Tag Archives: Heat Maps

London Heat Supply Workshop Presentations

October 2015: The GLA held a London Energy Plan: Heat Supply workshop on the 25th of September – the slides for which have just become available and can be downloaded here.  The workshop included presentations from the GLA on their forthcoming Energy Masterplan for London; from Camden Council on their decentralised energy plans; and from consultancy Element Energy on the work they are undertaking for the GLA through the development of a heat plan model.

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“inner-city areas are often the most heat-energy efficient”

21 May 2014“New research shows that the compact, taller buildings typical of inner-city areas are often the most heat-energy efficient – research by LSE Cities at the London School of Economics and the European Institute for Energy Research looked specifically at the role building design can play at the impact of the basic configurations of residential buildings (“urban morphology”) on energy demand. This impact is a result of two principal determinants of the thermal performance of buildings: the level of exposure to sunlight, which allows buildings to absorb passive solar heat; and the relative amount of external walls, which lead to heat losses” – read full Guardian article here.

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Designing with data: shaping our future cities

November 2013: A new report undertaken by ARUP for RIBA sets out that we are now at the  “Dawn of a ‘smart era [where the]  vast quantities of data we produce is set to revolutionise the way we design and build our cities”. A series of case studies are set out in ‘Designing with data: shaping our future cities‘ which includes the London Heat Map:

“One of the key benefits of adopting a smart approach to data is the ability to see lots of datasets in context with each other, and to detect temporal and spatial patterns. This transparency saves time and cost by reducing the time needed to find and process key data. The London Heat Map is a case in point. The interactive tool developed by the Greater London Authority (GLA) allows people to identify opportunities for Decentralised Energy projects in London, such as Combined Heat and Power (CHP) or district heating networks. Public organisations, property developers, social landlords or investors can also use it to view spatial information that can help them identify and develop Distributed Energy opportunities, such as data on: major energy consumers, fuel consumption and carbon emissions,energy supply plants, community heating networks,and heat density. The London Heat Map will evolve overtime alongside the Decentralised Energy for London programme and become more useful and sophisticated as boroughs and other stakeholders start inputting more energy data into the map.”

The report goes on to quote Alan Shingler, Partner, Head of Sustainability, Sheppard Robson who states “smart data could help test the impact of likely building fabric improvements through the Government’s Green Deal or regeneration schemes, to show how the GLA’s Heat Map would adjust to these variables. The data could also be used to model the impact of new renewable energy generation and future development on the map. This would enable the creation of a resilient low carbon transition plan for London that would take into account a range of considerations….where Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is proposed, heat could be more freely shared with neighbouring residential developments, schools, or public buildings with a relatively high heat load.

Three recommendations are made in the report including one Energy for London strongly supports which is the greater ‘Digitisation the of the planning process’ where “Government should scope how it can standardise the digitisation of all information submitted for planning, and of standardising design data collection across local authorities. This public data should be open to unleash economic growth; and local authorities should be encouraged to use open data to inform local planning strategies.”

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London Electricity Future Discussions

18 June 2013: In November of last year the Mayor held an Electricity Summit at City Hall where a High Level Electricity Working Group was formed to “discuss the energy systems needed by London over the coming decades and the mechanisms by which the challenges can be met”.  A background paper Delivering an Accessible and Competitive Electricity Network for London was presented as well as a presentation setting out the remit of the Working Group.

The  papers from the first two High Level Group Meetings have now become available and can be downloaded here (15 January) and here (28 March).

The papers for the 15 January meeting set some comprehensive information of key issues and detail the future priorities of the Group including:

  • Identifying growth hotspots and areas of existing network stress that require strategic infrastructure investment
  • the Potential of Decentralised Energy systems, district heating and demand side response measures to reduce electricity distribution infrastructure costs
  • and Estimating costs of investments required and considering models for how they could be met/shared

The March 28 meeting set out a series of action points including that:

“The GLA and UKPN are establishing a sub- group with respective experts to discuss identified Decentralised Energy and demand side response issue identified at the January meeting. It meets for the first time on 3 May. As and when appropriate, the sub-group will report back to the High-level Working Group.”

The third of the Working Group meetings took place today: Sir Edward Lister is standing down from chairing, and the Mayor’s Environment and Political Advisor Matthew Pencharz will attend the Group meetings from today and chair from henceforth.

