Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy pilots: phase 3 - evaluation

Annex B: LHEES Phase 3 pilot outputs

The research team had access to output reports from six of the nine local authorities participating in Phase 3. Table 6 provides high-level summaries of each of these six pilots. This is followed by more detailed overviews of each pilot.

Table 6: list of local authorities in Phase 3 with published pilot reports divided by scope, data sources, stages completed, recommended measures, cost and expected CO₂ savings.

Angus Council

Local authority

Targets and decarbonisation recommendations covering all buildings (domestic and non-domestic).

Scope

Inverkeilor, Glamis, Edzell, Newtyl, Monikie, Aberlemno

Heat pumps, heat networks, radiator sizing, bio-mass boilers, building heat loss calculations.

Data sources

Home Analytics, Scotland Heat Map, EPC register, tenure data provided by the Council, Scottish Household Income Deciles

LHEES stages completed

Elements of Stages 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 are included.

Recommended measures

Air sourced heat pumps are suitable for most property types and therefore strategically important.

Biomass boilers could be used in large rural, detached properties with high heat demands.

Angus is well suited to renewable power generation.

Cost

Individual heat pumps low investment cost.

Biomass DH and individual heat pumps high capital investment costs.

CO₂ savings

Individual heat pump analysis:

Effective at reducing CO₂ emissions (58%)

East Ayrshire Council

Local authority

Targets covering all buildings (domestic and non-domestic).

Scope

East Ayrshire, Kilmarnock, North West Kilmarnock and South Central Kilmarnock. Focused on high heat demand areas (where there is potential for district heating).

Data sources

Home Analytics, Scotland Heat Map, EPC register, data provided by the Council regarding tenure

LHEES stages completed

Elements of all 6 stages are included.

Recommended measures

Build knowledge of low carbon solutions for heritage assets.

Explore low-carbon heating and Passvihaus/ Enerphitt standards in the non-domestic stock.

Develop Heat network strategy for Council housing stock.

Cost

Low carbon space heating upgrades would cost £36m. Installing solar thermal £135m.

CO₂ savings

41 kilotonnes of CO₂ per year could be saved

East Dunbartonshire Council

Local authority

Domestic and non-domestic.

Scope

Keystone and Dougalston; North Castlehill and Thorn; South Castlehill and Thorn.

Focused on air source heat pumps and heat networks as the most suitable heat generation technology.

Data sources

Home Analytics, Scottish Heat Map

LHEES stages completed

Stage 1 and 2 completed (Background Energy Status Review, 2020). Stage 5 completed based on spatial analysis, discussed with Council.

Recommended measures

Consider a roadmap to low temperature heat networks in the medium to long term.

Identify means to ensure space heating is designed to be compatible with heat pumps and low temperature heat networks.

Develop plan to enable future hot water provision by low temperature heat networks. Identify opportunities to reduce cost of installing heat network pipework.

Cost

No cost estimates included in current reports.

CO₂ savings

No savings estimates provided in current reports.

East Renfrewshire Council

Local authority

Targets and decarbonisation recommendations covering all buildings (domestic and non-domestic).

Scope

Neilston and Barrhead

Focused on air and ground source heat pumps as the most suitable heat generation technology

Data sources

Home Analytics Data, Scotland Heat Map, EPC register

LHEES stages completed

All 6 stages included

Recommended measures

The domestic sector is recognised as having a key role in energy efficiency strategies, with a number of key targets and plans in place, especially within social housing.

No plans related to the efficiency of the non-domestic sector were identified.

Cost

Installing all identified low carbon space heating upgrades would cost £22m. Installing all possible solar thermal is estimated to cost £102m.

CO₂ savings

Installing all measures is estimated to save 39kt of CO₂ per year, which equates to 0.9 tonnes per household.

