Making a Case for Local Combined Head and Power and District Heating Infrastructures within the United Kingdom Policy Landscape

¹ School of Architecture Planning & Landscape, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU
² School of Civil Engineering & Geosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU
³ Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Facultad de Ingeniería en Electricidad y Computación, Campus Gustavo Galindo Km. 30.5 Vía Perimetral, P.O. Box 09-01-5863, Guayaquil, Ecuador

^* Corresponding author: jurquizo@espol.edu.ec

Abstract

Planning energy infrastructure at the local level is the key to addressing some of the most difficult challenges in climate change and energy policy planning (i.e. fuel poverty) and to unlock the transformative potential of distributed energy technologies. The scientific field of urban energy and carbon modelling is becoming a fundamental instrument to estimate an energy and carbon baseline at a point in time and to quantify the impact that policy-driven technological interventions that could have on the overall carbon footprint of a city. This capability enables an evidence-based approach in which the economic case towards a low-carbon economy can be made. Transformative local distributed energy technologies such as CHP or district heating have a strong spatial component due to a need to identify synergies with adjacent properties or heating loads. Currently available domestic building energy models often do not take into account spatial information. Accessing geo-referenced data for energy modelling can also be particularly useful as validated outputs (i.e. heating and electricity loads, energy profiles) can be mapped using spatial modelling techniques that help to easily identify high and low energy consumption areas and potential synergies in local energy infrastructure planning. In Newcastle upon Tyne UK, the council is exploring the opportunities for the installation of renewable heat technologies on their own stock as a matter of urgency. Identification of potential sites and feasibility for technical and financial applicability within the UK policies will be addressed by this paper.