Poole Tidal Energy Partnership

Business Case: Upton Country Park Heat Pump Project

14 March 2013

Executive Summary

Poole Tidal Energy Partnership, a community interest company, aims to develop the use of renewable energy sources in the area to benefit local citizens. Local renewable energy initiatives have the potential to deliver cost savings, reduce reliance on fossil-fuel and distant energy sources, improve our fuel security and help residents in fuel poverty, as well as reducing the Borough’s Carbon Footprint.

We propose a project at Upton House and Country Park (UCP) to use energy extracted from on-site heat sources as part of a cogeneration energy solution to meet heating needs. This will prove the technology and provide a demonstrator site for further developments, potentially leading to community district heating solutions in the Borough, using renewable sources of power.

Upton tea rooms have been identified as a potential site for use of heat-pump technology to provide heating and domestic hot water. The heating demands of the tea rooms are high and the current heating system expensive and inadequate. Coupled with energy saving measures, installation of heat pumps will improve the heating of the stable block including tea rooms and art gallery space, enabling use all-year.

Heat pumps will be used to extract heat from water from a bore holes to minimise physical disruption on the site. Use of the existing well in the stable courtyard is under consideration to provide the water source and this is supported by the Council’s Planning Conservation Officer and UCP local management. Heat pumps will integrate with other technology installed as part of a cogeneration energy system.

The project to install heat pump technology for the tea rooms has been outlined in five stages and is expected to require a budget of no more than £67,000 and an anticipated project duration of 12 months.

Watersource Heatpump technologies use around one fifth to one quarter of the electricity of conventional electicelectric heating (known as a Co-efficient of Performance COP of 4 to 5). At current usage of the Stable block complex, we estimate that the investments will payback in under 6 years. . This project will also contribute to enabling greater usage of the facilities, potentially generating greater avoided cost savings, and a quicker payback. The expected reduction in carbon dioxide emmissionsemissions is 32 Tonnes per year.

Statement of Need

The use of fossil fuels for heating is a large component of the Borough's Carbon Footprint. As part of meeting the national carbon reduction targets for the Borough, moving to renewable alternatives for heating is a potential opportunity for ;

  • saving energy costs,
  • improving fuel security and
  • helping residents that find themselves in fuel poverty.

There are a large number of properties owned by the Borough, some close to the harbour edge, which could potentially benefit from a district heating system that utilises a renewable energy source. Meeting a need at the Upton Country Park would be an ideal demonstrator for other projects around the Borough by demonstratingrevealing the future potential of unlocking a local energy source from the Harbour edge. In addition, neighbouring Councils and other coastal communities have taken an active interest in the project’s progress with a view to replicating.

Upton Country Park is a popular year-round attraction for local residents, special functions and for tourism. There are two main buildings - Upton House and the Stables Block. This project will focus focuses on the Stables Block built in 1893 and of heritage status, comprising tearooms with associated kitchen facilities, community art gallery, warden’s cottage, stores, offices and public conveniences. The current electric storage heating system in the Stables Block is expensive to run (, compared with systems using alternative other fuel sources), and inadequate, resulting in temporary closure of the building in cold weather. The Borough of Poole Council has expressed a desire to develop plans for the management of Upton Country Park and House so that public use increases, and costs to the Council are reduced; source Borough of Poole Corporate Strategy 2012 - 2015.

This project will explore the renewable energy potential, develop and provide a heating solution for the Stables Block by implementing energy efficiency measures and delivering energy from an appropriate renewable source. It is however considered however that a range of technologies will be appropriate to the Upton Country Park site and which will simultaneously generate both electricity and useful heat power as this cogeneration will allow distributed power production adaptable to the sites energy demands. Therefore in parallel to this project an options appraisal will be commissioned by the Council to explore energy efficiency and other renewable energy opportunities for the Country Park and House, with a focus on Biomass Boiler technology. The heat pump project will be considered as a separately focused appraisal as the heat pump technology is considered a more specialist subject area.

