Gemserv, a Talan Company, has been appointed the Delivery Partner for HNES. With its aim of improving heat network performance in existing projects where customers are experiencing sub- optimal outcomes, Louise Singleton, Principal Consultant at Gemserv and HNES Programme Manager, explores the crucial role the scheme has to play in delivering greater consumer confidence in this longstanding technology.
Government backing
Heat networks are a proven technology and a vital solution to help decarbonise our homes and buildings at scale. An alternative to individual gas boilers or heat pumps, heat networks generate heat from a central, communal location, routing this to buildings in the local area through a series of pipes. The solution removes the need for individual boiler installations within a property and is often the lowest cost, low carbon heating option for high density areas. Heat networks, like current water supplies, connect heat and hot water straight to the home.
The Government has recognised the important role that heat networks will play as we transition away from traditional gas boilers. The technology has the potential to provide low carbon heating to thousands of homes, and the Government has recently backed the Heat Network Transformation Programme with an additional £530 million, including £45 million of capital funding to the Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES).
HNES is designed to complement other schemes such as the Green Heat Network Fund (GHNF) which provides capital support for the commercialisation and construction of new low carbon heat networks. GHNF has so far funded a plethora of innovative low carbon heat networks, ranging from large industrial heat pumps to energy from waste and geothermal energy solutions.
Confidence is key
The construction of new heat networks is important to help the Government meet its target for the technology to provide 20% of the UK’s heating demand by 2050, but it’s also key that existing customers connected to a network trust the technology. Without existing consumer confidence, it will become difficult to gain public support for the expansion of heat networks, and many will be reluctant to connect to one.
HNES addresses these potential issues by focusing on existing district or communal heating networks. The scheme provides funding to housing associations, local authorities, the NHS, education and private sectors for efficiency improvements on heat networks currently providing sub-optimal outcomes.
As heat networks become more commonplace across the UK, customers will be looking to their peers for inspiration, information and advice on connecting to a heat network. HNES ensures that those currently connected to these networks are getting the best value for money, and have reliable, energy-efficient heating and hot water all year round.
The scheme provides both capital grant funding and revenue funding. The former supports networks with capital improvements to older, less-efficient heat networks, whilst the latter provides funding for organisations to commission optimisation studies for their heat networks.
These optimisation studies inspect and identify issues and potential improvements that could be made to existing infrastructure. Some projects that have received revenue funding have since used the outcomes of these studies as a basis to apply for capital funding in a later round.
Since the main scheme launched in February last year, HNES has provided over £32 million worth of funding to 200 heat networks across 111 organisations. A total of 41,192 residents will benefit from efficiency improvements to their heat networks, with the potential for more improvements across projects currently undertaking optimisation studies for their existing heat network.
Fit for the future
We expect that funding announced so far will result in carbon savings of almost 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year across the next 40 years, and this demonstrates the importance of improving existing infrastructure. On the route to Net Zero, huge benefits can be achieved through upgrading and optimising existing technology and infrastructure, and this is true not just in the heating sector but across various industries, including transport, energy, and building efficiency.
A 2018 study by the Competition & Markets Authority on heat networks found that, overall, average unit prices and bills for the majority of heat networks are close to or lower than the bills for a traditional standalone gas boiler. To provide assurance to consumers, the Government has announced plans to regulate heat networks across England, Scotland, and Wales, providing similar protections to those that already exist for gas and electricity customers.
Alongside pricing, the UK Government is also planning to announce proposals for heat network zoning in England and Wales, which will identify and designate zones where heat networks will be the lowest cost solution to decarbonise heat. These regulatory and legislative changes will see the appeal and quantity of heat networks increase in the coming years.
However, the importance of ensuring existing heat network infrastructure is fit for the future is crucial to providing greater consumer confidence and satisfaction with this longstanding technology.
See our case study on page 42 for an example of the impact of HNES, and find out more about the scheme and view case studies from other successful projects here:
https://gemserv.com/heat- network-efficiency-scheme-hnes/
Image credit: Gemserv
