Request for Information – Community Energy Overall Project
We are looking for consultants, community energy organisations and vendors who can help us progress our plan to the next stage. Initially to help us with the initial feasibility studies and later a fully scoped and costed feasibility plan.
Please take a look at the Plan section of this website for an overview of what we are looking at and the About section for background on our community. We realise it’s quite a broad range of points and therefore welcome consultants, organisations and vendors who address a subset – we expect to retain specialists in a number of areas.
If you have questions please either email info@thamesheadenergy.org or call 07785 362 573
RFI Areas
We are seeking assistance in the following areas, we are looking for consultants, vendors and community energy organisations that can help us either in an individual areas of multiple:
Community
Initially remote advice on what would be the most appropriate structure for Thames Head Energy, we understand there is a number of “social enterprise” like models, given our situation which would be most appropriate?
Solar
Initially, a site visit to do an assessment:
Where would the best location(s) be for a solar farm(s), where would they connect to the grid and what estimated costs?
Would some single-story storage barn blocks be suitable for solar at Lower Mill Estate? What sort of cost?
Would any of the estate buildings at Lower Mill Estate to suitable for solar, such as The Spa, pool rooms and restaurant? What sort of cost?
Could there be a model where we also fund and own rooftop solar on individual houses or blocks of houses?
Could private wire be used to deliver power directly to high-usage parts of the infrastructure, such as the heat network/heat pumps and some community buildings such as The Spa?
Heating
Initially, a site visit to do an assessment:
Suitability and comparison of 5th generation heat network vs individual air source heat pumps. How would the Total Cost of Ownership compare over 20-25 years (we assume the heat network would have higher CAPEX due to more construction work, but lower OPEX due to greater efficiency). Is there a likely break-even point in terms of uptake – i.e. heat network is better if at least x% of homes take it vs individual heat pumps
Potential to community share offer fund the capital costs of the heat network/heat pumps and chargeback over 20-25 years with fixed monthly/annual fee + usage. How this could be commercially achieved – assume as with power generation we can’t sell heating direct to homes, rather we’d need to partner with an energy supplier.
Could hydrogen heating be an option at Lower Mill Estate given the existing Calor Gas Network?
Could heat from sewage be used as part of a heat network from cesspits in Somerford Keynes/Shorncote and the private sewage system at Lower Mill Estate.
Could digging trenches for a heat network be shared with laying private wire electric and in Somerford Keynes/Shorncote shared also with Gigaclear fibre broadband?
How best to initially assess homes, can we estimate if either a heat network or individual heat pumps would work with existing radiators and insulation vs upgrades? Ideally, we’d want to estimate this without having to do extensive per-house surveys at the outset.
What is the environmental situation with ground and water source heat pumps? We have multiple lakes that could be used for shared water source/heat network heat pumps. These lakes are part of the Cotswold Water park which has SSI status. Can we deploy either a closed or open loop without risk to the lake environment? The ground is understood to be clay at the top with gravel below and an aquifer around 50m down. At Lower Mill Estate drinking water for some homes is extracted from the aquifer. We understand this may give some restrictions? The Lower Mill Estate owners are concerned about ground source heat pumps, possibly due to this.
Are there any issues with supplying sufficient electrical power for these options? Either with existing local infrastructure or possible private wire?
Wind
Initially, a site visit or paper-based assessment – Wind is attractive as its commercially very effective. However, it would not be an acceptable option if it impacts any homeowners with visual or noise impact. Plus we have SSSI considerations on the Cotswold Water Park. Are there any locations in the area that would be far enough away to avoid these issues and still technically and commercially viable?
EV Charging
Initially, a site visit to do an assessment:
Somerford Keynes and Shorncote homes mostly have off-street parking. Therefore community charging requirements are limited to a few homes with street parking and visitors. Visitors charging from the village hall are considered. The main consideration is the impact on local electric infrastructure as power EV charging is deployed alongside district heating/heat pumps.
At Lower Mill Estate there are a large number of parking spaces that are either shared car parks or allocated parking that is near but not adjacent to homes.
A small amount of public charging has been deployed and more is being added at Lower Mill Estate where the landlord allows homeowners with parking spaces close to their home to lay cables underground from home to parking space where viable. However, we want to avoid repeated digging over the coming years for both. Ideally, we’d like a solution where trenches could be installed that allows easy addition of more chargers over time. We also need to assess local electrical infrastructure to understand if significant upgrades will be required. Could trenches by shared with a heat network?
Anaerobic Digestion
Initially, a site visit or paper-based to do an assessment:
Somerford Keynes and Shorncote have private cesspits. Lower Mill Estate has a private sewage system on the estate and this pumps out to Thames Water for treatment. Could either of both of these setups be suitable for deploying an anaerobic digestion system that could be used to partly fuel a heat network?
How would this cost in over a 20-25 year period – would the savings in running costs offset the capital costs?
Hyrdo
Initially site visit assessment.
At Lower Mill Estate, in the winter, there is significant water flow from the Thames into Spinny Lake and beyond into other lakes. Given the higher winter demands from heating would there be a business case for hydro despite its seasonal nature?
Are there locations where hydro could be deployed without impact on home visuals and noise and also ecology?
Battery Storage
Initially, a site visit or remote paper assessment to help us with:
Should we include battery storage in our plan? If so where and what would the estimated costs and benefits be?
We understand that grid-scale battery storage could make sense combined with local power generation. Both to enable us to sell energy at times when prices are higher and to better balance the local energy generation with local demand.
Are there other income sources from batteries that help the business case, such as grid balancing services?
Do individual household batteries make sense in our business case?