Seminar Reveals How To Make District Heating Pay For Operators And Residents

A free breakfast seminar being held in central London on Wednesday 25 January will address how local authorities and housing associations can achieve financial viability for district heating schemes, while ensuring fair pricing for residents.

The seminar is being hosted by Switch2 Energy, Winckworth Sherwood and The Carbon Trust, who will discuss software tools, cost modelling, metering options and commercial arrangements to help heat network operators to set tariffs that work for both them and the resident.

District and Community heating system operators and developers within local authorities and housing associations are invited to the seminar, which will show how setting the tariff earlier in the project can resolve the twin challenges of recovering costs and avoiding debt risk, while also keeping costs to residents low and fair.

Dr Tanja Groth, Decentralised Energy Manager at the Carbon Trust will discuss best practice for setting heat tariffs with long term viability in mind. She will draw on insights from heat networks in Scandinavia.

Ian Allan, Head of R&D at Switch2 Energy will outline proven strategies to help heat network suppliers get the pricing right. These include project planning for customer tariffs and the use of smart meters and modern prepayment systems to reduce financial risk and increase transparency and fairness for residents.

There’s an urgent need to find new and more sophisticated methods of tariff setting

Colin Hall, Partner at Winckworth Sherwood, will advise delegates on the commercial and legal terms that help promote long term viability

“With a 320 million pound investment in heat networks by the UK government and rapid growth in the sector, there’s an urgent need to find new and more sophisticated methods of tariff setting”, said Ian Allan. “Heat network operators must move away from crude fixed charges towards fairer pricing models that reflect how much energy the resident is actually consuming.”