District heating scheme to connect £6bn London regeneration project

Clean energy provider Vital Energi has secured a £15m contract to install a district heating network in Enfield, North London, which is expected to reduce the carbon footprint of local homes by 80%.


The network, expected to be complete in 2029, will provide heating for up to 30,000 households and businesses, including the £6bn Meridian Water regeneration programme. Vital Energi will operate and maintain the energy centre for Meridian Water and install the heating network on behalf of energetik, the energy company owned by Enfield Council.

“The work that Vital Energi will undertake on behalf of energetik delivers the strategic infrastructure that will help to secure Enfield’s energy needs for decades to come,” energetik managing director Jayne Clare said. “Implementing our specification to the standard we expect challenges the norm of district heating practices. So we are very happy to have such experienced partners in Vital Energi, helping us raise the bar for our customers and the wider industry.”

It is expected that the first customers will be connected to the scheme later in 2017. The network is part of an intergrated energy and regeneration strategy in Enfield that will interconnect energik’s other networks at Arnos Grove and Ponders End.

“We are very excited to be working on a project of this magnitude in London,” Vital Energi regional director for London & the SouthRob Callaghan said. “With energetik’s ambitious vision, we look forward to changing the perception of district heating and showcasing the benefits that energy networks can bring to a local community.”

Turning up the heat

Heat networks could deliver up to 18% of UK heating demand by 2030, up from current levels of 2% today, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) has claimed. In response, the Government recently awarded £24m for nine district heat network infrastructure projects across the country to provide households and businesses with clean and efficient heating systems.

The project – expected to enable up to 200 heat networks to be built – will run until 2021 and is hoped by ministers to unlock up to £2bn in new heat network infrastructure investments across the country.

The announcement followed the launch of a new multi-stakeholder task force by the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE), which aims to deliver a subsidy-free heat network market with strong protections for consumers.

George Ogleby

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