NPS North West excels at tackling fuel poverty through collaborative working

NPS North West has been shortlisted for the CIBSE Building Performance Awards 2018 in the Collaborative Working Partnership Awards Category for the NEDO Smart Communities Project.

The NEDO Smart Communities project was developed by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, (GMCA) and Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation, (NEDO) in collaboration with a range of partners and stakeholders including; NPS North West, Hitachi, Daikin, Mizuho Bank, Electricity Northwest and Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy, Wigan Council, Northwards Housing, Sixtown Housing and Warmer Energy Services Ltd, the main/installation contractor.

The rationale for the project was to develop and deliver a pilot project within the social housing sector across Greater Manchester to trial the implementation and use of Air Source Heat Pumps, (ASHP’s) at scale and test the effectiveness of Demand Response (DR) in the social housing sector. A test was set by NEDO to establish whether 200kW of nega-watts energy demand reduction could be achieved from implementing DR in up to 600 properties, (“nega watts” being an emerging term for measuring the amount of energy reduction).

To achieve this, old inefficient heating systems in over 550 social housing properties across Wigan, Bury and Manchester were replaced with a range of cutting-edge electrical and hybrid Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs). In addition, an energy aggregation system and ICT platform to control and coordinate the electricity usage of the ASHPs collectively was developed, reducing electricity usage during peak periods and testing the effectiveness of this reduction as a system to trade in the electricity market.

NPS North West’s role specifically was to carry out the following project responsibilities for the domestic properties this included; Project Management Technical Consultancy Contractor Monitoring Installation Quality Control dRHI Applications & Payment Administration Planning consultant A procurement management company, (Procure Plus) was appointed to work in conjunction with the three housing associations, (Wigan Council, Sixtown Housing, and Northwards Housing), to produce a competitive tender package in order to find a main contractor(s) to carry out the installations. Due to the social value of the project it was imperative that the contractor appointed was not only financially competitive but would also ‘buy-in’ to the ethos of the project – Warmer Energy Services Ltd were subsequently appointed as the main contractor.

Whilst the energy efficiency developments and social value potential of this project are immense and noteworthy in their own right, it is the collaborative working element of this project that has been recognised in its shortlisting for this award.

Due to the complexity of the project team, and the fact that a large number of the team were based in Japan, effective information sharing and project progress tracking was seen as a vital part of the overall project success. In order to achieve this, a rigorous and fixed project team meeting schedule had to be implemented and maintained.

The use of shared and centralised IT was also a crucial factor in the successful completion of the installations. An example of this was using a file-share access arrangement between the main contractor and each stake holder.

The effective collaborative approach also helped overcome obstacles that arose throughout the project. For example, when one housing association flagged difficulties in reaching their target and asked for assistance there was an intensive and structured approach to overcome this obstacle. In response Daikin Industries Ltd delivered a mobile demonstration unit to Sixtown Housing, (with qualified training staff) so that equipment could be shown to potential tenant in batches rather than individually. Similarly one of the other housing association offered them the services of a tenant liaison offer and Wigan Council agreed to increase their installations for a period so that the main contractor could maintain a steady stream of work.

Finally, in addition to the stakeholders already mentioned, from the very early stages of project conception, the client team were aware that, in order to install the ASHP technology in domestic dwellings, the tenants themselves would also need to be considered a major stakeholder. In essence this meant the project would include c600 individual clients. In order to involve and encourage tenants, different incentives were included in the tenant engagement process including individual visits with a FAQ booklet, paying for tenants internet/broadband bills for two years, offering a computer tablet to help control the new system and offering a ‘decoration’ payment upon completion of the installation. All of this contributed to the projects’ success as can be shown below.

“The air source heating has been fabulous. It took a little getting used to at first, because I thought I could use it like a normal heating system. But the engineer explained how it works and told me that I need to leave it on all the time, I just change the thermostat when I need to. It’s very easy to use, once you get your head around it. My energy bills have gone down a lot - in fact, I’m now £43 in credit!" (Testimonial from a Wigan Council tenant with a NEDO ASHP heating system).

As an example of its success, since receiving the first accredited dRHI quarterly payment for the first of its 307 ‘NEDO’ domestic Air Source Heat Pump Installations, Wigan Council have received 1,725 subsequent payments to date totalling over £225k. For further information on this project and/or how NPS can assist you please contact Kelly.dew@nps.co.uk