Project lead: Clyde Gateway Developments Limited

Local Energy Challenge Fund award amount: £24,500

Area: Glasgow City

Background

This project was a partnership between Scottish Water Horizons (SWH), SSE, and Link Group Ltd and was supported by Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian Universities. It sought to recover heat from wastewater to deliver local energy heat solutions for priority regeneration areas within the Clyde Gateway area such as Shawfield and Dalmarnock.

Project vision

SWH developed technology with SHARC Energy systems to deploy the use of heat pump technology to recover heat from wastewater. The project’s vision was to use this technology to provide lower cost heating within the local community via a low cost district heating network.

The project would also develop the scope for renewable energy generation, heat recovery and cooling potential on the Clyde. It would complement the provision of this renewable energy provision through using intelligent controllable demand functions to balance real time equivalent output and ensure supply and demand can be matched to minimise waste.

Outcomes and achievements

The Project was successful in receiving Phase 1 Funding from the Local Energy Challenge Fun to submit a detailed project proposal for the above.

The project sought to assess the potential for low carbon and renewable energy from the River Clyde and the adjacent Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) at Dalmarnock. This would be assessed in relation to delivering the heat requirements of the two key masterplan areas within Clyde Gateway, Central Dalmarnock and Shawfield (National Business District) through a district heating network.

The potential to deliver a project based on river based energy was discounted early in the process. Whilst the potential exists to develop this element of local energy it was not considered that the required data and statutory issues to be addressed could be concluded in time for the submission of the Phase 2 application.

Focus was placed on the development of heat recovery from wastewater due to the close proximity of the Dalmarnock WWTW generating high flows of waste to this location adjacent the proposed development area for end users.
Early engagement was carried out with Scottish Water Horizons and SHARC Energy Systems following the successful installation of the first and to date only UK use of heat recovery equipment at Borders College, Galashiels and partly reflected the innovation element within the project proposal.

This feasibility work identified the potential for delivering significant heat loads to both masterplan areas on a modular basis. To this end a smaller scale feasibility was carried out by SHARC to support this approach to develop the innovative use of this technology. This approach was applied to one of the early development sites within Dalmarnock known as the Hybrid/RED site.

Significant work was completed on load profiles for both masterplan areas and fed into this assessment process. Particular focus was given to delivering a scheme for the first phase of development within the mixed use masterplan area of Dalmarnock. This reflected the significant levels of deprivation in this location within the worst 5% of SIMD areas in Scotland and the consequent high levels of fuel poverty.

Integrated Energy Utilities were engaged to develop the business case for the use of this technology and associated district heating network. This was based on their strong expertise in delivering the Aberdeen Heat & Power project.

This work involved an assessment of how low carbon technology could be used in a larger area and which was capable of being scaled to deliver at a strategic level. This approach was supported by Glasgow City Councils endorsement of the Phase 2 submission. This resulted in the scheme being designed to meet the requirements of the wider potential development of the Clyde Gateway area.

The assessment carried out developed the detailed technical and business case, incorporating smart demand side modelling to arrive at the most efficient system for heat delivery. This assessment recommended optimising the SHARC heat recovery and heat pump technology combined with CHP to deliver heat and power within the particular partner based circumstances of the project, where the power generated from the CHP would supply the full needs of the Dalmarnock WWTW to provide a sustainable basis for meeting the power requirements of the largest power user in Scotland.

Secondly, the heat generated would supply the first stage development of the masterplan areas to a scale which would allow significant scope to grow the system for the development of both Dalmarnock and Shawfield and further into the Clyde Gateway area. An investment by Scottish Water Horizons of £4.1m had been proposed to assist with the delivery of the project.

The proposed delivery structure was based on a generation ESCO by Scottish Water Horizon and a delivery ESCO by Clyde Gateway simplifying the partner structure. This was supported by legal advices sought to assist with governance and procurement arrangements and was consolidated in a formal Memorandum of Understanding between the two key partners. This was supported by a grid application by Scottish Water Horizons for the required 1 MW identified.

The overall project was assessed independently through Ramboll to support the preferred solution to the business case.

Clyde Gateway used its existing community network structures to assist with community engagement for the project and carried out a community survey through LEAP to inform and support the project proposal.

A range of workshop sessions were carried out to inform the development process for the project to arrive at the preferred solution. This reflected the fact that the end user areas identified were within the full control of Clyde Gateway and could be linked to the proposed district heating network thereby providing surety for the proposed Scottish Water Horizons investment.

The project’s innovation rested in the forward thinking assessment of both power and heat costs over time and the scope to provide a resilient energy resource which could meet the requirements of the regeneration area over its development period.

The phase two submission was made in February 2016 but was eventually rejected by the Local Energy Challenge Fund panel.