Heat networks are a key component of the government approach to delivering net zero. In the last ten years, they have slowly but surely ticked up as a growing part of most housing providers’ portfolios.
There are now over 500,000 heat network customers across the UK and the largest manager of them is the social sector. At the same time, a raft of new regulations on their management has been introduced, with potentially unlimited fines for non-compliance. And much more regulation is on its way, creating a compliance risk for the sector and – as a last resort - even the threat of the heat management of your homes being given to another organisation over which you will have no control.
In November 2020, the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) updated the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations setting a deadline for all heat network operators to assess the cost-effectiveness of installing heat metering equipment at their unmetered schemes by the November 2021. All organisations that have not adhered to this deadline are currently non-compliant and may face penalty fines if evidence cannot be provided when required by BEIS.
And once you’ve cleared that hurdle, the metering equipment itself has to be installed by 1st September 2022.
The installation of metering equipment aims to increase residents’ awareness of their energy consumption and to reduce how much they use, reducing their carbon emissions at the same time. Of the thousands of assessments we have carried out for housing providers, 74% will need to install metering equipment by the 1st September deadline to be compliant. This will require technical specifications to be developed, budgets to be signed off, procurement to be completed, customers to be engaged and the actual installation and commissioning itself – all in less than seven months. Many in the sector are now well down the road to delivering this. Many more haven’t even started.
So what to do if you think you may already be non-compliant or at risk of it in the future? In simple terms – make a plan. We cannot guarantee that this will protect you from action by the regulator, but it will give you the best defence should they come knocking on your door (which they are starting to do). So here’s what a plan could look like:
We also recommend you think about joining The Heat Network – a peer group of housing providers who meet specifically to discuss and share good practice on heat networks: they are fast becoming the sector leading resource and voice. If you want to know more about current and future compliance requirements drop us a line here or email info@chirpyheat.com