Birmingham City Council is aiming for a 20% reduction in their CO2 emissions by 2010. To help them achieve this goal, they have installed their first Combined Heat and Power (CHP) scheme.

Objectives and target audience

The aim of this project is to install a CHP scheme, which will provide heat and energy for several Birmingham City Council buildings and will have a significant impact on helping the city to meet its CO2 emissions reduction target of 20% by 2010.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The CHP scheme costs €9 million (£6 million). The scheme has been drawn up by the Sustainability and Energy Management team of the City Council’s Urban Design service. Urban Design was awarded a grant to develop the scheme under the Government’s Community Energy programme.
Community Energy is a €75 million (£50 million) UK-wide capital programme for installing and refurbishing community heating. Schemes are mainly based on CHP with innovative approaches also encouraged.
Utilicom Ltd will run the ESCo, called Birmingham District Energy Company (BDEC), which will finance all capital works needed to develop the scheme. It will design and operate the CHP plant, supplying energy services to customers at discounted rates. Utilicom Ltd is a developer and provider of community and district energy schemes.

Process

CHP is a process where electricity is generated and the resulting heat, which is normally wasted, is used to provide heating, chilled water for air conditioning and hot water. In this case, the heat from the CHP will be incorporated into a district heating scheme.

Results

When phase 1 of the scheme is completed it is estimated that some 4000 tonnes of CO2 emissions will be saved.
Financially, the building owners will be able to save some 5% per year on their energy supply costs, on a whole-life cost basis.
Future building developments or refurbishments will be able to positively consider connection to the system, which it is envisaged will enable unproblematic compliance with the legislation adjusted by the EU Energy Performance of Building’s Directive.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The City Council acted as a co-ordinator and facilitator, successfully engaging with various public and private bodies to create the CHP scheme. The scheme, which has now become a reality, will encourage more progressive private sector operators by increasing confidence in the formation of ESCos.

The municipality of Kristianstad is working towards being a fossil free municipality and the district CHP-plant together with the district heating network will play an important part in for the success of this system.

Objectives and target audience

The municipality of Kristianstad has an outspoken aim of becoming fossil fuel free.  An important part within this work is to extend the district heating network, and to provide the CHP-plant with fossil free fuel.

C4 Energi has an extension plan to allow for the implementation of new facilities and housing within the municipality to be included within the district heating system.  A new 25MW bio-fuelled boiler will also be installed to meet the increased demand generated.

The target is to connect 400 single-family houses per year by 2010 and there after, 100 single-family houses by 2012.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Kristainstad municipality is ownership of C4 Energi, which is the company that is currently governs the CHP-plant and district heating network.  Since the expansion of the net and due to the installation of the CHP-plant being having being since 1980, it is hard to determine the exact figure of the budget.

Process

The CHP-plant Allöverket was installed in 1994. The CHP-plant consists of a bio fuelled boiler of 50 MW.

The boiler is fuelled by biochips and biogas.

The biochips are supplied by timber cuttings, local sawmills, and wood industries.  The biogas is supplied by a decomposing-facility called Karpalund and other well known landfills.

The district heating net is always constantly being extended due to inclusion of new facilities and houses being part of the net.

Results

The results show (of 2008):-

• 99% of the fuels needed to produce heat in the district heating net is produced by renewable energy generation;
• Heat from district heating has replaced 350 000 m3 of oil since 1990;
• 1,750 facilities and houses are connected to the district heating system;
• 286 GWh heat energy is sold to customers;
  51 GWh electricity is produced from renewable energy generation.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

Success factors are:-

• The production of  high grade renewable generation work;
• Brave decision makers;
• A strategic energy plan;
• Skilful technicians.

The fuel cell combined heat and power (CHP) system is located in Woking Park and serves the Leisure Lagoon, Pool In The Park (competition and training pools) and Woking Leisure Centre (dry sports centre) and is the first fuel cell CHP in the UK.
The fuel cell CHP is visible to the public and is provided with a technology information mural/display and viewing area for education purposes which includes the history of the fuel cell, how the system works in Woking Park and how renewable energy can be integrated with the Hydrogen Economy to provide continuous renewable energy for the world’s electrical, thermal and transport energy needs.

