Summary of project
This project provided a detailed analysis of the cost and practicability of extending the existing private wire to two nearby housing developments and the feasibility of creating all electric homes using 100% local renewable energy
How ENWL supported the scheme
The Lune Valley Land Trust received a £10,000 grant from the Electricity North West Powering our Communities grant.
Why is the project community energy?
This project was focused on the extension of an existing community owned hydro scheme, Halton Lune Hydro to the benefit of the new users and the existing community energy scheme
Who would find this useful information?
Community Land Trusts, Co-housing developments, housing associations and any other house developer who have the option of linking directly to local generation.
What the project set out to achieve
The project successfully demonstrated that it is technically feasible to extend the private wire from Lancaster Cohousing (LCH) to the two new developments. The LCH owned transformer has a spare feeder, which could support the combined load of the two new developments. It would be relatively easy to run a LV cable from this existing transformer to a location adjacent to the new developments.
The main issue identified during the study was not technical but regulatory and we identified that an ESCO would need to be set up. We did some initial research into this and spoke to a specialist solicitor who identified a number of steps and documents that would needed to set up an ESCO which would then manage the supply and billing of electricity to the three sites.
The study also demonstrated that all electric homes are be feasible. In terms of heating the houses two options were suggested which have similar capital cost. Direct electric heating with roof top solar thermal or a high-efficiency air source heat pump. The cost of these are compared with a traditional gas system for capital cost, annual running costs and lifecycle costs. The study recommended the Air source heat pumps be installed but any final decision would need to be made by the design team.
The study provided us with costings that demonstrated that the capital costs of extending the private wire would not be too dissimilar from providing individual grid connections to all the households. As gas connections are not required there will be a further capital cost saving.
What was the impact
The report produced with this funding lead to the housing association including connecting to the private wire in their design options.
If it goes ahead, the new developments would directly use 132GWh of renewable energy fed from the private wire.
The benefits to the occupants of the new development would be direct access to a renewable energy supply at a guaranteed mark down from an average ‘big six’ electricity tariff.
