16.04.14
The heat is on
Source: Public Sector Executive April/May 2014
Stuart Reid, head of marketing and business development at HWEnergy, talks about the growing adoption of biomass boilers in the Scottish public sector.
There have long been calls for the public sector to become leaner and greener. And, in the face of rising oil prices, one council has decided to go down the eco-friendly route of using biomass boilers across its estate under a £1.2m a year heat supply contract.
The Highland Council in Scotland administers the largest local government area in the country: 11,838 square miles, more than the entire area of Wales. It entered the agreement with HWEnergy for 65 biomass boilers across 59 sites, which include schools, leisure centres, day care centres, residential care homes and council offices.
As part of the contract, signed in July 2013, HWEnergy provides a fully managed service and maintenance provision, which includes bi-annual servicing, routine maintenance, a reactive repairs service, heat supply and remote monitoring.
The Highland Council was the first local authority to embrace the Scottish government’s Biomass Energy Supply Agreement Framework for the public and third sectors, introduced early last year. The programme has been designed to help the government achieve its target for 11% of heat to be generated by renewable sources by 2020.
Biomass adoption
Prior to the agreement, the local authority was not achieving the desired cost or carbon savings through its various systems and was spending “unnecessary time” resolving system issues. Now, under the management of HWEnergy, the 59 sites are expected to deliver savings of £900,000 a year, 40% less than the cost of heating from oil. The initiative will also see a combined carbon saving of 7,500 tonnes per annum, the equivalent to 30 million car miles off the road each year.
Stuart Reid, head of marketing and business development at HWEnergy, told PSE: “We’ve been looking after The Highland Council estate for nine months now. One of the main things we have done is standardise how they run their systems because beforehand it was a hodge-podge of systems.”
However, it hasn’t all been easy-going as the standardising has been “tricky” conceded Reid. “We’ve been lucky, though, as we’ve built up a fairly decent sized service team over the years, so we have the engineers and we have installed a number of different boiler types – we never hung our hat on one type of manufacturer,” he said. “So we have a fairly good knowledge across the board, but the big thing is how do you step everything up? One of the biggest challenges can be ensuring the four hour response times. This is because some of the schools, for instance, are close to John O’Groats and the closest service engineer is in Inverness.”
Yet, despite these logistical hurdles, both the council and HWEnergy seem to be benefitting from the agreement.
Benefits
“Biomass is becoming popular because of cost and carbon savings,” said Reid. “And it is also quite a good replacement for existing gas or oil boilers because it delivers the same temperature heat when the user needs it. So the boilers will turn on and off automatically and behave in the same way. Obviously there is a bit more to it, in terms of fuel, but fundamentally it works well in a retro-fit setting as it provides the same type of heat they need.”
According to recent Renewable Scotland statistics, north of the border hydro power contributed almost one-third of renewable electricity output in 2012, and while other technologies such as biomass and marine energy currently make a smaller contribution, they have massive potential for growth in the future.
HWEnergy has been operating for 10 years, long before there were any Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) grants available, and the 49-strong company has managed to gain more business and credibility within the public sector.
Currently, the company looks after 75 public sector buildings on the basis of the Biomass Energy Supply framework. And, following a number of meetings, the Torlundy-based firm has been informed that some local authorities are saying they intend to use the framework for biomass adoption. “They will be coming out to tender shortly, and we know there are about 50 projects there,” added Reid.
As well as taking on The Highland Council contract, HWEnergy installed systems at about a dozen hospitals last year. It also has plans to further expand south of the border. Reid explained: “We are doing a project in the Lake District, with a private sector hotel, but we have also started servicing boilers for Middlesbrough Council.
“We also believe there is a good bargaining point for local authorities south of the border – by looking at what The Highland Council
has done – because there are an array of biomass boilers installed which are working very well. So, by having a single party looking
after the fuel, service and maintenance, it takes a lot of risk out of the venture for authorities. It also means they can get a performance guarantee.”
Forward thinking
One area where HWEnergy says there are problems with biomass adoption is that the decision making within the public sector can take “months, even years” to discuss plans with regards to RHI.
Reid believes there should be more done to help inform and incentivise all public sector bodies to go down the RHI route.
“I really do think promotion can help with RHI, particularly in finance departments,” he said.
“I think, generally, that the energy and estates teams of councils are aware of the benefits of RHI and biomass but the awareness is not the same in finance.”
Therefore, Reid believes finance departments need to be convinced of the benefits to be had by investing in this technology. Alternatively, he suggested “if we are being a bit more radical” perhaps some form of “RHI adoption targets with regards to public sector buildings could be promoted in the future”. There are definitely more public sector biomass projects in the pipeline.