Objectives and target audience

In December 2002, the Council’s energy efficiency policy was replaced by the Climate Change Strategy for Woking, not just for Council buildings and transport but for the Borough as a whole, shifting the focus from savings in kWh’s of energy to savings in tonnes of CO2 as well as adapting to a changing climate. The key three objectives of the strategy were:-

• Adopting an overall target to reduce Woking’s CO2 equivalent emissions to 80% of its 1990 level by 2090 in steps of 10% up to 2050 and 5% from 2050 to 2090;
• Adopting the concept of an Environmental Footprint for the Borough which has as its base 1,060,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions of greenhouse gases;
• Declaring itself Climate Neutral and setting up a Climate Change Fund.

As part of a number of action plans the Strategy adopts targets for purchasing 20% of the Council’s electrical energy requirements from renewable sources and 100% of the Council’s electrical and thermal energy requirements from sustainable energy (including CHP) sources by 2010/11.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The total capital and installation costs of the fuel cell CHP element only of the project is £1,046,774h.  The replacement of the fuel cell stack at 40,000 hours is included within the maintenance costs.  Here is the breakdown of who is financing the project;

The Department of Trade and Industry                         £ 175,215
Advantica Technologies Ltd                                          £ 150,000
Woking Borough Council/Thameswey Energy Ltd        £ 578,699
US Dept. of Defence via US Dept. of Energy                £ 142,860 (@ $1.40/£)
£1,046,774

An additional £125,000 was also awarded to the Council by the Energy Savings Trust Residential CHP Programme to enable surplus power from Phases1 and 2 of the project to be exported over public wires to sheltered housing residents under the Exempt Licensing regime.

Process

The tasks that were taken as part of the project are as follows:-
Exploratory meeting, Conceptual design, Consortium established, OJEC advertisements, Pre-tender expressions of interest, Approval for DTI support, Tender specification, US Fuel Cell Climate Change Grant, First Planning approval, UTC (IFC) Fuel Cell Contract let, First Installation Tender exercise, Second Installation Tender exercise, Tender Evaluation, Balance of funding established, Turnkey Contract let, Second Planning approval, Installation Contract let, Fuel Cell Inspection at UTC (IFC), USA, Delivery to site Testing and commissioning.

Results

The aims and objectives of the project which was to design, install and operate a fuel cell
CHP system in Woking Park, the first fuel cell CHP system in the United Kingdom was
achieved.  The planning process was a success only because of an understanding of the process by the Council officers involved in the project and the time and effort taken to submit detailed environmental information, to educate non technical people in an understanding of fuel cell technology and hydrogen and personal briefings given to planning officers and Councilors.  Detailed work had to be put into the design process which was not unexpected for a project of this innovation and Council officers had previous experience with other innovative projects which helped to smooth the process.  The installation element of the project also teased out a few minor but potentially very important issues to be dealt with such as the uneven distribution of weight of the PC25C and the need for special lifting eyes for delivery.  The operation and maintenance elements of the project, and in particular the commissioning and the 3 months settling in process, provided valuable experience to all those concerned with the project in the UK.  The economic performance of the fuel cell CHP was better than predicted, bearing in mind the high cost of the PC25C.  The environmental performance of the fuel cell CHP was excellent, as confirmed by the CHPQA programme. The fuel cell CHP out performed photovoltaics in terms of reductions in CO2 emissions (more than 10 times the performance) even though the fuel cell CHP consumed a fossil fuel, albeit a low carbon fuel: natural gas.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The factors for success are:-

• Various partners were involved in financing the project.  A figure of £1,046,774 was granted towards the implementation of this project and with out his backing, this project would not have been able to occur;
• This project also has other advantages as well as the purpose of being a CHP system.  Such advantages include its educational purposes which include the history of the fuel cell and how the system works.

