Heat Pumps Today

06 N E W S Heat Network Efficiency Scheme is open for applications Gemserv has announced that the Government’s Heat Network E ciency Scheme (HNES) is now open to applicants in England and Wales. The £32 million grant support programme is designed to support improvements to existing district heating or communal heating schemes that are not performing to their maximum e ciency, resulting in poor outcomes for customers and operators. The scheme will run until 2025 and follows on from the HNES Demonstrator. The Demonstrator ran from October 2021 to March 2022 and saw significant interest from local authorities, housing associations and private heat network operators. HNES aims to address issues identified in previous work by the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which outlined how some consumers are detrimentally being a‹ected by sub-optimal heat networks with lower e ciencies, resulting in increasing fuel costs. Heat networks support the UK’s net zero goals and have been identified as an essential component of clean and cost-e‹ective decarbonisation of UK heat. With thousands of heat networks in operation around the country already, there is a need to ensure that these are operating to their optimum e ciency. HNES forms a key part of the Government’s Heat Network Transformation Programme (HNTP) which aims to continue to develop and grow the heat network market and to address some of the challenges of decarbonising the UK’s heat sector. HNES helps to address the cost-of-living crisis for heat network customers and seeks to deliver better operational e ciencies in the medium to long term. Existing heat network owners or operators can apply to HNES for either revenue grant funding or capital grant funding from 7th February 2023. The HNES guidance document details the application process, eligibility criteria and Monitoring and Reporting obligations for successful applicants. The scheme will run multiple funding rounds, with the first round closing to applicants on 31st March 2023. HNES can provide up to 50% of eligible project costs for capital grant applications and up to 100% of eligible project costs for revenue (Optimisation Study) grant applications. Applicants will need to submit a completed application form along with supporting evidence and will be assessed and scored against agreed criteria. Applicants interested in applying for the scheme can express their interest by emailing HNES@gemserv.com House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee: Boiler Upgrade Scheme Enquiry The Ground Source Heat Pump Association (GSHPA) are elated that the House of Lords Environment and Climate Change Committee supports the Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) and finds that significant changes must be swiftly made to give the heat pump industry the opportunity to deliver on the original policy intent. Laura Bishop, Chair of the GSHPA said: “As we are all aware within our industry the BUS at the moment is the beacon of government policy with its remit to decarbonise domestic heating, but the BUS’s first year of operation has been challenging for all the reasons outlined by the Lords Committee.” “The Committee’s findings align precisely with what our members and their end users are telling us. Specifically, homeowners and landlords need better information on heat pump technologies that are available now, and this needs to be underpinned by an EPC framework that appropriately recognises the benefits of heat pump systems.” “Given the problems with the launch of the scheme and the urgency needed to mitigate against climate change it is inappropriate for HM Treasury to clawback any underspend. We call upon Government to ensure that the unspent funds should be used to extend the scheme in year two. The GSHPA is pleased the enquiry has recognised the strategic benefits of ground source and networked heat pumps stating "ground source heat pumps can deliver greater energy e ciency and so should also be adequately incentivised". The GSHPA supports this recommendation and calls for the underspend in this financial year to specifically increase support for ground-source deployment to match the demand proven under the previous Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive.” It is in everyone’s interest to ensure that the UK lands on the best combination of policy levers and financial instruments so that heat pumps can help deliver the country’s Net Zero ambitions. Specifically ground source is a more discrete technology, shows greater e ciencies, puts less demand on the electrical grid and has a longer lifespan than air source with loops lasting in excess of 60 years and can also provide free cooling. www.gshp.org.uk Laura Bishop April | May 2023