Moray Council

Local authority

Domestic and non-domestic

Scope

The whole of Moray with focus on Burghead and Elgin

Off gas properties was a key focus in addition to ground/ air source heat pumps as the most suitable heat generation technology

Data sources

Home Analytics, Corporate Address Gazetteer, EPC data, Census data

LHEES stages completed

All 6 stages included

Recommended measures

Join up existing and future priorities/ activities/ strategies. Focus on improving fabric efficiency of pre-1919 properties to be compatible with low carbon heating.

Cost

Installing all possible domestic fabric upgrades is estimated to cost £128m, installing all identified domestic low carbon space heating upgrades would cost a further £134m.

CO₂ savings

Installing all domestic measures is estimated to save 93 kilo-tonnes of CO₂ per year, which equates to 2.2 tonnes per household.

West Dunbartonshire Council

Local authority

Targets and decarbonisation recommendations covering all buildings (domestic and non-domestic).

Scope

The Clydebank area of West Dunbartonshire Council

Focused on air source heat pumps and heat networks as the most suitable heat generation technology

Data sources

Home Analytics, Scotland Heat Map, EPC register, data provided by the Council regarding tenure, the Scottish Household Income Deciles.

LHEES stages completed

Elements of the 6 Stages are included.

Recommended measures

32% of domestic properties suitable for heat pumps (when loosening this criterion to include mains gas heated properties for heat pump suitability)

Heat pumps were recommended for 43% of the non-domestic buildings (either air source or ground source).

Cost

Domestic: installing all identified low carbon space heating upgrades would cost £5.7m.

CO₂ savings

Domestic: Installing all the measures is estimated to save 7.3 kilo-tonnes of CO₂ per year

Angus Council

Focus: Study focused on areas suitable for heat pumps, heat networks, radiator sizing, bio-mass boilers, building heat loss calculations. To identify the tools, data, skills and resources required to develop and deliver an area based LHEES for Angus. Study area defined by Angus Council consists of the following areas: Inverkeilor (Village location); Glamis (Conservation Village location); Edzell (Village location); Newtyle (Village location); Monikie (Village location); Aberlemno (Parish with small village).

Data sources: Home Analytics; Scotland Heat Map; Domestic Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs); Data on privately rented properties and social housing stock data; Scottish Household Condition Survey (SHCS); Angus Council owned non-domestic properties data.

Recommendations

• Air source heat pumps are likely to be a low carbon heat option suitable for most property types and are therefore strategically important.
• 90% of properties were identified as being likely to be suitable for heat pumps if heat emitters (radiators) were upgraded.
• Heat pumps were found to be the only technology which can be widely deployed, offer a running cost saving to most properties and decarbonise heat.
• There are options for heat networks in the study area however they are not currently viable without further reductions in capital and/or operating costs.

Stages completed: Use of six stages of framework. The majority of LHEES stages are included. Stage 1 and 2 provides a detailed assessment of local and national strategies in addition to an area wide assessment of existing domestic and non-domestic building stock. Stage 3 is absent in terms of a lack of setting area wide targets but Stage 4 (conducting a socio-economic assessment of potential energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation) is detailed. Costing and Phasing in Stage 6 looks at broad funding streams and is not tailored to each specific priority or recommendation.

Key challenges/findings

• Individual heat pumps were effective at reducing CO₂ emissions (-58%) and made the largest contribution towards the reduction of fuel poverty (-24%); 29% savings in household's fuel bill on average. In addition, they were the lowest investment costs and created a 29% decrease in annual fuel costs.
• Biomass DH and individual heat pumps were the most effective to reduce CO₂ emissions among the proposed policies (-66%) but had a higher capital investment compared to baseline.
• Heat network options were investigated for hard-to-treat non-domestic properties in clusters which could be used to form heat networks and were deemed not likely to be financially viable, however carried forward to compare to other options for hard-to-treat properties.
• EPC band A to C makes up under 25% of properties in all areas.
• High % of D-E rated properties in all villages – with energy efficiency and renewable heat measures these are most likely to achieve EPC C grade.
• Discrepancies between projected and home analytic heat demands at an individual property level. Verification of heat load/demand critical.

