A new project to develop ways of accelerating and widening the roll-out of heat pumps has been given almost half a million pounds in funding from Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund.
The scheme from the Future Networks Team at Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution, called ‘EqualLCT’, uses network data to show where a rollout of heat pumps could be coordinated with energy efficiency measures to reduce demand for peak-time electricity
The technology behind SSEN’s Local Energy Net Zero Accelerator (LENZA) tool, underpins EqualLCT. LENZA is already used by planners in local authorities across the company’s two licence areas to make decisions about where best to locate low-carbon technologies in their communities.
SSEN’s Innovation Team will overlay LENZA’s existing data layers with information on housing stock, anonymised customer data, and details of any relevant schemes which are available in local areas.
Ross Bibby, Project Manager for EqualLCT at SSEN Distribution said:
“We know there are currently a number of factors preventing some people from adopting new low carbon technologies, and EqualLCT was born out of a desire to remove these barriers.
“We’re just setting out on our journey to develop this idea, but we expect that if realised, it could cut customers’ bills and defer millions of pounds of network reinforcement.”
“The decision by Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund to back this new phase of this project means we and our partners from the energy experts Baringa and SMS will be able to establish a proof of concept for this idea. We’d then hope to demonstrate and operate the technology we’re developing by the end of 2025.”
Image courtesy of SSEN
