Heat Network Assessment
Client: East Thames Group
Location: UK
Summary
Acclaro Advisory was commissioned to evaluate the district and communal heating networks in east London social housing managed by East Thames Group. Our role included providing recommendations to support compliance with UK Regulation 3, “Notifications for Multiple Heat Networks”. We were able to identify the properties not in scope of the directive, energy performance variations between in scope networks and highlight networks which need further analysis to improve system efficiency.
The challenge
East Thames is a provider of affordable housing in east London and Essex with over 15,000 homes. The group also provides care and support services and offer employment and training programmes for its residents.
Acclaro Advisory was commissioned to assess the district and communal heating networks in east London social housing managed by East Thames Group to support compliance with UK Regulation 3, “Notifications for Multiple Heat Networks” part of the Energy Efficiency Directive Articles 9-11. The directive relates to heating and cooling billing and metering requirements in the promotion of energy efficiency. It serves to give customers greater control over their consumption, enable heat network operators to better manage systems provide greater efficiency and transparency for heat network customers. The report presents the assessment of the heat networks as well as recommendations for assuring compliance.
The solution
- Characterisation of 73 heat networks to confirm compliance with the regulations.
- Estimate the generated and supplied heat for a calendar year in addition to the fuel usage data for all networks within the east London housing.
- Complete ‘Notification to Comply’ on behalf of East Thames which included: location of the network, total installed capacity and estimated totals of generated and supplied heat for a calendar year, number and type of properties served, number of final costumer supplied, number of meters and/or Heat Cost Allocators (HCAs) installed and expected frequency of billing and information provided to final customers.
- Outline the next steps to compliance.
The results
The East Thames Group was provided a detailed report with recommended routes to compliance. The report included the identification of low performing networks, oversized systems and undersized systems and possible solutions and benefits to each. We were able to identify sites which require further analysis to improve efficiency of networks with significant heat distribution losses.
The assessment presented the importance of accurate and comprehensive data collection to ongoing management of the properties. We found it is critical to consider the type of properties served by each network when evaluating the cost effectiveness and feasibility of installing meters or heat cost allocators (HAC) with the intention of delivering energy savings to the customer.