To provide two 150 roomed block of flats in Stechford with energy from a CHP power unit adjacent to a leisure centre in Stechford, Birmingham

Objectives and target audience

The objectives of this project were:-

• To provide residents of the multi-story homes with economically gaining heat and electricity;
• Improve the quality of heating within the households;
• To reduce CO2 emissions released from that of the original multi-storey homes and the leisure centre.

The target audience of the project were the residents of the multi-storey flats and the function of the leisure centre.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The total capital cost for the CHP unit, two boilers and the new boiler house was £345,000.  Birmingham City Council spent a further £1.86 million on new heating systems for the 150 homes and the refurbishment of the fabric of the three blocks.

Process

The CHP unit contained within the leisure centre produces 180 kW of electricity to power the leisure centre complex.  350 kW of heat is also produced some of which is utilized to supply heat to the homes.  200m long heating mains were also constructed underground to supply the three housing blocks.  A new heat exchanger was installed at the ground floor of each housing block.  New heating and hot water systems were installed in each home, together with metering and control equipment, including a system of prepayment for heat using tokens.  The new energy plant located at the leisure centre was installed (at no capital cost to the council) and is now operated and maintained by an independent company under a ten year energy services contract.

As well as the introduction of the new CHP unit, the council also decided to improve the thermal performance of the homes by encasing subsequent opened balconies, increasing insulation to the three buildings and adding new double glazing.  This was part funded by the Government’s Green house programme.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The main factors that made this project critical for its success were:-

• The engagement of the council to provide substantial financial support for the implementation of the project.  Without this backing, funding for the project would be difficult due to their being more claim requests and several partners being involved to gain a suitable capital sum.
• Support from the home owners was also critical as the public had to be willing enough to accept change and have building works implemented to their homes as during construction times, disturbances to energy sources could be of major worry.

Aberdeen City Council have initiated a not-for-profit company to develop and manage a combined heat and power district scheme for properties under-going refurbishment and upgrades.

Objectives and target audience

The main aims of this project were to:-

• To meet the council’s key objectives of affordability, sustainability, safety and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions reduction;

• To aid with the costs of tenants and to help reduce fuel poverty.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

Now that the objectives of how to best improve the four multi-storey blocks was determined, the council had to decide how to finance the introduction of this scheme.  The funding for the scheme had been estimated to be very high and some had to be funded externally.

The council and AH&P came to an agreement of the installation of the Stockethill scheme.  The agreement consisted of that the council provide funding of £215,000 per year to AH&P to guarantee that any bank loan taken out for capital costs can be paid back.  This guarantee to AH&P allowed the sum of £1.08 million to be available for the project.  Joint to this agreement, AH&P had to ensure that external funding was also granted to reduce the amount of capital that council needs to contribute to the scheme.

A grant of £736,000, which was 40% of the capital cost of the project was financed from the Energy Saving Trust community energy programme.  Due to the annual contribution financed by Aberdeen City Council, the AH&P were able to secure an encouraging rate of interest for a bank loan to cover the remaining 60 % of the capital costs.  Funding from the Energy Efficiency Commitment (EEC) was also applied for to compensate their capital costs.  The funding took two years before becoming available as the scheme was being used as a pilot to determine the split of carbon savings between the community energy programme and EEC.  The application for funding from the EEC was granted due to the success of the pilot

Process

In 2003 an energy centre was built next to one of the four multi-storey blocks.  This consisted of 210 kilowatt electric gas fired engine CHP and two kilowatt thermal gas fired boilers.  Each of the four multi-storey flats was connected to the energy centre via pre-insulated underground pipes which each flat consisting of its own internal distribution system.  The tenants were asked to cast a vote on how to they would like to pat for the service.  The majority favoured for their weekly charge to included within their rent i.e. a heat-with-rent charge.  The weekly set charge currently stands at £7.25, giving an annual cost of £348 payable for 48 weeks per year.

