District Heating
The original concept design for the building of a combined heat and power plant for South East London was established in the Late 1980’s. The SELCHP plant was built in the early 1990’s but due to various political changes and legislation changes the district heat part of the project was shelved, only coming back on the agenda in 2008.
Working in partnership with the London Borough of Southwark a plan was conceived to supply 2,500 Southwark properties on a 5km pipe work system with heat and hot water. This scheme has proven very valuable in assisting the council’s fight against fuel poverty by making heat cheaper than gas and providing low carbon heat, as the waste that SELCHP burn is about 60% renewable carbon. The heating provided to the London Borough of Southwark by SELCHP has displaced gas that was previously burned to provide heating to residents and now no longer needs to be used, which contributes significantly towards CO2 emissions reduction.
The pipe systems and equipment were installed at SELCHP and the pipe network was completed in 2014. The system has been operating since then, with heat being delivered to Southwark Residents all year round.
The system has cut approximately 7,700 tonnes of CO2 per year. Further developments are currently in planning to ensure the system is expanded to more heat consumers and residents.