East Ayrshire Council

Focus: To identify the tools/data/skills/resources required to develop an LHEES for East Ayrshire. Targets covering all buildings (domestic and non-domestic). The prioritisation of the two selected zones, North West Kilmarnock and South Central Kilmarnock. Focused on high heat demand areas where there is potential for district heating.

Data sources: Home Analytics; Scotland Heat Map; EPC register; Data provided by the Council regarding tenure; Data on privately rented properties and social housing stock data; Corporate Address Gazetteer data; Census data; Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS)

Recommendations

• Non-domestic: Over half of the buildings (58%) have been recommended heat pumps and 55% of the non-domestic properties have been recommended solar thermal. Wall insulation measures were recommended to over half of the buildings (52%). Loft and roof measures were recommended to 33% of buildings.
• Domestic: A small number of properties suitable for an air source heat pump (15; 2%), though this percentage increases when we include properties currently connected to the gas grid (45%). Loft and wall insulation opportunities were identified for 58% of properties (34,372 properties).

Short term/immediate targets (2021-2025):

• Improve knowledge and understanding of low carbon interventions suitable for heritage assets.
• Develop an area wide LHEES strategy in line with future Scottish Government requirements.
• Explore low-carbon heating and Passvihaus/ EnerPHit standards in the non-domestic stock.
• Promote net zero carbon in new private development.
• Formulate Council's carbon footprint for non-domestic buildings.
• Zero emissions heating for new builds.
• Develop a heat network strategy for existing/new council housing stock.

Stages completed: Elements of all 6 stages are included. Local authority-wide setting of aggregate targets for heat demand reduction and decarbonisation of buildings (stage 3) covers the short, medium and long term. the socio-economic assessment of zoned energy efficiency is explored in the workshop but could be detailed throughout the analysis. The prioritisation of areas (stage 5) focused on Kilmarnock, North West Kilmarnock and South Central Kilmarnock.

Key challenges/findings

A process for access to the data required for third party consultants needs to be refined as time delays can be attributed to:

• Data access. Although the Scottish Government is working on this, it was unclear if and how access to EPC data would be arranged.
• Data 'awareness'. It is critical that the officer/managers in charge of LHEES development at East Ayrshire Council are aware of:

• o The existence and knowledge of access to requested datasets such as Home Analytics and Scotland's Heat Map.
• o The legalities regarding the datasets, knowledge of (contract variations on) data sharing agreements between local authorities and Energy Saving Trust or OS.
• o The level of data literacy required to understand what the requested data needs to contain and in what format.

East Dunbartonshire Council

Focus: The pilot project focussed on opportunities available for decarbonising heat and reducing heat and energy demands within buildings in chosen data zones. Air source heat pumps and heat networks was the focus as the most suitable heat generation technology.

Data sources: Home Analytics; Scotland Heat Map; Additional data collection

Recommendations

• Keep up to speed with the likelihood of the gas grid being decarbonised and the timescales to inform the LHEES and future revisions of it.
• Keep abreast of changes to the data available, of methodologies to estimate existing and future heat demands to ensure that assumptions on both building performance and the effects of behaviour change are understood.
• Overall, the strategy should consider a roadmap to low temperature heat networks in the medium to long term both as an alternative to heat pumps but also as a technology/heat source alternative in the longer term.
• Identify means to ensure space heating in new and refurbished buildings is designed at low temperatures to be compatible with both heat pumps and future low temperature heat networks.
• Develop plan to address challenges and opportunities in hot water provision to ensure that low temperature heat networks can be deployed in the future.
• Identify opportunities, as part of other projects, to reduce the cost of installing heat network pipework.

