Following the installation of a new heat network at Factory Quarter, last week we showed residents around the new, state of the art plant room.
Previously the 475 residents who lived at Factory Quarter were frustrated with their heating and hot water system which proved unreliable due to aging infrastructure.
We bid for Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES) money to part fund upgrade work.
The HNES provides funding to public, private and third sector applicants in England and Wales to support improvements to existing district heating or communal heating projects that are operating sub-optimally and resulting in poor outcomes for customers and operators.
Under the scheme rules the capital money awarded covers 49.9% of the work, while we make up the other 50.1% ourselves, as per the match funding agreement.
Our bid was successful and we worked with partners, Vital Energi, who designed a new energy solution for the estate that would deliver more reliable, efficient, decarbonised heat to residents.
Bringing residents on the journey with us
From the outset engaging with residents and involving them in the work that was happening in their homes, and wider estate was really important to us and Vital Energi. A dedicated resident liaison officer was appointed to manage communication between residents and the project team and coordinate in-home installations.
Residents also received welcome packs and were invited to several engagement sessions over the lifecycle of the project, where they could ask questions, raise concerns and suggest ideas for community focussed social value initiatives. Drop-in sessions provided further opportunities for residents to meet the team and keep up to date with progress.
Vital Energi strove to minimise heat services disruption for residents. Carefully scheduled installation and commissioning work, along with the use of temporary boilers and pumps, ensured that services were restored daily, avoiding overnight outages.
The plant room tour
Work to install the new plant room, heat network and heat installation units in resident’s homes completed in July and the tour was a chance for residents to meet some more of the Vital team, our own major works project manager, who oversaw the upgrade work, and ask questions while being shown first-hand how everything works.
The group were shown the new boilers, a water treatment plant, and a state-of-the-art Building Management System (BMS) which were installed as part of the upgrade. The system now provides accurate and reliable data, enabling early fault detection and informing data-led decisions.
Factory Quarter plant room tour
The tour was also a great chance for us to hear first-hand how residents were finding the new heat and hot water system. Although few people in the group had used their heating for prolonged periods of time when the tour took place, early indication was that the hot water and heat interface units in their homes were working well for them, which was positive to hear.
We are confident that residents will start to see the benefits of a more energy efficient, reliable and easy to manage heat and hot water system as the colder months set in.
Although unrelated to the new heating and hot water service or the heat network system, there were some reports from the group of issues with billing arrangements for electricity. We were able to listen to these in detail and take the problems away for the billing team to look into. We’ve since provided an update to all residents and hope to have those issues solved permanently soon.
