Camden Council

Somers Town Decentralised Energy Network

Executive Summary

The award-winning Somers Town Decentralised Heat Network is delivering heat and hot water to the residents of Camden and has been designed with expansion in mind, allowing it to grow into one of London's major heat networks.

  • stats-numerical
    £5.5m contract value
  • energy-distribution
    50 year design life of district heating pipework
  • success
    15-year asset management contract
  • energy-generation
    80% minimum efficiency of energy system

Project Overview

Camden Council have ambitious targets to reduce their carbon emissions by 40% by 2020 and one of the key stages to their plan is the Somers Town Heat Network which will provide heat and hot water to five housing estates, a new community centre and the redesigned Edith Neville School, and provide electricity to The Francis Crick Institute via a private wire.

We were responsible for the design and build of the district heating network and energy centre in a dual phased solution, along with providing operation and maintenance services for a period of 15 years.

Our Solution

Euston 2015 5270

The scheme was implemented in two phases: the first seeing the installation of the district heating network connecting four estates and the retrofit energy centre into the basement of a 1960’s under-used car park; and the second being the installation of the CHP engine and thermal stores, and connecting another housing block, community centre and school to the network.

A phased solution was decided upon as there was limited historical operational data to determine demand patterns and so the Council wanted a period of study following the connection of the first estates to understand the network’s performance. This would allow us to analyse the operational data before deciding upon the best matched CHP engine size to provide an accurate solution.

Solution detail

Somers Town Heat Network

We are really excited by this project. It represents the first step in a network of low carbon energy projects, which will provide cleaner, greener, affordable and more secure energy supplies for communities across Camden.

Councillor Meri, Cabinet Member for Sustainability and Environment

Key Benefits

Somers Town Heat Network

Download Case Study Somers Town Heat Network Case Study 2.6 Mb
Related case study

Somers Town Operation & Maintenance

Camden Council Somers Town Decentralised Energy Network