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• Workshop - Leadership and Organisation for District Energy (September 2011)

Workshop - Leadership and Organisation for District Energy (September 2011)

In September 2011, the Heat and the City project ran a workshop to identify next steps for action in developing resilient organisation and business models for district energy in the UK by bringing leading municipal energy practitioners together to strengthen knowledgeable practice in sustainable heat for cities. The workshop was attended by representatives of 18 Scottish and English Local Authorities; UK DECC, Scottish Government planners and Energy and Climate Change Directorate; Energy Saving Trust Scotland; two Trade Associations; private sector legal and financial experts; an energy utility; and a housing association.

Presentations during the workshop covered the findings of the Heat and the City project, UK and Scottish Government policy (delivered by civil servants), financing, legal constraints and the future development of energy markets (delivered by private sector specialists). Presentation slides are below. Discussion groups focused on leadership in local authorities, UK and devolved policy measures, identifying and enabling distributed energy projects, business models and governance, finance, and securing and extending heat networks. Summaries of these discussions can be found in the workshop report. 

The event highlighted how fractured the pockets of expertise in the UK are – several local authority officers found the workshop reassured them that they are not alone in facing the various challenges of establishing DH systems. Early feedback from the event indicates that participants found it a useful and effective forum for sharing knowledge, experience and ideas, and for discussing UK and devolved policy measures which could support the development of low carbon affordable heat networks. Many participants said they were keen that similar events take place in future, allowing more face-to-face discussion, and allowing local authorities drill down into the detail of their various experience in key areas.

Discussion groups suggested six key actions:

• Create a dedicated regional or national body for expert advice to local authorities on developing District Heating
• Use light touch municipal community-level (rather than individual household level) policy and regulation, with clear financial incentives
• Provide training for local authorities in skilled use of heat and energy mapping for project development, with external support to mitigate risk of non-viable projects being pursued
• Think big – city-scale district heating – but start small, unless there are new resources for bringing large scale schemes up to investment grade
• Provide specific public finance for the project development phase (est 10% total capital expenditure); promote public investment in infrastructure (heat networks) to offset risk/underwrite systems, and lever in private finance
• Use planning, with feasibility studies, to extend district heating systems; analyse the local commercial opportunities for expanding the heat network.

The event received support from the Scottish Government, the City of Edinburgh Council, the Edinburgh Centre on Climate Change, and the Combined Heat and Power Association. The meeting was held under the Chatham House rule.

Documents

• Workshop Brief – Developing District Heating in the UK: What Works?
• Summary Paper – Heat and the City first year key findings
• Workshop Report – Leadership and Organisation for District Energy

Presentations

• Jan Webb, Heat and the City Principal Investigator (University of Edinburgh), Municipal Leadership and Organisation for District Energy
• Andy Cormie, Assistant Director, Heat Policy and Strategy Team (DECC), UK Energy Policy for Sustainable, Energy Efficient Heat
• Katrina Chalmers, Heat Policy Manager, Directorate for Energy and Climate Change (Scottish Government), District Heating Policy in Scotland
• Dave Hawkey, Heat and the City Research Fellow (University of Edinburgh), Tackling the Challenges of Delivering District Heating Projects in the UK (co-presented with Michael King, Heat and the City Advisory Board Memeber)
• Stuart Campbell, Assistant Director, Environmental Finance (Ernst and Young), Managing Financial Risk and Long-Term Investment for District Energy
• Roger Cotton, Partner (Brodies LLP), Governance and Business Models for District Heating
• Tim Rotheray, Policy Manager (Combined Heat and Power Association), Onside Generation and Demand Response – the Role of the EMR
• Richard Bellingham, Heat and the City Co-Investigator, Initial workshop conclusions

This page was published on 3 October 2011