Agenda item

District Heating: Reliability and Resilience

Minutes:

The Committee considered the Assistant Director Growth, Development & Prosperity report that detailed the cause of technical issues affecting the operation of the district heating network that impacted over 1,700 homes in Cranbrook.  The report also considered how to improve oversight of the operation of the two networks in the district and whether there were wider strategic implications in terms of the policy of promoting the ongoing roll out of district heating in the West End of the district.

 

Members noted that E.ON were still conducting an analysis as to why so many valves failed simultaneously during a period of cold weather on the 7 December.  This coincided with a period of cold weather with minimum temperatures dropping to freezing or below for the next 10 days.

 

Two meetings took place, one on 19 December with District Councillors, Town Councillors and Simon Jupp MP followed by a meeting on 25 January for the wider public.  This was attended by 66 Cranbrook residents to help explain what had happened and to address outstanding issues including customer service.  A number of key learning points were detailed in the report.

 

The Assistant Director Growth, Development & Prosperity acknowledged residents’ frustrations about being locked into a contract with poor service but advised that in a wider context the transition to net zero carbon was critical and the rationale for completing the journey still remained.  He referred to the recommendations in the report, in particular Recommendation 2 to introduce a District Heating Stakeholder Forum with E.ON referring to paragraph 3.4 for details of the membership, Recommendation 3 to continue to support the approach of pursuing the roll out of district heating networks to serve the major development areas in the West End and Recommendation 4 to write to the relevant BEIS Minister to advocate for support on energy bills for district heating customers across the country.

 

Comments received from non-Committee Members included:

·         Councillor Bloxham expressed support that District Heating was pursued for the further expansion of Cranbrook but said people deserved a better service than had been experienced to date. Resilience is poor, responses are poor and there is clear under investment in all aspects of providing district heating whether it be resilience of supply, engineering capacity to respond to issue, call centre capability or customer service – all have been very lacking to date.  She advised that the report did not really give a true picture of the customer experience which had been woeful and that she had spent many hours trying to assist residents with their issues.  So far the District Council had taken a back seat.  The lack of any sort of a development corporation role has been fully exposed by these events and moving forward the District Council has got to be more involved, not just because it may have a financial interest in the future but because it has a moral responsibility to ensure that the future is better.

·         Support was expressed for the need to decarbonise the district heating network but this also needed robust oversight and effective customer service.

 

Points made by Committee Members during discussion included:

·         Clarification sought on what guarantees were in place that this would not happen again when Cranbrook is at full size especially as problems with hot water and heating have happened in the past.  The Assistant Director Growth, Development & Prosperity advised that the network would become resilient over time as the need for temporary energy centres was removed and all the network was connected to the main energy centre;

·         Had attended the meeting on 25 January held by Cranbrook Voice and was not reassured by E.ON.  They are good at producing heat and taking money but everything in between leaves something to be desired.  The Local Authority has a part to play in this and it is not pulling its weight.  East Devon District Council needs to be more proactive.

·         Reference made to Recommendation 2 needing more teeth and the need for a legally binding agreement with E.ON;

·         Reference made to Recommendation 4 and concerns raised that district heating was currently unregulated and the need for it to be regulated and be brought under OFGEM;  In response the Assistant Director Growth, Development & Prosperity advised that Government were committed to introducing OFGEM as part of the Energy Security Bill;

·         The failings of this system should not impact the wider strategy around district heating.  When new technology is introduced there is often teething problems but there needs to be better customer service to keep residents updated.  It was suggested that a dedicated telephone number for Cranbrook residents should be established;

·         Cranbrook residents had to wait in excess of 10 days for repairs and some families had to move out because it was too cold.  More resource is needed on the engineering side and as Cranbrook develops at a pace it needs to be resilient.  The forum needs to hold E.ON to account.

·         E.ON needs to understand that the forum has a responsibility to make necessary recommendations which should be binding;

·         There is a need to learn from experience.  This is the future and there is a need to stick with district heating.

 

RESOLVED:

1.    The issues that led to the supply issues on the Cranbrook network in December and what has been done to rectify the position be noted;

2.    The principle of establishing a District Heating Stakeholder Forum with E.ON to cover both district heating networks be endorsed;

3.    To continue to support the approach of pursuing the roll out of district heating networks to serve major development areas in the West End in line with adopted policies;

4.    The approach of the Chair writing to the relevant BEIS Minister to advocate for an equivalent package of support for domestic consumers on heat networks to that received by domestic consumers on the gas grid under the Energy price Guarantee (EPG) be endorsed.

Supporting documents: