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Archive for the ‘district heating’ Category

Publish all heat tariffs

Posted in data, district heating, energy, ESCO on January 24, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Some customers on UK heat networks pay way over the odds for their heat but because heat networks are natural monopolies there’s little they can do about it. Sure, we can introduce some direct competition on heat networks (for example by making it possible to switch out the metering and billing provider) but the opportunities are pretty limited.

While direct competition between suppliers is limited, it is possible to introduce virtual competition between suppliers by making the cost to customers transparent and available to everyone. In fact our best opportunity by far to apply competitive pressure in the heat market is to publish tariffs, including unit and standing charges, in a central, publicly available register.

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Filling the skills gap won’t help heat networks

Posted in district heating, engineering, tagged , , on August 28, 2018| 1 Comment »

It is a truth universally acknowledged that there is a skills gap among heat network designers and that by filling this gap we will improve network performance. In other words, if we provide more training to engineers, heat networks will get better.

There’s no doubt that some heat networks are plagued by performance problems, costing customers too much and delivering poor quality of service. But can this be fixed with additional training for consultants? Are heat networks really so complicated that engineers already trained to master’s degree level can’t design them well?

In fact, the skills gap is a red herring and providing more training to engineers won’t help. Here’s why:

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Want to reduce standing charges on heat networks? End capital contributions

Posted in district heating, ESCO, zero carbon, tagged , on October 9, 2017| 1 Comment »

Capital contributions, the payments made by ESCOs to developers in exchange for long-term concession agreements, are a hangover from the days when everyone thought onsite generation would be highly profitable.

We’ve since discovered that it isn’t as lucrative as expected. Nevertheless developers continue to demand these upfront payments, leading to higher standing charges, longer contracts and unhappy residents. Isn’t it time for the practice to stop?

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Heat loss headaches

Posted in district heating, energy, engineering, SAP on March 20, 2017| 9 Comments »

This blog was originally posted on networks.online.

Any heat network operator or customer will tell you that heat losses matter – a lot.

Losses that go unchecked can easily double the cost of heat on the network. But while everyone agrees it’s hugely important to limit losses, the way we talk about heat loss is all wrong. And heat network performance is suffering as a result.

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Using the blockchain to build a competitive heat market

Posted in district heating, energy, other stuff, tagged , , , on October 3, 2016| 1 Comment »

In the previous post, I described the characteristics we’d want to see in a competitive heat market. In short, we want many heat networks of varying sizes to function as markets that are fast, efficient, accessible, cheap and decentralised. I also tried to show that simply copying the electricity market for heat is a bad idea.

So what model should we adopt? In this post, I propose a new model based on blockchains, the technical innovation that underpins cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether.

 

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Is the electricity market a good model for heat?

Posted in district heating, utilities, tagged , , on September 26, 2016| 1 Comment »

In the previous post, I suggested that creating a competitive heat market could be the best way to deliver value for customers. This would involve breaking up heat network “verticals” into their constituent parts (generation, distribution and supply) with genuine competition in each segment.

Sounds lovely, but there are plenty of devils in the detail. For example, how do you match supply and demand across multiple parties in real time? What happens if a supplier requires more or less heat than they’ve contracted for? What if a generator puts more or less heat into the network than was planned?

To help us deal with these devils, could the electricity market serve as a model for heat?

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Linking heat networks raises tricky questions

Posted in biomass, chp, district heating, ESCO, heat pumps on September 19, 2016| 1 Comment »

A few weeks ago, my business partner and I were walking to a meeting in Stratford when we realised we were surrounded by several heat networks (seven actually): each one standing alone, isolated from its neighbours, each dependent on its own small boilers or CHP, each its own tiny monopoly. Seven networks right next to each other, brazenly missing the opportunity to reduce cost and carbon by linking together.

Here he his, pointing them out:

 

 

The scene on that Stratford street corner highlights a failure of coordination on the part of planners and a lack of incentives to link small heat networks to each other and to larger-scale sources of low-carbon heat.

But what if we put it right? Imagine for a minute that we do stitch together groups of small networks, perhaps using the £320 BEIS funding to do it. Technically it might be straightforward, but what about commercial structure? What do you do with all those little monopolies?

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Three life-or-death challenges for district heat (and the third one’s a doozy)

Posted in Code of Practice, district heating, tagged , , , on September 12, 2016| 3 Comments »

What... is the efficiency of your district heat network?

What… is the efficiency of your district heat network?

In order for district heating (DH) to fulfil its potential and deliver wide-scale decarbonisation of heat in the UK, it must demonstrate three things:

  • Efficiency: DH networks must transport heat energy from source to customer with low losses.
  • Low carbon emissions: using DH must result in demonstrably lower emission by connecting customers to sources of low-carbon heat.
  • Value for customers:  heat customers must have the means to ensure they’re getting value for their money.

So how are we doing? And what progress have we made in meeting these three challenges so far?

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Video: using data to improve heat network performance

Posted in district heating, energy, engineering, tagged on July 28, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Here’s a presentation I did at this year’s Utility Week Live about using data to improve the performance of heat networks. In it, I talk about why networks are often poorly delivered and operated and what can be done to put them right. Incidentally, I was also pretty ill and hopped up on flu meds but I think I got away with it.

UWL

 

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why we’ll share Open Data

Posted in Big Data, DECC, district heating, engineering, Open Data on April 18, 2016| 3 Comments »

Operational data from onsite energy systems (like heat networks) is extremely hard to come by. Very few people manage to get hold of it, and those who have it rarely share.

What are the typical loads in dwellings? What are the network losses? Do customers all demand heating at the same time or are demand events spread out?

Who knows? Engineers don’t stick around and find out how their designs work in real life; ESCOs hold their cards close to their chests; and many landlords fail to extract or make use of their own data.

This dearth of data has hamstrung the industry at a time when it should be racing ahead. It’s one of the biggest reasons why, when it comes to energy performance, we’re just not getting better fast enough.

In late 2014, when DECC put out a call for proposals to improve heat networks, we saw a chance to unlock some of these data silos and accelerate development of the heat market.

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