Project description

The overall aim of the project is to design and deliver a renewable energy solution using heat pump technology at UCP. The objective is to extract heat from an on-site water source as an integral part of a cogeneration renewable energy system for heating and domestic hot water for the Tea Rooms. The main stages are outlined below and will be carried out in accordance with Borough of Poole Financial Standing orders;

Stage 1: Initial Feasibility Study (Study (completed 2012)

  • Thermal imaging of Upton House and Tea Rooms funded by a Government Grant to PTEP, and undertaken by Dorset Energy Advice Centre (DEAC)
  • Fact-finding visits to a wide range of sites both in the UK and Sweden where heat pump technology has been successfully deployed and achieved cost-saving and reduction in CO2 emissions.
  • Investigation of Government incentives, grants and subsidies for use of renewable energy, such as feed-in tariffs (FITs) and the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
  • Development of designs for potential heat pumps and underwater turbines suitable for shallow water by design students of Bournemouth University (BU).
  • Investigation of the environmental impact of renewable energy in Poole Harbour by students of environmental law at BU including discussion with the Council’s Planning Conservation Officer and UCP local management.

Stage 2:2 Survey

A survey is required to establish whether the existing well in the stable courtyard is suitable to provide a heat source for the Heat Pump system. The survey will be completed by a suitably accredited contractor so that the requirements for grant aid are met. The survey will include test pumping over a specific period of time (5/7 day yield test). For details of the Survey requirements, see Budget section. If this is found to be not suitable, small bore vertical holes will be required

.

Stage 3: Confirmation of Funding and Contractor Selection

Invitation to Quote process

Stage 43: Selection and Ssystem Design

  • Confirmation of heat pump collector system – water or ground source.
  • Definitive specification and detailed design.

Stage 54: Build and Iinstallation system

  • Build heat distribution system.
  • Supply and install heat pump system and Heat emitter system
  • . Commission system.

Stage Stage 65: Operation, maintenance and system monitoring

  • On-going monitoring of energy usage, heating levels and operation of the system.
  • Evaluation and dissemination of findings.

??? are we expecting BoP or ourselves to undertake Stage 5 ???Budget for Tea Room/Art Gallery Heat Pump Scheme

Initial investigations, and discussion with both RNLI and National Trust renewable energy experts, indicate that an off-the-shelf heat pump system would be able to meet the requirements of the tea rooms. Further design and feasibility studies will be required to determine the optimal solution for the site. Table 1 shows the options considered and their relative cost savings and CO2 savings for the Council.

Table 1 - Upton Park Art Gallery, Tearooms & Warden Cottage.

Present Electric Heating Cost £8,626/yr. Carbon emissions = 40.0 T/yr

Scheme No / Capital Cst (Approx) / Gov FIT /RHI Support/yr / Fuel Cst/yr
(BoP) / BoP Save/yr / CO2 Saved /yr
Existing (Do nothing) / ------/ ------/ £8,626 Electric
(2011/12 actual) / ------/ 0.0T
Water source heat pump / £46,230 / £3,720 1 / £1,686 Electric / £10,661 / 32.0T
Air source heat pump. / £35,000 / £1,345 2 / £2,248 Electric / £7,723 / 24.0T
New high efficiency gas boiler. / No current supply / £0.0 3 / £2,522 Gas / £6,103 / 25.7T
Micro Hydro/Tidal with water source heat pump. / around
£140,000 / £6,110 4 / £0.0 None / £14,736 / 40.0T

Notes

1.  RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) contribution from spring 2013 for water source heat pump.

2.  RHI (Renewable Heat Incentive) contribution from spring 2013 for air source heat pump.

3.  Not available for FIT’s or RHI contributions..

4.  Both FIT’s & RHI contributions.

The following sections detail the project activities and Table 2 below provides budget costs:

Table 2 : Budgetary costs for water source heat pump

Item. / Activity / Cost
1 / Survey of Existing UCP well / £1,100
2 / Determination of Building Heat Load / n/a1
3 / Site Consultation and System Design / £850
4 / Drilling of Bore Holes -subject to item 1 / £13,000
5 / Supply & Installation of Heat Pump System / £31,280
£46,230

Other related costs required for other options than do nothing

Item. / Activity / Cost /
6 / Supply & Installation of Building Heat Emitter System (radiators etc) / £5,000
7 / Insulation / £5,000
8 / Project Management / £5,000
9 / BoP in-house fees / £1,000
10 / Contingency @ 7.5% / £4,667
Total / £66,897

Table 2: Notes: 1 Included in UCP feasibility project

Based on the above, the payback period on current energy prices and RHI subsidy for installing a water source heatpump the payback period is 6.3 years.

