Energy Centre
Ross Crescent
Biomass Boiler
Woodchip Fuel
Contract Value:
£80,000.00
Timescale:
July 2004 - Nov 2004
Client:
Fyne Homes
Vital Energi is delivering energy efficient heating and hot water supply to tenants of Scotland’s first wood fuelled Community Heating (CH) scheme, after being chosen to replace the previous Community Heating provider which went into liquidation.
“Restoring key utilities to our tenants was of critical importance and Vital Energi‘s engineering staff were able to deliver the competence and expertise quickly and efficiently to take over the implementation of our stalled project and provide emergency problem solving support. As a result, the upgraded community heating solution means that we now have the peace of mind that our system offers reliable and continuous energy to each of our tenants and in an efficient manner.”
Peter McDonald, Operations Director, Fyne Homes
Vital Energi was called in to rectify the operational problems and upgrade the CH system for Fyne Homes’ Ross Crescent Estate, thanks to a referral from the scheme’s original financier The Cooperative Bank plc. Owned by the housing association, the development consists of 51 dwellings in rural Argyl, built as a partnership project between Fyne Homes and the Lochgilphead based construction firm M&K McLeod. Vital Energi’s immediate brief was to carry out an assessment of the installation and conduct emergency repairs to make the Energy Centre operational.
As part of the recommissioning project, Vital Energi was responsible for repairing and modifying the estate’s existing district heating mains network, modernising the on-site water treatment facilities and upgrading the wood chip fuelled boiler installation in order to increase the reliability of the system and to achieve security of supply. Vital Energi carried out a substantial programme of capital improvements including providing local on-site personnel to deal with the operation of the Energy Centre and also providing information and assistance to the local residents. As part of these improvements each dwelling was fitted with a new heat meter to monitor and charge for consumption of hot water, which is fed into each house’s under-floor heating systems.
Vital Energi was responsible for the design, installation and administration of the ‘EasyPay’ pre-payment system that enables residents to purchase heat credit. Each dwelling was also fitted with a Domestic Credit Unit (DCU). Tenants are issued with a pre-payment plastic swipe card, unique to each household. They purchase heat credit on their swipe card from their local Spar shop. The benefits for the Housing Association are that there are no administration costs involved - no bills are issued and therefore there is no cost involved in recovering debt. This system is also favoured by residents as they can spread the cost of their fuel bills and manage their payments more effectively.
Conclusion
Vital Energi’s work has seen the CH scheme become both functional and more efficient and have built increased reliability into its operation. At the same time, the estate’s long term objectives of reduced CO2 emissions and more cost effective energy provision were achieved.