Domestic:

• Improve energy efficiency by various measures including loft and cavity wall insulation, draught proofing, floor insulation, and solid wall insulation.
• While the intuitive approach to fuel poverty would be to focus on least efficient properties, analyses show more efficient properties are also associated with fuel poverty, and so fuel poverty alleviation should consider all properties.
• To enable electric heating/heat pumps steps would need to be taken to address risk of increased energy bills, including energy efficiency, quality installation and solar PV.

Non-domestic:

• Improve energy efficiency of all buildings and reduce electrical loads.
• Fuel switching in gas supplied buildings.
• For buildings with electric heating, install heat pumps.
• Across the three areas district heating may not be the perfect solution due to limited large heating loads, no waste heat, but smaller clustered district heating schemes could be viable.

Stages completed: Use of six stages of framework. Stage 1, 2 and 5 completed.

East Renfrewshire Council

Focus: Focused on heat pumps as the most suitable heat generation technology. An analysis of the domestic and non-domestic building stock of East Renfrewshire has been the focus in addition to specific analyses carried out on Barrhead and Neilston.

Data sources: Energy Saving Trust's Home Analytics; Local authority data; Scotland Heat Map; EPC register.

Recommendations made

Immediate priorities:

• To ensure new builds are built to the correct standards.
• Improving the efficiency of non-domestic buildings including council stock.
• Stakeholder engagement with householders (owner occupiers and those in the private rental sector).
• The governance structure within the Council will need to be considered in order to ensure buy-in to the development, management and delivery of the strategy.
• The potential for using a carbon budget across the Council mooted as an option to explore.

Medium term priorities:

• A need to have a firm council position on carbon reduction (targets, degree of prioritisation etc.) as well as a carbon budget.
• A 2025 target for carbon emissions reductions was felt to be useful to work towards and engage people around, given the relative distance between now and 2040.
• Net zero targets should be linked to fuel poverty targets.
• All development (non-domestic and domestic) should be in line with LHEES and the climate change strategy.

Stages completed: Use of six stages of framework. The majority of LHEES stages are included. Stage 2 (an area wide assessment of building stock) is very detailed and spans the specific two areas stated above. Stage 3 (target setting) lacks exact decarbonisation targets and instead gives a broad overview of the immediate, medium term and long-term priorities. Stage 6 (costing and phasing) is generic and provides an overview of funding streams.

Key challenges/findings

• Most of the council's policies which relate to the LHEES lack measurable aims and targets. Those that do, mainly come from central government targets.
• The domestic sector has a key role in energy efficiency strategies, with a number of key targets and plans in place, especially within social housing.
• No plans related to the efficiency of the non-domestic sector were identified.
• Tackling fuel poverty is a priority. The council aims for fuel poverty to be reduced, but targets have not been set.
• While no specific targets were found; the council outlined its support for and encouragement of heat networks.
• Over one-third of the domestic properties are suitable for wall insulation measures, with the majority being cavity wall insulation (25% of stock) and internal wall insulation (11% of the stock).
• For 20% of the properties, no suitable measures were identified. From the 7,968 properties with currently no suggested fabric or heating improvement, 1,675 properties (21%) have an EE band D or worse.
• A lack of clarity on long term direction was also highlighted.

Moray Council

Focus: To identify the tools, data, skills and resources required to develop and deliver an area based LHEES for Moray. Off gas properties was a key focus in addition to ground/ air source heat pumps as the most suitable heat generation technology. Predominant focus on carbon reduction potential, replicability and integration into longer term planning. This covers the whole of Moray with a focused analysis on Burghead and Elgin.

