by barge of SRF from Edmonton to Silvertown and this will support the further development of London rivers for freight transport use. Covanta will shortly begin consultations with the local community and relevant authorities ahead of a planning application in mid 2012.
  • E.ON/Wheelabrator Technologies is proposing a CHP plant at DS Smith Paper’s site at Kemsley Mill, Sittingbourne, Kent.
  • Veolia Environmental Services (UK) wants a CHP enabled power plant at an existing industrial site in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire.

The winning proposal will be selected from one of the three shortlisted candidates during the next 12 months using an evaluation framework that focuses on the quality and cost of the solution.
Further information on how SRF is produced is set out by the NWLA here.

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

London’s first council owned energy company

8 October 2011:  The Islington Gazette reports that “The Bunhill Energy Centre, in Central Street, Clerkenwell, is due to be ready for the start of winter next year and will provide cheaper energy for more than 700 homes in the south of the borough.” Read full article here.

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

London Combined Heat and Power output falls

October 2011: DECC have just released their annual regional breakdown of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) statistics, providing further detail to the CHP chapter of DECC’s annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics, published in July of this year.
The statistics for London released indicate that:

  • 188 Good Quality CHP schemes were operational in  London as at the end of 2010
  • These schemes amount to a total electrical capacity of 185 MWe and total thermal capacity of 372MWth
  • They produced a total of 631GWh electricity and 1,680GWh heat – a total of 2,311 GWh energy
  • Unlike many other regions, London does not have many large-scale industrial CHP schemes, which have typically long operational hours. Hence the overall load factor of London CHP schemes is low – the second lowest in the UK – at only 39.8%
  • Importantly, whilst there has been a marginal increase in the number of CHP schemes operating in London (3 more in 2010) overall CHP generation capacity in London has decreased from 200MWe in 2009 to 185MWe. This is in despite an increase in overall increase in UK CHP capacity by over 500MWe.
  • Additionally, when compared to last year’s statistics, the output from CHP plant in the capital has also fallen. CHP data as at the end of 2009 shows that CHP output stood at 746 GWh electricity and 2,414 GWh heat – a total of 3,160GWh of energy (see last year’s DECC Energy Trends September 2010 for details). Hence, as compared to the statistics just released, CHP energy output has dropped a significant 27% in the capital over one year. It’s difficult to determine exactly what is happening here without access to more detailed data for London from DECC – especially in relation to those schemes which may have retired.
  • Note: there is a minor error in the latest Energy Trends article. Tables 5 & 6 suggest that 200MW CHP is operating in 2010. However, the report’s authors have clarified to energy for london that the correct capacity is 185 MWe and that:
  • in Table 5 of the article, CCGT+GTs+STs should be 80 MWe and NOT 95 MWe. This will make the total for London 185 MWe, and consistent with Tables 1+2
  • in Table 6 the London figure under the ’10 MWe and greater’ column should be 66 MWe and NOT 81MWe. This again will make the total for London 185 MWe, and consistent with Tables 1+2
Posted in Data Store, Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Constraints to London’s electricity distribution network?

September 2011: An interesting story highlighting the difficulties in connecting high-use energy users to London’s congested – and in places aging – electricity distribution network. The newsreport quotes the President of data centre provider Terremark as saying “The choice was essentially between London and Amsterdam, but London is pretty full and… there is no power; [in] Amsterdam there is plenty of power.” This is not only an issue in connecting new energy users in certain parts of London, but potentially also in connecting new low-carbon decentralised energy generation in the capital.

Posted in News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Walking Tour of Renewable Energy Generation in Dalston

September 2011: Arcola Energy’s Green Sunday event is to host a walking tour of renewable energy generation in Dalston. The Dalston Renewable Energy Walk will:

“meet at Arcola Theatre at 1.30pm for a walk around several inspiring projects in the neighbourhood. Our tour starts with the solar panels at the Dalston Roof Park, where Sam Aldenton from The Bootstrap Company will explain how they went about creating one of the largest solar roofs in the UK. From there, we move on to quietrevolution’s wind turbine installation at the Kinetica building on Ramsgate Street to hear from the company’s Stephen Crosher on how turbines can be installed on new and existing buildings. After a stop at the Dalston Square Energy Centre to check out their biomass-fired combined heat and power (CHP) system, we’ll head back to the Arcola around 4.15pm for a discussion of  the different systems we have seen and our plans for greening the theatre’s systems.”

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

Decentralised Energy powering Westfield

September 2011: Though there was a lot of coverage on the launch of the new Stratford Westfield shopping centre, there was little mention of the new high efficiency decentralised energy system installed providing the heat and power onsite.  The press material released by Westfield states that 75% of all Stratford City’s electrical power will be met through an on-site Combined Cooling, Heat and Power Plant (CCHP).  It goes on to say that the building was designed with a number of energy efficiency measures including the “use of natural light, effective insulation, high efficiency lighting, heating and cooling and control of solar gain will ensure the buildings are at least 10% more energy efficient than required by Building Regulations”.

The press release states that “efficient building design and on-site CCHP will help achieve carbon reduction targets of 50% by 2020” – which needs to be further clarified (ie which carbon reduction targets, and 50% of what baseline?).

Some further useful information and graphics are provided in the following Marks and Spencers presentation which highlights that:

  • the Westfield M&S is 30% more energy efficient than other M&S stores
  • the store achieves a 44% improvement on heating/cooling operational carbon efficiency by using CCHP
  • 99.5% of cooling is delivered through the on-site CCHP; and
  • a 100% per cent of heating from the on-site CCHP
Posted in Decentralised Energy, News | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Camden Using DE to tackle Fuel Poverty

September 2011: Further detail from, energy services company MITIE, on the innovative Combined Heat and Power (CHP) scheme being installed at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, where “surplus heat from the hospital plant will be piped to a new energy centre in the Gospel Oak area of Camden to provide hot water and heat to residents. As a result, up to 1,500 council home tenants will benefit from the Council’s ability to procure energy at a much cheaper rate than would otherwise be available to the council commercially.” See earlier stories on this project here, here and here.

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