WPD unveils low carbon heating strategy

GB network operator Western Power Distribution (WDP) has set out plans for the decarbonisation of heating in its service area.

The decarbonisation strategy is based on the premise that homeowners should be able to access a range of low carbon heating options that can be connected quickly and affordably, and should not have their choices limited by constraints on the network.

These include heat pumps, thermal storage, district heating, combined heat and power, solar thermal, waste heat recovery and hydrogen

Proposals include the connection of over 628,000 heat pumps across WPD’s network during the period in 2023-2028, which will be prefaced with the installation of larger cable assets on new build substations.

Have you read?
Are hydrogen heating solutions an option for decarbonising residential heating in Ireland?
Decarbonising heat: The hot topic we can’t ignore

When it comes to heat network systems, the operator intends to ensure the electrical system can support district heating networks at all locations by equipping the grid to input energy at one central point rather than to individual homes. In some cases, heat network systems will have generation elements that help balance the wider grid.

“This is our most comprehensive strategy yet and details how WPD will play a formative role in decarbonising the UK’s domestic heating by accounting for the various network connections needed for not only heat pumps but district heating networks, thermal storage and hydrogen, to name just a few,” explains Paul Jewell, WPD’s System Development Manager.

“While insulation measures are crucial for decarbonising the UK’s housing stock, the efficiency of low carbon technologies relies on network operators like WPD and our ability to map homeowners’ future demand patterns, connect the technologies in near real-time and reinforce the electricity network. This is how we will pave the way for reducing the carbon footprint of our homes and ultimately reach net zero by 2050.”

The strategy document notes that during 2018 an estimated 38% of CO2 emissions in the UK were from heating, which points to the key role of building energy efficiency in reducing heating requirements and in turn emissions.

With age a key indicator of building energy efficiency, building owners should start from a fabric of the building first approach, i.e. undertake a detailed energy performance review of the building to identify problem areas prior to upgrading.

Moreover, as many domestic customers only replace heating systems on failure or at the end of a 15 to 20 year lifespan, it is important that they are encouraged to be proactive so that when the time comes to replace their fossil fuel heating, their first choice is to fit non fossil fuel heating as a replacement, the document adds.

2022 low carbon commitments

With respect to heat pumps and new build housing estates WPD says it has already made changes to the technical design and as a consequence minimum cable designs are now adopted. In addition with existing houses fitted with looped LV service cables these are to be removed and replaced by individual service cables.

WPD is monitoring a set of new build net zero homes at a site in south Wales, of which about 40 are currently occupied, correlating smart meter data with substation data to gain a better understanding of what is happening on the estate.

WPD also aims to extract additional value from its smart meter data by creating a validated LV network against which algorithms using smart meter data can be tested.

There are proposed applications for smart meter data that could potentially benefit network operators such as improving load estimates for planning, phase identification and identifying unregistered low carbon technologies. Testing the accuracy of algorithms requires known results to compare the predicted values to, but WPD’s LV records are sometimes incomplete and unvalidated.

WPD also intends to update its LV design policy, based on a comparison of data from about 100 homes with aggregated smart meter data at substation level.

Another initiative under way is Equinox (Equitable Novel Flexibility Exchange), which seeks to investigate over the next three years how much flexibility a portfolio of heat pumps can offer the wider system and how owners can be offered a fair price for this flexibility.