The vital part that regional heat networks can play

Alison Ryan, deputy Healthcare lead at Mott MacDonald, Chris Kelly, an associate director, Estates Compliance and Risk, at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT), and Mike Cooke, MD, North & Scotland, at Vital Energi Utilities, look at the role of regional heat networks in addressing some of the challenges ahead with respect to achieving Net Zero Carbon in the healthcare and education sectors.

Leeds PIPES is an award-winning district heating scheme delivered in partnership by Leeds City Council and Vital Energi to provide affordable, reliable, and low carbon heat and hot water. The original intent was to develop a city-wide heat network to supply heat created as a by-product from burning Leeds’ non-recyclable waste at the Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility (RERF) in Cross Green (see Figure 1), to numerous council homes, public sector buildings (including hospitals and universities), businesses, and new developments around Leeds City Centre

A District Heating Network (DHN) is a system of underground pipes that delivers heat and hot water to buildings connected to the network. The primary heating is steam generated as part of the waste recycling process, and the secondary ‘network’ consists of buried heating flow and return pipework that serves the various buildings. District Heating (or Heat Networks as they are also known) systems provide low carbon heat which would otherwise go to waste. There are currently networks operating in Sheffield, Nottingham, Manchester, London, Glasgow, and others parts of the UK.