| Abstract |
Bridgend County Borough Council has been working with a group of stakeholders consisting of Welsh Government, Western Power Distribution, Wales and West Utilities and the Energy Systems Catapult, to pilot an advanced whole system approach to local area energy planning. Bridgend is one of three areas including Newcastle and Bury in Greater Manchester participating in the pilot project as part of the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) Smart Systems and Heat (SSH) Programme.
This assessment of the EnergyPath Networks district heating deployment in Bridgend takes outputs from the EPN tool and determines the viability of the proposed heat networks by considering constraints and opportunities to distribution and transmission network development alongside Energy Centre placement. The report considers the suitability of the prime mover specified and the implications this may have onthe network and local area. The report also discusses the opportunities and impacts associated with large scale heat pumps as a long term heat supply option.
The report highlights that a large proportion of specified plant across all pathways has a low utilisation factor and in some cases the technology selection should be reassessed to ensure that the optimum solution can be, and is, reached. It is suggested that this be a holistic assessment which also considers plant complexity, practical capacity changes and plant lifetimes.
The report finds that all the proposed pathways are considered valid (at this initial stage) and technically feasible for implementation by a local authority. Some pathways encounter more local constraints, particularly focused around road and rail infrastructure. These may mean than sub-optimal distribution and transmission routes and/orbespoke crossing points are required. Flooding is also an issue in some pathways which may add complexity to the designrequirements |
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