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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number	NIA_UKPN0078
Title	Right to Heat
Status	Completed
Energy Categories	Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Demographics) 20%; Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution) 80%;
Research Types	Applied Research and Development 100%
Science and Technology Fields	ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) 100%
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation	Not Cross-cutting 75%; Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour) 25%;
Principal Investigator	Project Contact No email address given Eastern Power Networks plc
Award Type	Network Innovation Allowance
Funding Source	Ofgem
Start Date	01 February 2022
End Date	31 July 2023
Duration	ENA months
Total Grant Value	£1,157,101
Industrial Sectors	Power
Region	London
Programme	Network Innovation Allowance
Investigators	Principal Investigator	Project Contact , Eastern Power Networks plc (99.997%)
	Other Investigator	Project Contact , South Eastern Power Networks plc (0.001%) Project Contact , SGN - Southern England (0.001%) Project Contact , UKPN London Power Networks plc (0.001%)
	Industrial Collaborator	Project Contact , UK Power Networks (0.000%) Project Contact , SGN (0.000%)
Web Site	https://smarter.energynetworks.org/projects/NIA_UKPN0078
Objectives	This project, in collaboration with gas network SGN, social housing provider Stonewater, technology partner Passiv UK, and smart market SME Social Energy, will deliver low carbon interventions that aim to create a template for best practice decarbonisation of gas network connected social housing.The solution will be based on a hybrid system that sees a heat pump working alongside a traditional boiler. Generally these will be two individual units; however in smaller, physically constrained homes typically found in urban environments a two-unit system may be unsuitable and this project will demonstrate the use of single unit hybrids previously used in the HyCompact project. This project will trial these units in social housing building archetypes coupled with additional low carbon technologies (LCTs) and supported by a smart market mechanism.The project will seek to demonstrate lower consumer bills, significant carbon reduction, impacts on gas network demand profiles, electricity network demand profiles and the requirements necessary to support electricity network flexibility services. The project will track consumer outcomes, including vulnerable customers, and will undertake social research to explore the variation of outcomes across different household groups within the social housing portfolio. Part of this will look to ensure the households involved are provided with coaching/engagement on being safe and empowered energy consumers, ensuring that we measure the learning outcomes of the social tenant before and after the trial, in line with being socially responsible energy networks.The roles of our project partners are well defined. UK Power Networks will lead this project and partnering with SGN, using NIA funding and bringing all key partners together to deliver the expected learnings and outcomes for our customers. Additionally we will also facilitate customer engagement and technical impact assessment from the electricity network perspective by actively monitoring the installations. SGN as the GD network in the south will run technical analysis on requirements and impact on the gas network. Stonewater will facilitate the trials by leveraging their social housing portfolio, supported by funding from either the Local Authority Delivery (LAD) scheme or the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) secured by Stonewater. Passiv UK will provide the required technology in terms of the single unit hybrids and smart controls for running these. Social Energy bring in their expertise to offer smart market based mechanisms to the residents, combining it with an in-market solar PV and battery solutions. More specifically the project will:Select trial participant location(s), engage and recruit up to 25 homes;Survey the home, design, specify and install the LCTs;Design the use cases to be tested in the field trial;Develop communications interface between Passiv UKs existing smart heating controls software and Social Energys aggregation platform;Trial and field test the equipment;Gather feedback on consumer impact;Evaluate the impact on social housing customers and fuel poverty;Evaluate the energy efficiency status of these homes and understanding of further potential benefits from improvements (measures will not be trialled as part of the project); andProvide analysis and reporting of results. The proposed project has been broken down into the work packages outlined below: WP1 – Project Management: planning, risk management, reporting, financial control, consumer engagement planning, contracting, procurement, dissemination;WP2 – Specification: use case definition, technical specification, trial planning and experimentation planning;WP3 – Service development: hybrid control refinement, Passiv UK and Social Energy service integration and optimisation, flexibility services development;WP4 – Field trial: home recruitment and survey, installation and commissioning, consumer engagement, experimentation plan delivery, metering and monitoring data collection (including pre-trial data for both gas and electricity) and analysis, customer support and solution optimisation plan;WP5 – Consumer research: impact assessment on consumers in vulnerable situations, value assessment for current and future consumers. This work package also includes evaluation of the energy efficiency status of trial homes and future potential benefits through improvement; andWP6 – Network social responsibility: provide consumers with advice on being safe and empowered consumers, such as CO Awareness, PSR registration and energy advice and coaching, measuring the impact this has before and after the trial. The objectives of the project are to:Establish the asset, installation, and operational costs of using an integrated solar PV, battery storage and single unit hybrid heating system to deliver optimised grid flexibility services;Establish the suitability of such solutions in a dense social housing setting;Demonstrate whole system benefits for both gas and electricity of large-scale deployment of such low cost, integrated solutions with an aggregated domestic demand side response (dDSR) control system and capture the impact on the sensitivities used in future energy system modelling;Capture and analyse consumer feedback on the comfort levels provided and other aspects such as noise, visual appearance, installation experience and bill impact;Assess any special measures required to support vulnerable customers and protect their benefits; andAssess the ability for consumers to realise bill savings and carbon savings. The outcomes of the project are:Develop and demonstrate a template for best practice for decarbonising homes in urban social housing settings by unlocking the commercial value of LCT for consumers; andProvide a public full operational data set, reporting on performance and gas and electricity network impacts and support project dissemination and promotion activities.The above will assist in identifying the next steps towards a commercial roll-out solution of integrated, smart, grid-aware, multi-vector heating, generation and storage solutions for social housing providers. In addition to this we will better understand the customer journey required in such a rollout and how best to ensure benefits reach vulnerable customers.
Abstract	A project with the objectives to develop and demonstrate a template for best practice for decarbonising heating in urban social housing settings by unlocking the commercial value of LCTs for consumers. The project will also complete social research to assess the impact on consumers in vulnerable situations along with providing consumers with advice and coaching.
Publications	(none)
Final Report	(none)
Added to Database	14/10/22