Fisherton Street - Energy Services

Project Overview

The Fisherton Street scheme is a pioneering mixed-tenure development in the heart of the Church Street neighbourhood near Edgware Road, that will transform the area of London with new homes, community amenities and exciting public realm. The scheme is the first to be delivered by Westminster Builds, Westminster City Council’s self-development arm, and is the product of a joint venture between Westminster and Linkcity.

The scheme consists of apartment blocks and townhouses and is a core part of the larger Church Street redevelopment supported by a sports hall, community space and extensive green spaces which are transforming the Church Street area into a sustainable community.

The newly built development consists of 171 homes and a sport centre which are connected to the site’s Low Temperature Hot Water (LTHW) System and comfort cooling system.  Enabling a low-carbon lifestyle has been a key pillar of the project from the outset:

• Delivered in accordance with the London Plan to achieve at least a 35% improvement in CO2 emissions over and above Building Regulations
• Passive design and energy efficient features include insulation, low-air permeability, and high-performance glazing to reduce emissions
• Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4 rating expected for the new homes
• BREEAM rating of ‘Very Good’ expected for the new sports hall and community facility
• The Fisherton Street scheme has a centralised energy centre, utilising renewable energy through a communal air source heat pump to provide heat and hot water to each home. Each of the Fisherton Street townhouses have individual air source heat pumps to provide heat and hot water to each home.

The homes are heated using ultra-low carbon air source heat pumps for both heating and hot water, with some properties also having cooling facilities.  Vital Energi were awarded the three-year contract through a competitive tendering process for the contract energy management services, which included the commissioning of the heat meters, deliver metering and billing services, including customer support and deliver operation and maintenance services.

Vital's Solution

Vital Energi have been selected to deliver comprehensive community heating and comfort cooling services for the Fisherton Street development; which includes operation and maintenance of the energy centre, substations, distribution pipework, terminal units within the flats; heat interface units, condensers and fan coil units. Provide metering & billing services to the 163 residents connected to the communal heating; of which 109 also have cooling.

The client’s prime objective was to partner with a company who deliver a high level of customer service to their residents and work collaboratively with a number of key stakeholders.  Providing a reliable consistent supply of heating, hot water and cooling and a Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations compliant solution, which was accurate, reliable and underpinned by friendly, knowledgeable customer service staff.

All residents on the development will have access to our Glass App & Portal, which is our smart metering and billing platform, providing residents and the operator with visibility over their energy usage and spend, whilst also streamlining payment processes.

We are delivering a comprehensive operations and maintenance package which gives us wide-ranging responsibility for all testing, operation, maintenance and repair services across the energy scheme.

How the system works

The energy centre contains a 230kW Trane RTSF 110 heat pump and 3No. Hamworthy Wessex Modumax MK3 gas boilers (428.4 kW each). Heating and hot water is provided to all dwellings via heat interface units (HIUs).

The comfort Cooling is provided via 12 variable refrigerant flow (VRFs) LG condensers are installed on the roof of Block A, providing energy via fan coil units (FCUs). Each condenser supplies the energy for all FCUs at that core floor level.