Using Existing Well - A survey is required to establish if the existing well can be used to provide a heat source for the Heat Pump system. The survey will be completed by a suitably accredited contractor so that the requirements for grant aid are met. The survey includes a test pumping over a specific period of time (5/7 day yield test)

Building Heat Load – The current annual heat load of the buildings has been approximated from a 6 month log of actual electricity meter readings based on a heating system that is known to be inadequate. A Survey is required to establish the level of insulation that can and will be installed in the tearooms so that actual peak heat load requirements can be properly calculated. Heat pump manufacturers recommend obtaining independent heat loss calculations to EN12831 or a SAP calculation to confirm the actual peak heating load. This is the requirement MCS usually require to access grants such as the RHI although this stipulation may not apply to commercial or listed sites. Presently the annual heat load of the buildings has been approximated from a 6 month log of actual electricity meter readings based on a heating system that is known to be inadequate. Note: to ensure a satisfactory level of heating is achieved these budget prices for the supply and installation of heat pump systems have been based on the industry maximum figure of 50W/m2 floor area of the buildings. More accurate heat load figures may well enable a smaller sized heat pump system to be installed.

Site Consultation & System Design – production of definitive specification and detailed project design work.

Building Heat Distribution System. – The budget calculations will be dependent on the figures obtained from the building heat load survey, the agreed means of heating (e.g. radiators and/or under floor heating), the particular specific requirements for heating with heat pumps and whether or not hot water as well as space heating can be providedis required.

Supply & Installation of Well Source Heat Pump System. - Subject to confirmation and suitability of the well for the purpose of providing a satisfactory heat source for the heat pump the supply (Inc delivery) comprises a single 30kW heat pump. To ensure that the system is installed correctly and that the requirements of the Micro generation Certification Scheme (MCS) only approved MCS installers will be used.

Project Evaluation - PTEP plan will monitor the energy generation and use, partly to establish the contribution to the Council's carbon reduction targets, but also to help inform further business cases, and to disseminate the message about this innovation in Poole, which could be replicated around the Borough and in many other maritime communities.

PTEP intend further work to develop and support development of proposals for district heating solutions providing heating solutions to groups of buildings – council, residential, community and commercial.

Organising structure

Who we are

Poole Tidal Energy Partnership (PTEP) is a Private Community Interest Company (CIC), limited by Guarantee (Registered: 4 November 2011), set up to explore and develop renewable energy solutions for the benefit of the local community around Poole. PTEP is a partnership comprising representatives from the Borough of Poole, Transition Town Poole (a voluntary membership organisation), and Bournemouth University. Being a Community Interest Company will ensure that any knowledge, renewable energy and profit realised will be used for the benefit of our community.

Our Vision

PTEP understands that transition to a low-carbon economy is much more difficult to achieve in a built up area than in the rural environment. As our name implies, PTEP was formed initially to research and evaluate the tidal waters of Poole Harbour as a possible source of energy through the use of innovative devices to capture and transform it into useable forms for the benefit of our community. PTEP recognises that it is unlikely that there will be a single solution to satisfy Poole’s energy needs; and our vision is to establish an appropriate mix of viable forms of renewable energy across different locations as appropriate for our town.

Our Values

PTEP understands that any renewable energy solutions will need to have minimal impact on the environment and will recognise and address the interests and concerns of all stakeholders and interested parties. PTEP is keen to work with everyone in the local area to realise our Vision in harmony with the valued leisure, wildlife and commercial activities of Poole.