Chelmsford City Council (CCC) has officially recognized the urgent need for action on climate and ecology by declaring a state of emergency and setting a bold target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. They are now embarking on the initial stages of this transformative journey towards a sustainable future.
Energy Hub East and Michelle Wright, CCC's Energy and Contracts Manager, partnered with IQGeo and the Heat Vision 2030 group to to assess the feasibility of a heat network in Chelmsford, aligning with the city's carbon-neutral goals. Their aim was to develop a credible vision that could be shared with CCC colleagues and decision-makers. We demonstrated how, through a collaborative approach, IQGeo's Comsof Heat network route mapping and design tool could achieve their vision.
Primary heat network challenges:
-
Chelmsford City Council's (CCC) declaration of a climate and ecological emergency, aiming for a 2030 carbon-neutral goal.
-
The need to identify feasible zones, buildings, and energy sources for a comprehensive heat network.
-
The challenge of presenting a credible vision to inspire broader stakeholder and community support.
-
The urgency of answering key questions related to heat network deployment, such as optimal routes, energy demand, and cost implications.
Given the urgency of the situation, the council is racing against time to tackle vital queries regarding the implementation of the heat network. This includes identifying the best routes, forecasting energy requirements, and grasping the potential financial impacts.
Why they chose IQGeo’s Comsof Heat software:
-
Efficiency: Comsof Heat streamlines the entire heat network development process, reducing techno-economic feasibility analysis from months to weeks.
-
Inclusivity: The tool caters to all competencies and roles within the development process, fostering collaboration among development, technical, and executive teams.
-
Automation: Comsof Heat automates thought processes and facilitates easy comparison of different energy strategies without compromising detail.
-
Insights: Provides key insights such as peak heat load, linear heat density, available heat supply, pipe selection, and financial analyses.
-
Scenario building: Enables swift and accurate scenario building based on GIS data, local knowledge, and technical parameters.
By leveraging IQGeo's advanced Comsof Heat network route mapping and design tool, CCC were able to capitalize on its efficiency, inclusivity, and automation features. This empowered them to streamline the development process, leading to well-informed decisions based on crucial data and analyses. Through this, they successfully pinpointed viable zones, interconnected buildings, assessed energy demands, and identified optimal routes for the heat network. These efforts effectively addressed key challenges, such as presenting a compelling vision and evaluating cost implications with precision.
Notable achievements include a high return on time invested and increased credibility across different departments. Key learnings for this collaboration highlighted the importance of local knowledge and the need to improve existing building infrastructure for the success of any heat network deployment.
The council's commitment to tackling these pressing issues demonstrates their unwavering dedication to creating a sustainable future for Chelmsford.
Interested in the results?
Download the the full white paper to delve deeper into the making of a heat network map for Chelmsford: Heat Vision 2030: A heat network map for Chelmsford
DESNZ has issued a tender for Heat Network Zoning and IQGeo can support any consultancy with Comsof Heat.
The approach with Comsof Heat offers significant advantages in the development and optimization of the initial zoning opportunity's (IZO’s). Using Comsof Heat enables consultancies to provide a consistent level of detail, accuracy, and quality output over all IZO’s, underpinning DESNZ requirement to implement a standardized heat network zoning methodology. Using an automated routing, dimensioning and planning tool enables an integrated solution where the geospatial model, the technical model and the financial model are tightly interconnected, integrated within a GIS application. Doing so enables a consistent and precise estimation of the required heat capacity and distribution infrastructure, minimizing the risk of overinvestment or underestimation.
Contact Kurt Marlein to discuss partnering with IQGeo and utilizing Comsof Heat for the UK Heat Network Zoning project.
Previous
