Energy Assets Networks and Pipelines (EAN & P) have won grant funding from the Government’s Geospatial Commission to digitise their underground power and gas assets. EAN & P are one of two organisations operating in Greater London to have received funding, which is being distributed and managed by the Greater London Authority (GLA). The funding will enable EAN & P to vectorize and digitally share the position of their electricity cables and gas pipes across London’s boroughs. This data will help speed up residential and commercial development, reduce the risk of accidental pipe and cable strikes, and minimise the disruption to communities and traffic caused by new or emergency infrastructure works. The geospatial survey and data capture project will create a highly accurate digital map of the companies’ underground utility assets across the capital and will feed into the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) being built by the Geospatial Commission for the UK. “As an independent distribution network operator and an independent gas transporter, we work closely with contractors building out residential and commercial developments,” said Andrew Collin, EAP’s Network Manager. “One of the biggest challenges our customers face is identifying the precise location of existing infrastructure, so this new digitized and shared asset register will provide the detail they need to plan and install utility networks much more efficiently. This resource will also help minimise the disruption to communities caused by emergency repair work or the laying of additional infrastructure by pinpointing existing pipes and cables within a range of a few centimetres.” The grant funding, won in a competitive bid process, will support the vectorization of existing EAN & P assets by specialist partner Graitec and the provision of geospatial technology and training by MGISS. Once EAN & P have completed the vectorization work across the London boroughs, the businesses aim to extend the work to map their utility assets across the rest of Britain – and then adopt a ‘Vector First’ approach by capturing geospatial data as assets are built out. Nigel Clifford, Deputy Chair of the Geospatial Commission commented: “Unlocking value from geospatial data is the heart of the UK’s Geospatial Strategy. Our National Underground Asset Register will be a momentous step towards providing the UK with a shared national data asset of significant value. I am proud of the collaboration with industry that we have so far established as part of our preparatory work and look forward to it continuing.” EAN & P are responsible for the ownership and management of many thousands of final mile electricity and gas connections across the country. The companies, part of the Energy Assets Group, are among the fastest-growing local energy network owners in Britain, with a reputation for digital innovation in support of a growing customer base of accredited connections providers, housebuilders, commercial developers and EV charging network owners.  https://www.energyassetspipelines.co.uk

A new green energy report, published by the not-for-profit body Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), finds customers are typically facing a five-fold cost increase to install a heat pump, compared to a hydrogen-ready boiler. Households can currently expect to pay up to £15,000 for transition to a heat pump depending on the property type, compared to less than £3,000 for a hydrogen-ready boiler. In addition to the higher cost of the heat pump itself, the disparity is largely due to the additional energy efficiency measures needed to enable a heat pump to operate efficiently, plus the need to fit a hot water cylinder and new radiators. Some homes also require new internal pipework. In its recent Heat and Buildings Strategy, the UK Government set an ambitious cost reduction target for heat pumps to reach cost parity with gas boilers by the end of the decade, with 25-50% of the reduction achieved by 2025. To support the initial upfront costs, the Government is offering consumers £5,000 grants for the installation of heat pumps, yet the allocated funding is only enough to support 30,000 heat pump installations per annum for three years – this equates to just 5% of the annual installation target of 600k heat pumps per year by 2028. For the first time this report gives clarity for customers considering the switch to greener energy and is the first in a series which will track the progress towards the Government’s cost reduction target. Introducing the green energy report, Mike Foster, CEO of Energy and Utilities Alliance said: “We need to decarbonise homes if we are to meet our Net Zero ambitions but consumers simply do not have the cash to pay for the high upfront costs of many low carbon heating options. The recent Heat and Building Strategy is right to demand massive reductions in the cost of heat pumps, which according to this report can cost consumers up to seven times that of a simple boiler switch. “Many heating industry experts are sceptical that the scale of the cost reduction can be achieved, with the claim that heat pump costs will be at parity with gas boilers by April next year, as simply implausible. “Regardless of what happens in the heat pump market, it is increasingly clear that they are not a like-for-like replacement of a gas boiler. Consumers will face considerable disruption, cost and the need for behavioural change to retrofit their homes with a heat pump. “It is recognised that the majority of UK homes are simply not suitable for heat pumps. When an existing boiler needs replacing, installing a hydrogen-ready version, at no extra cost, means that a householder can switch over to clean burning hydrogen when it’s available in the network.” There is no silver bullet to tackle the challenging target of achieving Net Zero by 2050 and every energy solution will be needed to play its part. The report highlights that the costs of transitioning to cleaner energy can vary vastly in different homes, dependent on the fabric of the building and whether there are any energy efficiency measures in place. It is therefore vital that customers understand the options available to them so they can make the best decision. This will help to ensure an affordable and fair energy transition for everyone. Mike Foster concludes: “We urge the government to expedite a decision to mandate hydrogen ready boilers so that when a boiler reaches the end of its natural life it can replaced which one which is future proof. The UK’s leading boiler manufacturers have made a promise that the hydrogen-ready boilers can be produced at the equivalent cost of today’s natural gas equivalents and with the products already developed they are ready to start manufacturing.”

