Leading London-focused property developer Telford Homes has signed up to Insite Energy’s ESCo Manager, our new communal-heating management service at The Lock, Greenford Quay.
The new one-year contract sees Insite Energy take over the management, operation & maintenance and administration of the residential development’s secondary heating infrastructure. We deliver the service on a flexible, fixed-fee basis. It is Telford Homes’ second ESCo Manager contract with Insite Energy. The developer previously adopted the service at Stone Studios in East London.
Flexible heat network management at The Lock, Greenford Quay
ESCo Manager launched in November 2021. It gives housing providers the same services offered by traditional Energy Service Companies (ESCos). Howeve,r it does so through a one-year contract with a fixed and transparent service fee based on actual costs.
An Energy Service Company (ESCo) is a commercial structure created specifically to produce, supply and manage the local delivery of decentralised energy to a ‘whole site’ development. Typical ESCo contracts last for the expected asset life of the main energy centre (between 10 and 25 years). ESCo providers use these longer contracts to recover their capital investment. It can, however, lead to dissatisfied residents being shackled indefinitely to high prices and poor service.
“Insite’s ESCo Manager service means that we can centralise the administration and management of a large and complex communal heating system,” said Anthony Atkinson, Estates and Customer Service Director at Telford Homes. “It also enables us to ensure a high quality of service for our residents while keeping everyone’s costs down. We’ve been working with Insite for a number of years, so we know we can rely on them to do a good job.”
How heating is supplied and managed at The Lock
The Lock and the wider Greenford Quay is connected to a district heat network. A primary low temperature hot water (LTHW) supply enters a plate heat exchanger in the basement of the development. A secondary heat network then distributes heating & hot wate rto 278 homes and two commercial units.
The ESCo management services Insite will be providing at The Lock includes:
- Metering & billing
- Customer support
- Secondary network operation
- Asset maintenance and lifecycle management
- Heat supply procurement
- Tariff reviews and administration
- Regulatory compliance
- Contractor management and auditing
- Ongoing monitoring
- Financial management, including cashflow and asset replacement funds
Emily McAlindon, Commercial Director at Insite Energy, commented:
“ESCo Manager’s dual benefits of fixed, transparent fees and short contracts are of particular interest to housing and heat providers who are very customer-service focussed. Through outsourcing complete management of the heat network, not just the metering and billing, the ESCo Manager solution provides a comprehensive solution without being tied in to a long term agreement, and with visibility of associated costs.”
Three years on, The Lock continues to perform strongly. In the last year, 90% of heat network assets were serviced, and less than 1% of meters were disconnected at any one time. Heat losses also fell from 40% to 30% during the last two years of ESCo Manager service delivery.