Data sources: Home Analytics; Corporate Address Gazetteer; EPC data; Census data

Recommendations made

• The most common recommendation for all non-domestic categories was double glazing, and/or secondary glazing.
• Wall insulation was recommended to 32% of the non-domestic properties with cavity wall insulation being predominant.
• Half of the non-domestic properties were recommended heat pumps.
• 46% of domestic properties are suitable for wall insulation measures, mostly internal wall insulation (30%) and cavity wall insulation (15%).
• Of the 5,309 domestic properties with no standard suggested fabric or heating improvement, just under one-fifth have an energy efficiency band D or worse.
• A small proportion of the stock was considered suitable for air source heat pumps (11%). This increases substantially (up to 38%) when loosening this criterion to include mains gas heated properties for heat pump suitability.

Stages completed: Use of six stages of framework. All stages completed.

Key challenges/findings

Domestic:

• For overall council as well as Elgin area, only small proportion of housing stock identified as suitable for ASHP due to mains gas connection; if heat pump criterion loosened to include properties heated by mains gas, this increases significantly (from 11% to 38% across all of Moray, and from just 3% to 38% in Elgin).
• 57% of properties suitable for solar thermal installation.

Non-domestic:

• Most common EPC recommendation = double and/or secondary glazing.
• 1/3 of properties recommended wall insulation (mainly cavity wall).
• ½ of properties recommended heat pumps.
• EPC data only available for 5 non-domestic properties in Burghead (227 in Elgin, and 650 across Moray).

Challenges:

• A process for access to the data required for third party consultants needs to be refined as time delays can be attributed to: 
• Data access. Although the Scottish Government is working on this, it was unclear if and how access to EPC data would be arranged. 
• Data 'awareness'. It is critical that the officer/managers in charge of LHEES development at East Ayrshire Council are aware of 
• Further Council-held data on privately rented properties and local development plans are also required for an LHEES, and this can be held between different departments, so as part of the data access procedure, cross-departmental communication is key. 

West Dunbartonshire Council

Focus: The report focuses on the Clydebank area of West Dunbartonshire Council. The LHEES area of Clydebank covers 14,666 domestic properties. Air source and ground source heat pumps and heat networks were the focus due to being the most suitable heat generation technology.

Data sources: Home Analytics; Scotland Heat Map; Domestic Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs); Data on privately rented properties and social housing stock data; Scottish Household Condition Survey (SHCS); West Dunbartonshire Council owned non-domestic properties data

Recommendations made

• 35% of properties are suitable for wall insulation measures, with the predominant measure being cavity wall insulation (14%). External wall insulation is suitable for 11% and internal wall insulation for 10% of the properties.
• Given that many properties have mains gas as their main fuel type, a small proportion of the stock was considered suitable for air source heat pumps (1%). This increases substantially (up to 32%) when loosening this criterion to include mains gas heated properties for heat pump suitability.
• EPC data was available for 89 non-domestic properties.

• o Recommendations were provided for 96% of these properties.
• o The most common recommendation for fabric upgrades was double glazing, and/or secondary glazing.
• o Wall insulation was recommended to 30% of the properties with cavity wall insulation being the predominant insulation type
• o Heat pumps were recommended for 43% of the buildings (either air source or ground source).

Immediate priorities:

• Request more support from Scottish Government, look at utilising the Council's ESCO.

Stages completed: Elements of the 6 Stages are included. Stage 3 (target setting) is broad and lacks specific targets. Stage 6 (funding opportunities) is limited in detail.

Key challenges/findings

• The Council recognises the domestic sector as having a key role in energy efficiency strategies, with a number of key targets and plans in place.
• While no specific targets were found; the Council outlined their support for and encouragement of heat networks.
• A process for access to the data required for third party consultants needs to be refined as time delays can be attributed to:

• o Data access. Although the Scottish Government is working on this, it was unclear if and how access to EPC data would be arranged.
• o The existence and knowledge of access to requested datasets such as Home Analytics and Scotland's Heat Map.
• o The legalities regarding the datasets, knowledge of (contract variations on) data sharing agreements between local authorities and Energy Saving Trust or OS.
• o The location of the requested datasets or what colleague is responsible for the data.
• o The level of data literacy required to understand what the requested data needs to contain and in what format.