Fresh from allegations that Whitehall officials are blocking Boris Johnson’s hydrogen plans, it now appears that officials are planning to embarrass the Prime Minister by adopting the much ridiculed industrial policy that gave the EU “milk lakes” and “butter mountains”. Hidden in the detail of the recently published Heat and Buildings Strategy, officials at the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) are plotting to force British heating appliance manufacturers to make heat pumps, regardless of whether the public want to buy them or not. Under what is known as the “market mechanism” current boiler manufacturers will be told by Whitehall officials how many heat pumps they need to make or risk being heavily fined if they don’t obey the instruction. Similar policies adopted by the EU in the past, led to excess supply over demand and the obscene creation of wine lakes and butter mountains. “This is the most un-Conservative industrial policy I have ever seen. To force successful British businesses to make what Whitehall officials want, rather than what consumers want, is an extraordinary degree of state-meddling,” said Mike Foster CEO of Energy and Utilities Alliance. “If consumers want heat pumps, then these manufacturing businesses will make and sell them. But to be fined for not selling something the public currently don’t want is bizarre, more so when Cabinet Minsters accept that heat pumps aren’t yet ready for the mass market. It is almost as if Whitehall officials are deliberately trying to embarrass the Prime Minister by using the tactics he has previously derided the EU for using. It’s the Revenge of the Remainers within BEIS.” “But the most disturbing aspect of this policy is the sheer lack of understanding in how markets work. If the Government want heat pumps installed, it needs to make them more attractive to consumers. According to the PM, they cost ‘ten grand a pop,’ well beyond the reach of most. People can’t afford them. Without consumer demand, business won’t supply products for fear of creating a mountain of unsold heat pumps filling warehouses across the land, all because Whitehall thinks it knows best,” Mike concluded.

Back in 2012, the English Housing Survey took an in-depth look at the energy efficiency of the country’s housing stock. It found that social housing was leading the field, with an average Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) rating of 65, compared to just 57 for the private rented sector. The most recent English Housing Survey to provide a snapshot of energy efficiency is the 2019-20 report. It found that energy efficiency had improved over the preceding decade, with the proportion of dwellings in the highest EER bands (A to C), rising from 12% to 40% between 2009 and 2019. Social rented homes continued to be the best performers, with 61% in bands A to C in 2019, compared to just 38% of homes in the private rented sector. The average cost to move a property from EER bands D to G up to a band C rating was estimated to be £8,110. The cost varied across tenure, from the cheapest being housing association dwellings (with an average of £5,910) to the most expensive being owner occupied homes (£8,579). Just 2% of properties were found to be unable to reach band C at all. With an average annual energy cost saving of £298 because of upgrading a home to band C, it would take the average property over 27 years to start benefitting financially from doing so. Hence the need for government incentives to speed up the upgrading of English homes’ energy performance. Heat pumps are an interesting example of this. In 2019, just 103,000 homes in England had a heat pump – well below 1% of total housing stock. The government has now announced a £5,000-per-household grant to encourage the installation of heat pumps. However, that will cover the installation of just 30,000 heat pumps per year. How the government target of installing 600,000 heat pumps per year by 2028 is to be met remains unclear. Some of those likely to be near the front of the queue for the new heat pump grants are England’s landlords, as all new tenancies will require an EPC rating of band C or higher by 2025. Proptech investment platform houzen is supporting landlords and owner-occupiers alike to reach band C or higher with its in-depth sustainability reports. The tech-driven reports provide owners with the means to see quickly and easily how their properties measure up in terms of their environmental impact, as well as how they can enhance their sustainability. They blend expert knowledge with AI and Computer Vision to consider how homes perform in respect of 27 measures that impact the climate.

