City Council secures government funding for two studies on how to optimise its 50 year-old district heating network.
Nottingham City Council has been awarded central government funding to conduct two detailed studies on how to optimise the performance and strengthen the long-term resilience of the heat network that has been in operation since the 1970s. The studies will begin later this month, aiming to deliver benefits to residents, while also supporting the cities wider ambitions to reduce carbon emissions.
Photo courtesy of Nottingham City Council
The existing network provides affordable, reliable, low-carbon heat and hot water to some 5,000 domestical and commercial customers across the city. Given recent world events and the pressures they’ve placed on energy prices, a heat network like this can provide much-need stability via locally generated heating and reduced exposure to volatile wholesale gas markets.
The funding, secured through the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES), will support two detailed optimisation feasibility studies, directly covering some 737 households in total but providing insights with the potential to offer improvements across larger parts of the network.
Each study will examine how heat is generated, distributed and used, following the process from energy centres and substations through to individual homes. They will both identify opportunities to optimise operation, support long-term resilience and enhance overall system performance. The findings will help inform future investment decisions and could support lower operating costs, continued reliability and further carbon savings.
The first study will assess Manvers Court, a 14-storey block of flats that has been selected as representative of two other buildings on the same estate. It’s hoped the study will help improve performance across a total of some 270 council flats.
The second study will focus on St Ann’s, where a section of the heat network serves 647 households. Again, the site has been chosen to represent a wider system with similar design, so that the results can be applied more broadly. The council says this has the potential to benefit the wider network of around 5,000 households.
Some households may be involved in information gathering and technical assessment work as the studies are conducted. The council says that residents will be fully informed and supported through the process, while any involvement will be carefully managed to minimise disruption.
Cllr Sam Lux, Executive Member for Environment and Sustainability at Nottingham City Council, says: ‘Nottingham’s district heating network has been a real success story for more than five decades, providing low-carbon heat to thousands of homes while helping reduce waste and emissions. This funding allows us to take the next step, using feasibility studies to build on the strengths of the network and identify where future improvements and investment can deliver the greatest benefit for residents.
‘Like all major infrastructure, heat networks benefit from ongoing review and optimisation to ensure they continue to provide reliable, cost-effective and lower-carbon heat over the long term. It also means we can maximise the long-term benefits of this well-established system, helping more households across Nottingham as we continue to invest in greener infrastructure for the city.’
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