See here for the Mayor’s response on how renewable generators issues will be represented on the Group.

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Heat Conference 2012

November 2012:  Conference organised jointly by the Combined Heat and Power Association (CHPA) and the Energy Institute (EI) on Thursday 15th November 2012 at the Royal Society.
Heat accounts for nearly half of the UK’s energy use and associated CO2 emissions. To meet the UK’s target to cut 80% of greenhouse gas emissions based on 1990 levels by 2050, major cuts in heat-related emissions will be required alongside those in the power sector. All this in the context of rising costs, investment constraints and the need to deliver affordability to the consumer.
Full details at www.heatconference.co.uk. London local authorities can get a reduced ticket price to the conference by putting in the following promotional code when booking – ‘energyforlondon’.
Details of the Government’s forthcoming Heat Strategy, due for launch in March 2013, here.

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Sutton Zero Carbon Resources

June 2012: The results of a project undertaken to help define a zero carbon retrofit strategy for buildings within the suburb of Hackbridge in the London Borough of Sutton has recently been published. The project was undertaken by BioRegional, with funding from the Sainsbury’s Family Charitable Trusts’ Climate Change Collaboration and the three key outputs – the authors say – have been “designed to be replicable in other areas.We hope that you will find them useful for your own projects.”

The area based strategy for zero carbon buildings report seeks to determine:

  • How many and what type of buildings would need to be retrofitted.
  • What different approaches could be taken to retrofitting, e.g. energy efficiency, building integrated renewable energy technologies or district heating.
  • What would be the cost and delivery plan for the preferred approach, which may encompass a range of technologies.
  • To develop an approach for formulating a zero carbon strategy for an area that other organisations, such as Local Authorities, Housing Associations and community groups could adopt.

The Retrofitting District Heating Systems study interestingly found that “district heating (using a variety of heat sources) achieved considerably more carbon emission savings than the full traditional retrofit option (whereby a building’s energy efficiency is improved by improving the building fabric and installing energy efficient or renewable sources of heat and electricity in the building itself) and at a lower cost.” A heat map for Hackbridge has also been produced.

And finally, an Energy retrofit tool for buildings spreadsheet tool which allows users to “input information about the domestic building stock in your area and the tool will then help decide on the best approach to retrofitting it using an area-wide approach.”

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Heat Maps produced for every London borough

June 2012: The London Heat Map project has now posted online heat map reports and datasets for every London borough. Information provided sets out that “The new heat maps are higher resolution with real heat consumption data for priority buildings such as hospitals, leisure centres and local authority buildings. As part of this work, each of the boroughs has developed implementation plans to help them take the decentralised energy opportunities identified to the next stages. The implementation plans include barriers and opportunities, actions to be taken by the council, key dates, personnel responsible.”

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Making a case for national heat mapping

1 June 2011: Article highlighting London’s Decentralised Energy Master Planning (DEMaP) programme, which has led to the production of the London Heat Map.

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Low Carbon Energy Opportunities and Heat Mapping for Local Planning Areas Across the East Midlands

April 2011: East Midlands Councils (EMC) commissioned work to review the potential for low carbon energy within the East Midlands. The aim was to prepare a comprehensive evidence base that would allow local planning authorities across the region to develop well-founded policies that support low carbon energy deployment up to 2030. Detailed renewable energy information for the regions and heat maps here.

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London Heat Map Reports

15 February 2011Heat mapping reports for 19 London borough, produced in conjunction with boroughs under the LDA’s Decentralised Energy Master Planning (DEMaP) project.

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Heat Maps for 19 London boroughs completed

15 February 2011:The Decentralised Energy and Energy Masterplanning (DEMaP) Programme is delivered by the LDA and London Councils as part of the Mayor’s programme to shift London to a greater decentralised energy future.  Eleven borough heat mapping studies have been carried out in the Pilot Tranche (November 2009 – June 2010) with a further eight completed in Tranche 1 (September 2010 – February 2011) of the programme. The heat maps developed support the development of London Heat Map.
The individual Heat Map reports for the 19 boroughs have been posted online and can be downloaded www.londonheatmap.org.uk.

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Decentralised Energy Masterplanning project gets RTPI praise

4 Feb 2011:The London Development Agency’s planning for decentralised energy master planning programme  (DEMaP) and London Heat Map have been commended at this year’s Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) awards. More here.

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