Following the warning from the CEO of National Grid around tighter electricity supplies, Mike Foster, CEO of the not-for-profit energy trade association the Energy & Utilities Alliance, the not-for-profit trade association that provides a leading industry voice to help shape the future policy direction within the sector, has issued a reply. With energy policy updates expected form government over the coming weeks, Mike registers his deep concern for the potentially disastrous impact this will have on the public being able to heat their homes this winter in the following comment: Responding to comments by the Chief Executive of National Grid made yesterday, Mike Foster Chief Executive of Energy and Utilities Alliance said: “The man charged with responsibility for keeping the lights on yesterday issued a stark warning to the UK and to Government. He forecasted that the margin between electricity supply and demand would be tighter than in recent years; in other words, there was a heightened risk of blackouts, of losing supply. “This is as serious as it gets. Ahead of the winter, policymakers have been warned. On top of spiralling price rises, there is now a real threat around security of supply. The energy trilemma is starting to bite. “But it’s actually worse than this. There are some politicians calling for all gas centrally heating to be provided for by electricity. That’s an enormous amount of energy that the system hasn’t been designed for. We have been warned about keeping the lights on this winter, imagine the situation if we add winter heat demand to the load. “It won’t be just lights going out, or industry told to stop production, it will mean people going cold in their homes at a scale not seen for generations. It would be the height of irresponsibility to put all of our energy eggs into the electricity basket. “But we do need to achieve net zero. For that reason, for the majority of UK homes currently using natural gas for warmth, should keep their boilers and just have the gas switched to hydrogen. This will take place over a number of years, firstly with blending and then wholesale network conversion. We did it with the digital TV switchover and this is the way to keep people warm and the lights on.”

Whether a power supply is being used in life-saving pieces of medical equipment, in transportation systems or even in a PC, all relevant parties need to be confident it will have a significant life cycle. This means they want a reliable piece of equipment that proves to be good value for money. As such, when creating a power supply, designers must make numerous decisions that will impact how long it is likely to last. Here are just three examples of things to be considered. 1.    The electrolytic capacitor The electrolytic capacitor is ultimately what determines how long a power supply lasts as it has a  finite lifespan — in other words, it is the only part that wears out. As XP Power’s technical director Gary Bocock explains: “Electrolytic capacitors are an essential component of AC-DC power supplies. They provide high Capacitance x Voltage (CV) and low Equivalent Series Resistance (ESR) in low-volume packages. There’s no alternative part that can do the job cost-effectively.” Choosing the correct one is crucial when designing a long-lasting power supply. Electrolytic capacitors manufacturers will specify the design lifetime at the maximum rated ambient temperature (typically 105°C), which can be anything from 1,000 hours to 10,000+ hours. Applied ripple currents also cause power dissipation within the electrolytic capacitor, and according to Bocock: “The maximum ripple current that may be applied to the capacitor is usually specified at maximum ambient temperature and 100/120 Hz.” Manufacturers must assess probable durability in order to help designers select the most appropriate electrolytic capacitor for the power supply they are creating. 2.    Thermal management All power supplies generate heat as a by-product to some degree, but it is critical to manage the temperature in order to prevent damage that could decrease the life cycle of certain components within the power supply. As noted by O’Reilly Media, overloading, fan failure, inadequate air flow inside and outside of the system, and dirt and dust are just a few potential causes of overheating that can contribute to a reduced lifespan. Designers should consider incorporating cooling systems in order to dissipate heat and reduce potential damages. For example, installing a fan will be far more effective than natural air convection. However, as important as cooling is, designers also need to consider how a particular cooling system could impact other aspects of the power supply. In this case, a fan will consume power and therefore reduce the efficiency of the power supply, and may also be noisy. This won’t necessarily be an issue for all power supplies, but depending on the context, other cooling systems could be more appropriate, such as a heat transfer plate or maybe even a liquid cooling mechanism. 3.    Insulation materials Choosing the correct insulation materials is vital in terms of both safety and efficiency. According to Bright Hub Engineering, examples of suitable options include “PVC, glass, asbestos, rigid laminate, varnish, resin, paper, Teflon, and rubber”. While designers may decide to use a variety depending on the particular power supply they are creating, they should avoid mismatched or incompatible insulation materials. Although combining different types may seem like a thoughtful way to ensure adequate voltage withstand capability, mixing insulators with varying degrees of permittivity means there will be uneven electric field intensity across the insulator, as per Kirchhoff’s Law. This could cause it to break down, which is why designers must keep this in mind when selecting insulation materials.