ESCo for Cranbrook Heat Network Expansion

Description

The project is the expansion of the Cranbrook district heating network in East Devon, to supply heat to new development areas of an additional c4,500 homes and 24,500m2 of commercial space including 3 new schools at Cranbrook new town. The project will benefit from decarbonised heat by connecting to an Energy from Waste facility (EFW) in Hill Barton via an interconnect pipe to SkyPark energy centre “The Interconnector Project”. The interconnector will support the planned expansion of the Cranbrook new town through enabling the delivery of a Future Homes/Buildings Standard compliant energy solution. The project team have developed good working relationships with the Developers of the new homes and commercial spaces at Cranbrook as well as E.ON, the owner and operator of the existing network. The project will be delivered by an ESCo. EDDC will act as broker and facilitate the procurement of the ESCo. The procurement will be carried out by the Cranbrook Developers. Planning is already in place via the EDDC Local Development Order (LDO) for district heating dated July 2020. The proposed expansion area network length is anticipated to be c.98.6km, which will need to be installed by the ESCo. The total heat demand is estimated to be 34.05 GWh/yr, the anticipated diversified Peak demand for the expansion area is 12.5MW. An estimated 96.9% of this demand will be met by three EFW units, and an anticipated 3.1% from the existing gas CHP at Cranbrook Energy Centre. The total CHP heat capacity is approximately 10.4MW. The scheme includes thermal storage plant of a capacity of approximately 900m3 which will be located in the vicinity of the Cranbrook energy centre. This location is identified within the adopted Cranbrook plan. The intention is to secure additional carbon savings through further avoidance of gas CHP. Lot 1: A single Energy Services Company (ESCo) will be procured to design, build, operate, maintain, owned and undertake customer billing for the expanded pipe network (energy centres will be provided by third parties). The procurement strategy will be set out in overview by EDDC with support from Devon County Council Procurement Services. However, the Cranbrook developer’s alliance will be fully responsible for the procurement of the ESCo. A feasibility study has been carried out that has built the technical and economic case for the expansion. The successful bidder will need to develop the design to construction stage. This will involve coordination with the owner of the existing network (EOn), and the developer alliance. Construction of the network will need to be scheduled in order to ensure heat can be delivered to customers in line with developer programmes. The initial heat on will be expected by Q2 2024. This is anticipated in the first instance to be by connection to temporary energy centres. The successful bidder will then operate and maintain the network for the duration of the contract (currently anticipated to be 80 years) in line with industry best practices and the Heat Trust Scheme Standards with a subsequent move to market regulations once applicable. The successful bidder will be the owner of the new infrastructure (pipeline, thermal store, and heat interface units) and be responsible for customer billing.