Heat Decarbonisation Plans: The Basics

A Heat Decarbonisation Plan (HDP) provides an organisation with a plan to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and implement low carbon heating solutions. What does this mean for your organisation, and what happens when you develop an HDP?

An HDP typically follows this structure:

Baseline Status

The first part of the HDP is about assessing the buildings current performance. This baseline of the building will include an assessment energy profiles; metering arrangements; heating and electrical demand and existing heating technologies within the building.

Current and Pipeline Works Assessment

It can be tempting to think of decarbonisation as a one-off exercise, but it’s critically important to align your decarbonisation goals with business goals to avoid going one step forward and then two steps back. It’s an excellent time to take a step back - organisations are fluid and changing, and it’s important to assess the goals of a business in conjunction with a sustainability plan. After completing baseline status, our team will create an overview of short, medium and long-term projects with an assessment of their impact on decarbonisation of the building.

Plans for the Sites

Just as we mentioned before, it’s also critically important to consider future changes to the estate that might impact future heating and electrical demand requirements. This step is bespoke, assessing the site-specific conditions that might impact heat decarbonisation solutions, such as planning restrictions or planned changes in site use.

Heat Networks and Opportunities Onsite

After assessing the wider plans of the business and considering them in the context of other decarbonisation goals, our engineers will begin technical assessments. They’ll consider all heat and electrical decarbonisation opportunities and
model their expected impact on the carbon emissions profile of the building pre and post implementation. This stage will include the introduction of additional technology, and our engineers will consider the feasibility of Heat Pumps (Air/Ground/Water) and District Heat Network connectivity.

Route Map

The wider goal of an HDP is decarbonisation – and an HDP should form a part of a wider sustainability strategy. In this last phase of the HDP, the GEP Environmental team will assess the following:

• Implementing heat decarbonisation options: after setting out goals and activities within the heat decarbonisation plan, it’s time to consider the implementation process, and the scheduling and timings that accompany a large project.
• Anticipating challenges: our team knows than an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. An honest discussion about the challenges an organisation might face, is crucial for mitigating challenges from the outset.
• Creating projects: as energy experts, our team will guide you through the project, and may flag additional projects that will aid decarbonisation.
• Aligning activity with a Net Zero Carbon Target and Route Map: our team has years of experience creating route maps for organisations to achieve Net Zero Carbon, and for many organisations, implementing an HDP is just the beginning. Some businesses choose to dive deeper – creating wider action plans and ESG strategies following the success of the HDP.

For more information about Heat Decarbonisation Plans, or to speak with an expert about ways to decarbonise your business, get in touch today.