Our Mildmay Estate Heat Network Efficiency Scheme (HNES) project in Tower Hamlets has been shortlisted for Energy Project of the Year for the residential category at The Energy Awards.
Mildmay was constructed in 2014 in Shoreditch, and its heat network provides heat and hot water to 139 residential properties and the connected hospital and church. The district heating system, made up of central gas boilers and underground pipework, has suffered from unplanned heating and hot water outages, due to parts regularly failing. There was also a lot of variability of heat and hot water to customers, particularly during peak hours. The system also lacked performance monitoring equipment, making it difficult to identify where problems had occurred.
We received around £310,000 to undertake improvement works to the heat network and appointed heat consultants Fairheat to help identify what needed to be improved. We installed new high performing Heat Interface Units (HIUs) at Appold Court and re-commissioned the existing HIUs in all other blocks. Within the plant room we reduced the number of pumps, modified plant pipework and upgraded the insulation thickness, as well as removing five heat substations within our blocks.
This all resulted in a more reliable and efficient heat network for our residents and our commercial customers. There haven’t been any significant unplanned outages since the HNES works were finished and we’ve achieved a reduction in gas consumption – more than 30% - which means lower energy costs and reduced carbon emissions. The remote monitoring equipment fitted now sends us automatic email alerts if there are any parts of the system that need maintenance or start to fail. This means our contractors can attend and resolve issues before our residents experience any heat loss.
Head of heat, energy and water, Dan Perager, said:
“This project with Fairheat is a great example of a team working together seamlessly to bring about a better result for residents.
“We’re so proud of the innovative solution that we came up which made use of the existing infrastructure and has now seen a huge reduction in costs for our residents.
“We have also promoted sustainability by decreasing Co2 emissions by over 88.6 tonnes in a six month period.
“By working better together we have shown our commitment to listening to residents, solving problems for them and providing safe and warm homes.”
The Energy Awards will be held on 4 October at Grosvenor House. You can find more information on them here.