With regards to private properties, AH&P charge home owners for their heat without an intermediary i.e. the council.  They will be charged the flat rate.  Due to the fact that the flat’s heat is not individually metered, the council decided to provide controllable heating systems and face-to-face advice on how to be energy efficient.  The result of this is to persuade tenants to save energy.  The council is trying to determine whether this initiative of heat-with-rent charge does actually save more energy than a metered heat supply.

Results

Before the works were implemented the tenants were asked if they would like to have the heating system installed since the work was an improvement and not a repair.  Out of the 288 flats, 21 tenants did have the new system installed although they were given several chances to change their option.  Those flats that did not have heating systems original installed when occupied by previous tenants, were main priority for new heating systems once the flats became voided.  The most important concerns of the tenants were regarding capital and maintenance costs.  AP&H decided they would charge 50p towards long-term maintenance costs.  The council also arranged a loan scheme to owners to cover installation costs and with the repayments being lower than their actual saving in heat costs.  Due to the council owning the heating system under the council owned properties.  This therefore allows any property to be sold with a ‘clean title’ should any of the other properties be sold under ‘right to buy’.  Due to the implementation of the new heating systems being a success, the flats have been fuel poverty proofed.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

The main critical success factors regarding the Stockethill scheme are:-

• A very high number of tenants who occupy the flats are very dependant on this scheme being a success as it will reduce the annual cost for tenants due to the new heat-with-rent charge that has been implemented with the scheme;
• Much financial backing has been put in place by Aberdeen council and the Energy Saving Trust community energy programme to fund the project.  In total a sum of £1,816,000 is available to ensure that this project is a success which suggests that much backing from the council and other organizations is currently in place;
• The whole implementation of the CHP system is a sustainable energy scheme which will contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions of 20% by 2012 by agreements set in the Kyoto protocol.

District heating supplies to two large housing estates in Manchester, Alexandra Park and Longsight.

Objectives and target audience

The main objective of the scheme is to supply affordable and efficient heat and power to over 1’600 dwellings in Alexandra Park and Longsight.
The benefits of the scheme are threefold: Environmental, economic and social.
1)    Environmental – Community heating delivers significant carbon reduction benefits compared to conventional solutions for the provision of space heating, hot water and electricity. Once established, CHP schemes are fuel flexible and also able to benefit from low or zero carbon emerging technologies.
2)    Economic – Community heating is most likely to be an economically viable option if there is a high heat demand density, a diversity of building types with different and complimentary heat demand profiles, and the opportunity to integrate other energy services, such as power generation.
3)    Social – Social benefits include reduced energy bills for residents that may be on benefits or within fuel poverty. Providing affordable warmth and reducing the potential of cold- and condensation-related illness.

Financial Resources and Partners involved

The scheme is operated by Utillicom on a fully managed service basis from boiler houses to heating/HWS systems in dwellings, including longer-term replacement. This is an existing scheme, although upgrades valued at over £1 million are taking place.

Process

A distribution network of flow and return pipes transfers the heat from the energy centre to the individual buildings or dwellings that are connected to the system. In the case of this scheme, over 26 million kWh of heating energy are supplied per annum. The pre-insulated pipes incorporate automatic leak detection, and the manufacturer is in accordance with European standards and procedures.
From the building/dwelling owners’ perspective there is no difference in the type of controls available. For example, programmers set daily and weekly heating and hot water requirements, and radiators have thermostatic control valves installed.
17 MW of energy is produced from gas fired boiler plants in two boiler houses, with 1 MW of biomass energy from a single boiler to be installed in mid-2008.

Results

There are not currently any results to analysis from the project.

Critical Success Factors / Challenges

When considering the implementation of community heating schemes, the ‘energy linking of buildings’ should be considered. This can further increase environmental, economic and social benefits with more buildings increasing thermal and electrical demands at different times of the day. It is advantageous if community heating systems can be established to supply a range of domestic and non-domestic customers. However, this is not the case here.